Art Sunday; My favourite figure paintnigs.

This is an idea I formed after saying I liked one of the paintings on Nemos site so much that I would happily hang it on my wall. I started thinking about which, of the hundreds of paintings we have all shown and seen here, would I be happy to hang on my wall and look at every day. I started out wanting ten, but the list grew and grew and now I’ve divided them into subject matter, and these are the figure paintings I would have on my wall. Next week I’ll show the seascapes I would love to hang on my wall. Not surprisingly, most of these are from Scottish painters, but that’s probably because these are the paintings and artists I am most familiar with and the ones I automatically think of as my favourites. I have shown most of these before and I’m sorry there is so little ‘new’ here, but I think its nice to sort out the ‘favourites’ and put them all together. In chronological order, oldest first, they are;  

1. From the collection at the Scottish National Portrait Gallery; Princess Elizabeth 1635-1650 and Princess Anne 1637-1640, by Sir Anthony van Dyck.  
This is an oil study for the painting ‘The Five Eldest children of Charles 1’, and shows two year old Elizabeth and baby Anne. Neither child survived into adulthood, they both suffered tuberculosis and Anne died as an infant. Elizabeth survived until her teens when she died, partly as a result of being imprisoned during the civil war and partly as a result of ill health. The painting for which the study was made showed the children of Charles 1 and Henrietta Maria and is still held by the Royal family. I find this one of the most sensitively drawn child portraits ever produced. These children lived and died in the seventeenth century but they could be any child living today.


2. Now held in The Beit Collection, Russborough, Co. Wicklow, Sir Henry  Raeburn 1792; Portrait of Sir John and Lady Clerk of Penicuik. I’ve already written a blog on this man here
http://forgetmenot525.multiply.com/journal/item/158/Art_Sunday_henry_Raeburn
This was Raeburn's first picture to be exhibited in London, being shown at Boydell's Shakespeare Gallery in 1792. The background is the estate at Penicuik, and the landscape that inspired Ramsay's The Gentle Shepherd. I’ve loved this painting from the first time I set eyes on it. I’ve not seen the original and if I ever visit Ireland, this is something I would make a point of seeing. This man was one of the greatest Scottish portrait painters who ever lived and to me, this painting could not be any where other than Scotland, Scotland has a light all of its own, a quality of light not experienced any where else, and he captures it perfectly here.
Sir John was a patron of the arts and the old mansion house became a meeting place for others including Allan Ramsay. Sadly, the new mansion house built by Sir James during the 1760s was gutted by fire in 1899 and is now a ruin. Sir Robert Clerk is continuing the tradition of his forebears by pursuing a programme of improvements to the estate. More of that here

http://www.eskvalleytrust.org/penestate.html

Work is being carried out at present to make the outward structure of the building secure, offering the opportunity to create work experience and training in the use of traditional building methods. After the fire, the stables and courtyard were converted into the family home and garden and remain so today. I think the loss of this great house is a sad loss to Scotlands architectural heritage.


3. The Hinds Daughter, 1883, by Sir James Guthrie, I’ve written about James Guthrie here
http://forgetmenot525.multiply.com/journal/item/613/Art_Sunday_Sir_james_Guthrie
A Hind is an old Scottish word for ‘farm servant’ or agricultural worker and this is a painting of one of the workers daughters cutting cabbages.  
( list of old Scottish occupations here)
http://www.scotsfamily.com/occupations.htm
I’ve always liked this painting because, again, to me this could only be Scotland. If I left my house and travelled a couple of miles into the country I would see vegetable gardens and/or fields  full of cabbages that looked just like this.The tawny light would be the same, the old white outbuildings would be the same, the wooden fences, rickety and broken are still there, the earth is the same rich reddy brown and the sky the same pale grey. James Guthrie was one of the original ‘Glasgow Boys’ who changed the face of painting, design and architecture in the northern hemisphere.


