Signed lower right
Prov: The Scottish Gallery, Edinburgh
Each time Gillies selected his sister Emma’s pots for a still life he acknowledged her. Her death in 1936 was one of several personal losses that Gillies bore in life. This small still life seems perfectly formed: the four ceramic vessels help define the space, two in diagonal conversation, two intimately close, the stems of the delicate poppies offering an embrace. Colour is strong and harmonious and the paint deliciously applied.
About Sir William Gillies
Sir William Gillies was the dominant figure of the Edinburgh School over which both his personality and his work had a quiet authority. He led by example at the College of Art, encouraging his students to experiment but from a firm grounding in looking, and of course practice, drawing in particular. He also selected his staff to reflect this ethos: men and women who had a similar independence but respected hard work, what William MacTaggart called the good habit. The duties of teaching for Gillies and many of his colleagues in the School of Drawing and Painting were combined with their own practice without conflict; being a professional painter: working and exhibiting, was understood as integral to the reputation and health of the School. Robin Philipson, Elizabeth Blackadder, John Houston, David Michie and James Cumming were the beneficiaries of this attitude, along with their students, quietly instilled by Gillies over his fifty years of influence.
