Portrait of a Gallery - The Scottish Gallery

George Leslie Hunter (1879-1931)Street Scene c.1920 pastel and ink 26.5 x 20.5 cmsHunter produced much more on paper in the last ten years of his life than in oil. He was leading aperipatetic life moving from the South of France to London and Scotland in search of inspiration and thepracticalities favoured drawing and watercolour. He was supported by his friend Tom Honeyman, then apartner in Reid and Lefèvre, but who was more than once disappointed to receive a package of works onpaper for a planned exhibition of new work. But these vigorous and spontaneous drawings with crayon orwatercolour are some of the most vivid, successful works of the artist’s maturity. The nervous energyin his marks are not obscured by overwork and the excitement the artist feels at work is communicated.He worked in Nice, Villefranche and here in the Antibes. This is perhaps one of the works entrusted toWilly and Denis Peploe for delivery to Lefèvre in London on their way returning to School at the end ofthe summer holidays from Cassis in 1924.J D Fergusson RBA (1874-1961)Luxembourg Gardens, Evening c.1906 signed and inscribed with title and date versooil on panel 18 x 23 cmsProvenanceT and R Annan; Ewan Mundy Fine Art; Private Collection, ConnecticutIt is evening in Montparnasse and couples take the passeo around the pond in the Luxembourg Gardens.Fergusson has not yet moved to Paris but is certainly making plans; he is to move late in 1907 into a studioapartment in the Blvd. Edgar Quinet and his work is soon to undergo a dramatic transformation.This small panel shows how he has reached the perfection of his early technique. He uses a creamy,enamel-like paint and prefers immensely subtle tonal compositions, enlivened by a few jewel-like strongercolour notes. The brush strokes are long and confident: Whistler and Sargent are perhaps his strongestinfluences but he is an artist of great confidence about to launch himself on Paris and embrace all themodern influences in the melting-pot of European culture from a position of confidence.16 17