Spring Has Come
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Object number05965
TitleSpring Has Come
Creator George. Henry (Artist)
DescriptionSpring has Come was painted around the turn of the 20th century by George Henry, one of a group of Scottish artists known as the Glasgow Boys. They shared a desire to break with the traditional, sentimental view of Scottish art favoured by the establishment and the Royal Scottish Academy. Instead, inspired by the naturalism of French artist Jules Bastien-Lepage and the work of American-born painter, James McNeill Whistler, they focused on portraying real people and scenes from real life.
George Henry was born in Ayrshire and studied at Glasgow School of Art. He became close friends with fellow Glasgow Boy Edward Atkinson Hornel. They were both inspired by Symbolism and Celtic art and painted several works together. They were among the first British artists to visit Japan, travelling there in 1893.
Spring has Come is a fine example of the kind of rural scenes that Henry and his friends created, inspired by the countryside that they visited. Not for them the majestic mountain or the sparkling sea – they sought instead to capture the everyday life of the people who worked on the land.
This woodland scene is a perfect balance of sunshine and dappled shade: the newness of the leaves portrayed in vibrant greens; the deep blue of the sky is echoed in the flowers that carpet the forest floor. The slender figures stand as still and upright as the trees themselves. Here, colour and pattern come first, with little feeling of distance.
Henry and the other Glasgow Boys exhibited widely and became commercially successful. In later life he settled in London where he painted portraits of the great and the good – in the end, not so much a pioneer as a member of the establishment himself.
Object nameOil Painting
MaterialOil/Canvas
Dimensions
image Height: 970 mm
image Width: 1279 mm
image Width: 1279 mm