Colours Gallery’s latest exhibition of fine paintings was assembled by Mr Glenn Ross in the virtual afterglow of the great fireworks display which concluded this year’s Edinburgh Festival.
It too is a scintillating celebration and, as befits this gem among the capital’s commercial art galleries, it comprises an array of chiefly 19th and 20th-century Scottish paintings of some distinction, many of which would grace the national collections.
Here, among many highlights, is William Kidd’s ‘The Knife Sharpener’, 1806 (below). In this earthy and playful work, a woman is breast-feeding her baby while smoking a clay pipe. Above her a cat filches a haddock(?) from a catch of curing fish. This joyous picture is clearly influenced by Dutch genre art, and especially by Kidd’s great mentor Sir David Wilkie.
Nearby are two stunning watercolours with a marine theme by James Watterston Herald (1859–1914). ‘A Stroll along the Beach’ is executed in deft, luminous touches, which technique recalls Boudin and Melville.
Robert Gemmell Hutchison (1855–1936), noted for his charming studies of children in a domestic setting, is represented by no fewer than five fine oils including ‘Young Girl Eating Porridge’ (below).
There is also a typically quirky contribution by Newcastle’s Joseph Crawshaw entitled ‘L’Enfant Prodigue’. This is an image of children playing cricket. The unusual action is viewed from behind the wicket-keeper. Deliciously, the three players are young ladies in voluminous whites and flamboyant hats!
But undoubtedly the brightest star in the assembly is Anne Redpath’s superb ‘Venetian Glass’. The delicate glass is arranged on a lace tablecloth with, among other objects, a vase of Redpath’s ‘signature’ white tulips.
The study in gradations of whites and blues has a diaphanous, floating quality. This dancing image, reminiscent of Matisse, is much more than a still-life. One imagines the spirits of Peploe and Cadell, also here on a facing wall, gazing with envy and awe upon this most rapturous work of art.—JRM
The exhibition will continue at Colours Gallery (41 Dundas Street) until around mid-November. Admission free.
S.J. Peploe, ‘Still Life with Roses’
F.C.B. Cadell, ‘Iona’