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Actions Displays	Flower Piece Remove from selection Add to selection Reproduction Download mediaDownload as zip file Object number19891 TitleFlower Piece Creator William Gillies, Sir. (Artist)‎ DescriptionFlower Piece was painted in 1951 by Sir William Gillies, one of a group of artists labelled as the Edinburgh School, who studied at the Edinburgh College of Art during or shortly after the First World War. A close-knit group of friends and colleagues, they were influenced by one another’s work as well as by art from abroad. Their work stands out for their handling and manipulation of paint, and for their use of colour. William Gillies was born in Haddington, East Lothian. After graduating from Edinburgh, he studied in the ateliers of Paris. There, he discovered the Cubist work of Braque and Picasso, the expressionist art of Munch and the wildly coloured paintings of Bonnard. Back in Scotland, Gillies began teaching Drawing and Painting at Edinburgh College of Art. He remained there for over 40 years, becoming Principal in 1960. In 1939 he moved from the city to the village of Temple in Midlothian. The surrounding countryside offered him endless inspiration for his landscape paintings; his garden the flowers for the still life paintings he created in his home studio. Flower Piece is a lovely example of Gillies work: the flattened perspective of the table-top hints at the influence of Cubism, but the soft, tonal colour palette is Gillies’ own. In his still life painting, he played with composition and texture as well as colour. Here, your eye is drawn across the canvas, from the fruit at the bottom, upwards to the glorious bowl of flowers. Gillies was a prolific landscape and still life painter who drew and painted every day; he is purported to have commented “what else is there to do?”. Hugely influential, both as an artist and tutor, Gillies retired from teaching in 1966 and was knighted in 1970. Production date 1951 Object namePainting, Oil Painting Painting MaterialOil/Canvas Dimensions image Height: 1150 mm image Width: 840 mm frame Height: 1250 mm frame Width: 940 mm

Reproduction

Download mediaDownload as zip file

Object number19891

TitleFlower Piece

DescriptionFlower Piece was painted in 1951 by Sir William Gillies, one of a group of artists labelled as the Edinburgh School, who studied at the Edinburgh College of Art during or shortly after the First World War. A close-knit group of friends and colleagues, they were influenced by one another’s work as well as by art from abroad. Their work stands out for their handling and manipulation of paint, and for their use of colour. William Gillies was born in Haddington, East Lothian. After graduating from Edinburgh, he studied in the ateliers of Paris. There, he discovered the Cubist work of Braque and Picasso, the expressionist art of Munch and the wildly coloured paintings of Bonnard. Back in Scotland, Gillies began teaching Drawing and Painting at Edinburgh College of Art. He remained there for over 40 years, becoming Principal in 1960. In 1939 he moved from the city to the village of Temple in Midlothian. The surrounding countryside offered him endless inspiration for his landscape paintings; his garden the flowers for the still life paintings he created in his home studio. Flower Piece is a lovely example of Gillies work: the flattened perspective of the table-top hints at the influence of Cubism, but the soft, tonal colour palette is Gillies’ own. In his still life painting, he played with composition and texture as well as colour. Here, your eye is drawn across the canvas, from the fruit at the bottom, upwards to the glorious bowl of flowers. Gillies was a prolific landscape and still life painter who drew and painted every day; he is purported to have commented “what else is there to do?”. Hugely influential, both as an artist and tutor, Gillies retired from teaching in 1966 and was knighted in 1970.

Production date 1951

Object namePainting, Oil Painting

Painting

MaterialOil/Canvas

Dimensions

image Height: 1150 mm
image Width: 840 mm
frame Height: 1250 mm
frame Width: 940 mm