Girl in Red William George Gillies
I was struck by the wonderful glowing red in this picture, but when I came to find out more I was slightly surprised that the gentleman who painted Girl in Red also painted this...The Harbour (1934)
Sir William George Gillies (1898-1973) was a prolific and influential Scottish painter, both exhibiting and teaching from just after the First World War to the 1960s. He started his career doing portraits, from which Girl in Red probably dates, but he moved to abstract and to landscapes. If you look on the PCF/BBC site 'Your Paintings' there are almost 300 examples of his work from all periods of his painting.Emma (1921)
The Girl in Red has no name so it's impossible to find out who she was or what became of her (other than she was sold at auction earlier this year). I suppose she was either the daughter of someone rich enough to pay or a relative or friend of the artist and his family. When I was looking through his work I was particularly struck by his portraits of his sister, potter Emma Smith Gillies. She died prematurely at the age of 36, but her brother featured her pots in his work as a memorial to her.
Bowl by Emma Smith Gillies
Shadowed Interior
It's easy to see how far Gillies traveled between his very traditional, almost Victorian Girl in Red and the still life compositions with Emma's pottery. The Girl in Red is very much influenced by the previous century, almost like Millais twee children, but his portrait of Emma shows a lighter, brighter twentieth century style. The nerdy art historian in me now wants to find out more about Emma's ceramics and see if I can match them to her brother's paintings. After all, everyone needs a hobby...You can buy the bangle here for the princely sum of £60.
See you tomorrow...