Lot 97
GEORGE LESLIE HUNTER (SCOTTISH 1877-1931)
ROWING BOATS, LARGO
Scottish Paintings & Sculpture
Auction: Day Sale | Lots 1 to 108 | Thursday 04 December 2025 from 2pm
Description
Signed, pen and ink and crayon
Dimensions
36cm x 41cm (14in x 16in)
Footnote
The Scottish Colourist George Leslie Hunter enjoyed a studio practice combined with working en plein air, as revealed in the works presented here. In the early 1920s he discovered the aesthetic delights of the parish of Largo in the Kingdom of Fife, on Scotland’s south-east coast, containing the villages of Lower and Upper Largo. As can be seen in Lower Largo, the beach provided an array of subject matter for his brush. Much is made of the textured foreground of rocks, seaweed and sand. This gives way to the landmark Crusoe Hotel, so named because Alexander Selkirk, on whom the character Robinson Crusoe was based, was born nearby. In the distance a skyline of village buildings curves around the bay, under a sky containing clouds possibly lit by an unseen sunset. Rowing Boats, Largo shows the view from the nearby pier onto the harbour which was an especially favoured motif of the artist.
Like his fellow Scottish Colourists, Hunter was drawn repeatedly to Paris, centre of the modern art movement and one of the most beautiful cities in the world. La Seine records a riverside view of the French capital in a daringly expressive technique, enlivened by the use of brilliant notes of blue and yellow in particular, as well as bold outlining in black. This contrasts with the sophistication and complexity of Still Life with Tapestry. Hunter drew together a range of still life props and revelled in the reflective qualities of glazes, the texture of fruit and the challenge of rendering the fall and rise of a patterned, draped textile. Still lifes, landscapes and portraits made up the majority of his oeuvre, by which he gained the reputation as one of Scotland’s leading artists of the twentieth century.