Sir William George Gillies, C.B.E., R.S.A., R.A. 1898-1973

R. Gavin L. McCrone Esq.;
Edinburgh, The Scottish Gallery;
Private collection

Still Life with a Blue Plate and Yellow Cloth is visible standing on Gillies' easel in a photographic portrait reproduced in W. Gordon Smith's monograph. The picture appears to be complete and there is a clear signature apparent, but it is unframed and has presumably only been recently finished. Unfortunately the photograph is not dated but would appear to have been taken in the early 1960s. This corresponds with the period in which Gillies painted his most celebrated still lifes, including Shadowed Interior of 1961 which shares with the present work, the device of a geometric pattern created by the shadows cast by the legs of the table. It was with these paintings that Gillies was able to depict, what has been described as; 'visionary design, a vocabulary of forms creating their own dynamic energy, and such poetic manipulation of space that these inanimate worlds are held in magical balance.' (W. Gordon Smith, W G Gillies - A Very Still Life, 1991, p. 81)