Anne Redpath, R.S.A., A.R.A.

Possibly London, Royal Academy, 1957, no. 618 as The Fruit Dish

STRUCTURE This picture is in original condition with brights colours throughout and areas of rich impasto. There are no visible condition problems and the picture is ready to hang. UNDER ULTRAVIOLET LIGHT There are no signs of retouching. FRAME The picture is contained in a simple modern frame.
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In 1951 Anne Redpath travelled to Spain on an artistic pilgrimage which led to a change in style from her softer and more muted previous work to stronger colouring and expressive paint application. She attributed the change to the Spanish landscape itself and the art of the country that she viewed while there. It was not a blue skied and sunny Spain that she experienced, but an overcast and rather sinister landscape inhabited by little figures clad in black; dark skies over funerals and religious processions. Redpath discussed her approach to painting following her trip to Spain, in a fascinating short film directed by George Bruce and shown on the BBC in January 1961; 'when I came back and painted still life - well I always go back to still life - of course they showed the influence of this kind of painting, and therefore the still lifes that I painted were stronger. They were harsher, if you like, too. That has been the result, you know, of every voyage abroad. our palette sort of enlarges itself, so that even your very gamut of colour, you know, changes, becomes broader, wider.' (transcript quoted in Patrick Bourne, Anne Redpath 1895-1965, Her Life and Work, 1989, pp. 90-91)

The loose handling of the paint and expressive use of a palette knife to apply the thick impasto, suggests that this picture was painted in the mid or late 1950s. It is comparable in terms of technique with Summer Bouquet (Sotheby's, Gleneagles, 1 September 2004, lot 883) which was exhibited at the Glasgow Institute of Fine Art in 1953 and also A Pale Still Life (Sotheby's, Gleneagles, 1 September 2004, lot 885) exhibited in the same year at the Society of Women Artists. A Pale Still Life includes the same flower shaped ceramic fruit-bowl that was one of Redpath's many pieces of pottery and ceramics that she used in her still lifes. Still Life with a White Bowl is also comparable with Table Top of 1958 (Manchester City Art Gallery) and it is possible that this picture is The Fruit Dish exhibited at the Royal Academy in London in 1957.