Anne Redpath, R.S.A., A.R.A.

Ewan Mundy Fine Art Ltd., Glasgow;
Private Collection

The board is sound. On very close inspection there are one of two tiny suggestions of media loss towards the lower edge. Otherwise in good original condition, clean and ready to hang. Ultraviolet light reveals no sign of retouching. Held in a decorative composite frame in fair condition. Under glass and unexamined out of frame.
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Painted c.1947 Summer Gaiety is a beautiful example of Redpath's mature style, with expressive brushwork and a harmonious explosion of vibrant colours. Still life painting was particularly important to Redpath in the late 1940s and 1950s and almost half of her exhibits at this time were images of flowers in pots, vases and jugs or potted plants on table-tops with various objets d'art from her own collection. Writing in 1965, Terence Mullaly noted in Redpath's work, that 'pinks and greys, mauve and lilacs are colours which she commands. Equally remarkable is Anne Redpath's use of white. I have now for several years lived with a large still life by her which is in effect a study in white. It is a picture of beauty; handled with boldness, indeed bravura. It combines to a degree today rare decisive use of paint, an uninhibited delight in its qualities, and a respect for the thing seen.' (Terence Mullaly, Anne Redpath Memorial Exhibition catalogue, The Arts Council of Great Britain Scottish Committee, 1965, p. 3) The qualities described by Mullaly are very much here as well as the subtle beauty which make Redpath's still lifes so compelling. Her use of white also recalls the work of Christopher Wood for whom Redpath had a lifelong admiration. She described her philosophy herself: 'Young women often come up to me and say; "I am going to be like you and give up everything for painting", but that's not how I see it at all. I could never have sacrificed my family to painting, and I don't think anyone else should either... I put everything I had into house and furniture and dresses and good food and people. All that's the same sort of thing as painting really, and the experience went back into art when I began painting again' (ibid Mullaly, p. 7).

Redpath's technique had long involved an 'all over' approach which disregarded perspective and instead concentrated on colour contrast and form. Derek Clarke, a contemporary of Redpath's in the Hanover Street Group who met from 1947 until 1950, recalls Redpath's 'liveliness and concentration, walking back and forth, turning suddenly to spring a surprise on the image and catch it unawares, screwing up her eyes to diffuse the focus and generalise the image. She was at every stage concerned with the whole of the painting rather than concentrating on a small area.' This focus on the even treatment of the surface which was a prime concern of the abstract expressionists such as Jackson Pollock in America during the 1940s and 1950s is powerfully conveyed in Summer Gaiety. The vase full of flowers on the table appears to be viewed from a slightly elevated perspective. The table top, however, appears flattened as if it has been painted with a bird's eye view. Redpath cited the Italian Primitives as having a great influence on her work of this period and Summer Gaiety provides an interesting example of the extent to which their work informed her understanding of perspective.