George Leslie Hunter

Sale, Christie's Scotland, 8 December 1988, lot 305, where acquired by the present owner

The present lot is an earlier still life than Still life of Roses and Fruit (lot 23), evident from its darker palette and less of a loose, Impressionist brush technique, that George Leslie Hunter mainly adopted earlier in his career due to his early interest in Dutch still lives. This included the work of artist's such as Willem Kalf, Jan Davidsz de Heem and Jean-Simeon Chardin. The present work is therefore an important moment of transition in Hunter's stylistic development, as he here combines that dark background of the Dutch masters, with looser, Fauve-inspired colours for the still life elements.

Hunter retained the brilliant colours of this work in his later paintings, but by the mid-1920s he predominantly painted his still life paintings with lighter backgrounds to further explore the relationship between form and colour. 

‘Mr Hunter’s strongest point is his colour which is gay and attractive, attaining a luscious brilliancy… he is one of those artists in whom style and spontaneity play a large part’ (T.J HONEYMAN, THREE SCOTTISH COLOURISTS, EDINBURGH, 1950, P. 189)