4. "Child With A Dove" 1901. (also known as "Child Holding a Dove") is one of Pablo Picasso's most easily recognizable paintings and one of my few favourites from a non Scottish artist.  Standing next to her ball, a child holds a white dove to her chest. I included this in my recent blog on Picassos ‘blue period’
http://forgetmenot525.multiply.com/journal/item/744/Art_Sunday_Picassos_Blue_paintings._
Although she is in white and her ball is full of colour there is an overall feeling of ‘blue’ to the image. This was the very first of what became known as his ‘blue period’ paintings. He uses the innocence of child a with the universal symbol of hope, in the form of the dove and creates a painting that crosses language and culture boundaries to portray an universal image of innocence and hope for the world.  
All of Picasso's paintings are described in terms of a series of overlapping periods. In this his "blue period" (1901-4), he depicted the world of the poor. Predominantly in tones of blue, these melancholy paintings (such as The Old Guitarist, 1903; Art Inst. of Chicago) are among the most popular art works of the century. I first came across this image on a card when I was a child. I knew nothing of art but I think the symbolism of innocence and hope touched me even at that young age. I kept the card for years, I had it pinned to my wall. I think this image is maybe one of the first to initiate my lifelong love or art. Maybe without this image, I would never have become so interested in the art world. Oh how sad that would have been.



5. Anna Pavlova, 1910,  by Sir John Lavery, on permanent exhibition at Kelvingrove Gallery Glasgow. This is one I am fortunate enough to have stood in front of and admired.  I wrote about it here.
http://forgetmenot525.multiply.com/journal/item/188/Art_Sunday_John_Lavery_and_Anna_Pavlova
If you are ever fortunate enough to stand in front of this apinting you will see why I have chosen it. The scarlet shouts at you across the room and as you approach the painting, it’s almost as if she is there and about to leap from the wall, a truly remarkable painting.


6. The Orange Blind, 1928, by Frances Cadell, one of a group of Scottish artists known as ‘The Colourists’. I wrote quite a long blog about this painting here.
http://forgetmenot525.multiply.com/journal/item/55/Art_Sunday_Drinking

This is more of an ‘interior’ painting than a figure painting, but this is another of my favourites that I’ve been fortunate enough to actually stand in front of at the Kelvingrove gallery in Glasgow. To stand in front of this is truly mesmerizing. The composition is perfect, the blast of orange is wonderful, the whole scene glows with reflected light and I just love the way the side of the piano is lit up by the light coming through the blind. It’s a painting of social commentary, showing a particular class of person and a particular type of interior.

Next week; ...........my favourite seascapes.

Art Sunday; Cadell

  


I've written about Cadell before, and yesterday this article in the Scotsman caught my eye. It makes interesting reading, I've admired the work of Cadell for years but I didn't know too much about his life, this article fills in the blanks, puts flesh on the bones...............

How did one of Scotland's most successful artists fall from glittering, privileged world to die in poverty?
 

published Date: 08 October 2011
By Tim Cornwell

Article in full here

http://thescotsman.scotsman.com/scotland/How-did-one-of-Scotland39s.6849787.jp


HE IS one of Scotland's most revered Colourist painters whose work sells today for more than £500,000.
But a curator researching the life of FCB Cadell has uncovered the sad story of how the artist's final years were dogged by ill-health before his death in penury, aged 54.
Alice Strang, the curator working on the National Galleries of Scotland's first exhibition devoted to Cadell in 70 years discovered that the artist who enjoyed a bohemian life of parties and drinking in Edinburgh, died in 1937 with an uncashed cheque for £50 in his pocket from a fund for indigent artists.


In the months before his death, Cadell, who was suffering from cancer and cirrhosis of the liver, wrote to patrons offering to sell his paintings for as little as £10. He also held half-price sales of his work at his home and on one occasion turned up at a neighbour's home in such a dishevelled state that his host would not let him in.
Cadell's will also confirms that he left his entire estate to his loyal "manservant" and live-in companion of more than 20 years, Charles Oliver. "Except family portraits and silver which I bequeath to Jean (his sister] and Gruff (Jean's son], I leave everything to Charles Oliver, my most faithful friend," he wrote. It is likely to have included scores of artworks, potentially worth millions today, but almost unsellable at the time.
Cadell's estate was valued at less than £500 and the uncashed check from the Alexander Nasmyth Fund for Decayed Scottish Artists represented a substantial share of his wealth. "It's quite poignant," said Ms Strang.


