Bonhams 1793 : George Leslie Hunter (British, 1877-1931) Roses and Fruit 47 x 39 cm. (18 1/2 x 15 1/4 in.)

PROVENANCE:
With Alexander Reid, Glasgow
With Ian MacNicol, Glasgow
Sale; Sotheby's, Edinburgh, 16 November 1981, lot 738
Private Collection
With Duncan R. Miller Fine Arts, London

EXHIBITED:
London, Duncan R. Miller Fine Arts, The Scottish Colourists, 29 June - 29 July 2000

LITERATURE:
Roger Billcliffe, The Scottish Colourists, John Murray, London 1989, (plate 80).

There was no consistent tradition of still life painting in British art before the Scottish Colourists, and Hunter and Peploe in particular explored the genre assiduously. While Peploe's first oils were influenced by Manet in particular, Hunter looked to 17th Century Dutch masters such as Kalf, whose work he knew from Kelvingrove Art Gallery. By 1917, however, Hunter's style had become more free and painterly and he was expressing himself in a more distinctive manner.