Still life was Gillies’ second subject, alongside landscape. While landscape remained a largely instinctive response to the particular, his studio still life painting has a rich, sonorous, considered quality he shares with Braque. His cottage in Temple was filled with collected objects and many, especially the pots of his sister Emma, are familiar – repeatedly included in his compositions over the decades. Still Life, Pot with Daisies hung in Gillies’ Edinburgh College of Art studio, and is still presented in Gillies’ hand-finished frame.
Sir William Gillies is still highly underrated in Modern British terms. Born in Haddington, he trained and taught at Edinburgh College of Art, and did the latter as principal. He was a great influence on many of the next generation of the Edinburgh School. He himself studied in Paris with Andre Lhote and absorbed, variously, the work of Munch, Matisse, Braque and Bonnard. Still life and landscape oils tend to be composed studio pieces of subtle complexity. Watercolours are lyrically observed renderings of the Scottish Borders based on decisive pencil or pen drawings or for larger works, executed alla prima. Gillies had a long and fruitful relationship with The Scottish Gallery which continues in the secondary market.