Lot 107: Edward Atkinson Hornel (1864-1933)

Edward Atkinson Hornel (1864-1933)
Easter Eggs
signed and dated 'E A Hornel/1905' (lower right)
oil on canvas
60½ x 48½ in. (153.7 x 123.2 cm.)

Buffalo, Albright Art Gallery, Exhibition of Glasgow School Paintings, 1905 (exh. also shown in the Art Institute, Chicago, the Museum of Fine Arts, St Louis, the Pennsylvania Academy of Arts, Philadelphia and the Toronto Art Museum, Ontario).

Albright Art Gallery, Buffalo, NY (de-accessioned in 1946).
Lyon & Turnbull, The Drambuie Collection, 26 January 2006, lot 36.

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Hornel captured idyllic scenes of children in nature. They are often shown to be enchanted by the flowers and butterflies that surround them. He reinforces this by integrating them into their background of flowers and foliage.

In 1901, Hornel moved to Broughton House, Kirkcudbright, where he built a Japanese garden, extending the interest in Japan that is evident in his work of the 1890s. This garden and his fascination with it can be seen in his paintings and, although he was known to have used photographs, he also painted en plein air. This evident passion for nature comes across in his paintings and the result is a very intricate and almost embroidered finish.

This painting toured the United States and Canada in a travelling exhibition in 1905. The curator was Charles M. Kurtz, who, as Director of the Albright Art Gallery, acquired the work for the permanent collection after the exhibition came to an end. In Academy Notes, published by the gallery in December 1905, Kurtz wrote that: 'The picture may best be described as a fantasy of springtime. Its color is jewel-like in depth and brilliancy, and as a piece of pure decoration it would be difficult to find its equal...It is rare indeed that so much beauty is expressed on canvas. This one work would stamp the artist not only as one of the great painters of his time, but as one of the most distinctively individual artists of any time'.