Lot 91: SIR JAMES GUTHRIE P.R.S.A., H.R.A., R.S.W., L.L.D (1859-1930) FULL LENGTH PORTRAIT OF MISS ANNE SPENCER 183cm x 81cm (72in x 32in)

SIR JAMES GUTHRIE P.R.S.A., H.R.A., R.S.W., L.L.D (1859-1930)

FULL LENGTH PORTRAIT OF MISS ANNE SPENCER

Signed and dated '92, oil on canvas
183cm x 81cm (72in x 32in)
Estimate £ 30,000-50,000

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Exhibited: Royal Glasgow Institute for the Fine Arts, 1892
Royal Society of Portrait Painters, London, 1892
New Salon, Paris, 1893 as 'Portrait Heliotrope'
Literature:Sir James L Caw, Sir James Guthrie, 1932, pp.43,65,81,82,217, ' While remaining close in touch with life and based on a realism in which observation was warmed by a love of beauty the Miss Spencer had revealed a growing regard for subtlety of effect, an enhanced sensitiveness to refinement of tone and colour, and an increasing use of pictorial colour'
George Moore, Modern Painting, 1893, ' Among the Glasgow painters the most prominent and valid talent is Mr Guthrie's. His achievements are more considerable and more personal; and he seems to approach very near to a full expression of pictorial aspirations of his generation. Years ago his name was made known to me by a portrait of singular beauty, an oasis it was in a barren and bitter desert of Salon pictures. Since then he has adopted a different and better method of painting; and an excellent example of his present style is his portrait of Miss Spencer, a lady in a mauve gown. The slightness of the intention may be urged against the picture; it is no more than a charming decoration faintly flushed with life. But in his management of the mauve Mr Guthrie achieved quite a little triumph: and the foreground, which is a very thin grey passed over a dark ground is delicious.'