ROBERT GEMMELL HUTCHISON R.B.A., R.O.I., R.S.A., R.S.W. (SCOTTISH 1860-1936)
TUG OF WAR
Estimate: £40,000 - £60,000
Scottish Paintings & Sculpture
Auction: Evening Sale | Lots 112- 206 | Thursday 05 June from 6pm
Description
Signed, oil on canvas
Dimensions
61cm x 97cm (24in x 38in)
Provenance
Lyon & Turnbull, Fine Paintings, 28 May 2009, lot 35
Footnote
Robert Gemmell Hutchison was born in Edinburgh in 1855. He abandoned early training as a seal engraver to pursue painting, and enrolled at the Manufacturer’s School of Art in Edinburgh. His tutor, William McTaggart, proved immensely influential on the young Gemmell Hutchison, who developed his own interpretation of British Impressionism.
In 1905 Gemmell Hutchison travelled to Holland to view paintings of the Hague School, and was particularly struck by Jozef Israëls’ (1824-1911) depictions of the daily routines of fishermen, peasants and children. Upon his return to Scotland, he resolved to paint en plein air with a looser, lighter, more painterly approach. He eschewed the tragedy that permeated Israëls’ work in favour of gentleness and innocence. Gemmell Hutchison came to specialise in sympathetic depictions of children playing on beaches, and the Dutch caps they often wear have come to be seen as one of the artist’s signature motifs.