George Leslie Hunter

The canvas is original. There appears to be a repaired tear just lower right of centre, corresponding to a discoloured area on the reverse of the canvas. There is some minor craquelure to some areas of the impasto. Otherwise in good condition, clean and ready to hang. Ultraviolet light reveals a suggestion of retouching to the area just lower right of centre beneath a varnish. Held in a decorative gold painted frame in fair condition.
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Hunter travelled regularly to the East Neuk coast in Fife following WWI until around 1926, painting in Drumeldrie, St. Monans and Lower Largo and also inland at Ceres. 'The reason for Hunter's selection of Fife, both its coast and agricultural hinterland, is not recorded, but the light, the ever-changing hues of the sea and the varied colours of its lime-washed houses with their red pantiled roofs are likely to have been an attraction.' (Derek Ogston, The Life and Work of George Leslie Hunter 1877-1931, 2002, p. 68) The present work resembles other important landscape paintings of the period by Hunter both in palette and composition such as Ceres Hill, Fife  (Hunterian Art Gallery, Glasgow) and Old Mill, Fifeshire (Glasgow Museums). Hunter was attracted to the northern light and the earthy colours he found in Fife and the present work makes a symbolic reference to Van Gogh's expressionistic application of paint and his understanding of form and light effects. Despite the freedom of brushwork, there is nothing accidental about this composition. It is a view that he worked at on a number of occasions and bears striking similarity to Cottage, near Largo c.1919/20 (Philip Long with Elizabeth Cumming, Scottish Colourists 1900-1930, illustrated pl. 43.).