It's a far cry from the glamorous world Cadell inhabited as a younger man and the success he was to achieve after his death. Last year, Cadell's Florian's Cafe in Venice told for  £553,250, a record for the artist and one which confirmed his place among the most successful Scottish artists. An Edinburgh Academy schoolboy, Francis Campbell Boileau Cadell was taken to Paris by his mother as a teenager to study painting after his talent was singled out by the Glasgow Boys painter, Arthur Melville…............................more of his work here
http://forgetmenot525.multiply.com/photos/album/320/Cadell
 

Cadell, Scottish Painter

Francis Cadell was one of the four main artists who made up what was known as 'The Scottish Colourists'

Art Sunday, Drinking

 

Art Sunday (29.06.08), Drinking

The Orange Blind

by Francis Campbell Boileau Cadell (1883–1937)

THE PAINTING

The painting I have chosen for the theme ‘Drinking’ is ‘The Orange Blind’, by Francis Cadell. This shows a well dressed fashionable lady sat drinking tea in an Edinburgh interior.

 

The whole scene typifies fashionable Edinburgh of early 20^th Century. The tea service is silver, the black and gold screens have a Japanese, exotic look to them, there is a sedate and discreet piano player and the furniture exudes quality and style (probably French). It is interesting to note that while Cadell was heavily influenced by the work of contemporary French artists; Cadells subject drinks tea from a silver tea set but the subjects of French paintings were much more likely to be depicted with a glass of wine. This is possibly a reflection of the influence of the ‘Kirk’ (church) in Scottish society of the time. The painting gets its name from the huge bright orange blind covering the high window in this interior. This blind sets the tone of the painting. If you can imagine this painting without that blind, or with the blind toned down, dulled or diluted you can see the importance of colour in this painting. Without this block of solid orange the painting loses every thing. It  becomes a rather ordinary record of middle class Edinburgh society, but WITH the blind; it’s a vibrant piece of art. Which is another reason for choosing this particular painting, it does demonstrate exactly why this small group of painters were known collectively as the Scottish Colourists.

THE ARTIST

Cadell was born in Edinburgh but from the age of 16, he studied in Paris at the Académie Julian. While there he was in close contact with the French avant-garde painters of the day and his exposure to work by the early Fauvists, and in particular Matisse, became his most important influence. Once returned to Scotland, he exhibited in Edinburgh, Glasgow, and London on a regular basis. He painted landscapes, interiors, still life and figures in both oil and watercolour. He is most noted for his use vibrant waves and solid blocks of colour. He enjoyed the landscape of Iona (Scottish Island) enormously, which he first visited in 1912 and features prominently in his work. During the 1920s he spent several summers with Samuel Peploe, another Scottish Colourist, on painting trips to Iona.

THE SCOTTISH COLOURISTS

At the turn of the centaury a small group of Scottish painters collectively known as ‘The Colourists’  were among the first to introduce the intense colour of the French Fauve movement into Britain. This Group of four Scottish artists, Francis Cadell, Leslie Hunter, Samuel Peploe and the leading figure John Duncan Fergusson were greatly influenced by work of contemporary French artists.Their work was not highly regarded when it was first exhibited in the early years of the twentieth Century, but by the late 20th Century it had become popular both at home and abroad. Their distinctive style had a formative influence on contemporary Scottish art. The Colourists visited and trained in France, the influence of the French Impressionists such as Monet, Matisse, and Cezanne is easily seen in their work.  This French influence is mixed with elements of traditional Scottish painting to give the unique style that The Colourists became renowned for. They worked with the vivid colours of French painting to produce a distinctive Scottish style. The Scottish Colourists continued the work of their predecessors, the Glasgow Boys. There seems to be a direct link between the art of the ‘Glasgow Boys’ and the art of the ‘Scottish Colourists’. The Glasgow Boys were revolutionary in their approach to art in late 19^th century/ early 20^th century and the Colourists took the movement forward into the middle/late 20^th century.

I have searched for a decent sized photograph of this painting but unfortunately I could only find this rather small reproduction of it. This is such a shame because I have seen this painting in the Kelvingrove Gallery, Glasgow and it really is a wonderful piece of art when seen hanging in the gallery. I have found some pictures of other pieces of his work but unfortunately none of these pictures is very big. You will just have to use your imagination and think big.

 

 

http://forgetmenot525.multiply.com/photos/album/65/Cadell_Scottish_Painter

 

 

http://www.flickr.com/photos/forget-me-not5275/sets/72157605906157708/