George Leslie Hunter

Alex Reid & Lefevre, Glagow;
Ewan Mundy Fine Art Ltd., Glasgow;
Private Collection

London, Royal Academy of Arts, The Scottish Colourists 1900-1930, 30 June - 24 September 2000, no. 53

Philip Long with Elizabeth Cumming, The Scottish Colourists 1900-1930, Edinburgh, 2000, illus. plate 49

The canvas is original. There is some extremely light surface dirt in places but otherwise in good original condition and ready to hang. Ultraviolet light reveals no sign of retouching. Held in a decorative gold painted composite frame in fair condition.
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'Hunter's range of chosen painting sites in the south of France was extensive. Revelling in the intense Mediterranean light and bright colours, much of his time was spent in the Alpes Maritimes including the Cote d'Azur, an area that had attracted many artists both before and contemporary with him... St Paul is one of the region's many villages perchees: it is an old fortress town with 16^th century ramparts, remnants of its past as a French frontier post facing rival Savoy across the Var valley.' (Derek Ogston, The Life and Work of George Leslie Hunter 1877-1931, 2002, p.98)

George Leslie Hunter painted few streetscapes as large or accomplished as Street in Vence, South of France and the present picture is the most significant landscape that Hunter painted during his visits to southern France. The painting captures the heat of the Mediterranean summer through Hunter's use of hot reds and oranges set against a background of dark green. The influence of the work of the Fauves, particularly Matisse, is evident in the landscapes and still lifes that Hunter painted at Vence.

Although no exact date is known for Hunter's first visit to the South of France, it is likely that it was towards the end of 1926 when he leased his Edinburgh studio to James McBey and departed for France. He rented a small studio adjacent to the Auberge de la Colombe d'Or in the small village of St-Paul-de-Vence from where he wrote; 'I like this country very much and am sorry I did not come here six years ago in place of going to Fife. I feel six months here was worth six years there... This is a painters country. Some time later I will go back to the coast, but I feel I will stay here for a while' (T. J. Honeyman, Introducing Leslie Hunter, p. 119). He travelled around the Riviera on this trip and subsequent visits in 1927 and 1928, painting at Marseilles, Antibes, Toulon, Juan-les-Pins and St Tropez. He used St Paul de Vence as his base and although he made sojourns along the coast and inland, he always returned to Vence. The surrounding area was greatly inspiring to Hunter and more subjects were suggested to him during his daily walks, than he was able to paint. He filled sketchbooks and loose sheets of paper with sketches for paintings but did paint many pictures. The size and complexity of the composition suggest that Street in Vence, South of France was painted c.1928.

The present painting captures the elegance of the Riviera with its palms and red-roofed villas clinging to the forested slopes of the Alpes Maritimes. Hunter's biographer T. J. Honeyman felt that the pictures painted at Vence 'showed that he was absorbing all the colour with a feeling akin to rapture as if he was beginning to realise some entrancing dream.' (Ibid Honeyman)