David Gauld, R.S.A.

The current work bears remarkable similarity to a painting which Gauld included at the The Art Institute of Chicago exhibition The Glasgow School, Artists of Denmark and Some Others from Nov. 19 to Dec. 22, 1895, entitled Edith and another work entitled Head of a Girl (c.1893-4) in the collection of Andrew McIntosh Patrick. Roger Billcliffe identifies that, prior to his trip to Graz in Austria, Gauld produced "a group of paintings of young women, which may have been of his wife and were possibly inspired by his marriage in 1893. The girl is usually surrounded by the foliage of a tree which hangs mysteriously as a backdrop, effectively negating the need for perspective and allowing the painter to pay full attention to his subject. Gauld exhibited Edith in Chicago alongside other wonderful works by fellow Glasgow Boys Edward Atkinson Hornel, James Guthrie, Edward Arthur Walton, Joseph Crawhall, Arthur Melville and James Paterson.