George Leslie Hunter

The Fine Art Society where purchased by the present owner

There is a horizontal split to the right side of the board approx. 4 in. in length apparent to the verso, however no damage or restoration is visible to the recto. Under UV light there is minimal retouching apparent to two shorter cracks - approx.1-2 cms. in length, in the board above the aforementioned crack to the upper right edge. Otherwise, the work is in overall good condition, well represented in a gilt composition frame and ready to hang.
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Anemones in a Japanese vase was painted during the mid to late 1920s. Inspired by his move to the South of France and exposure to artists such as Matisse and Cézanne, this was a period of intense experimentation for Hunter and where he painted a large number of still lifes. A dedication to improve and evolve as an artist is reflected in the change in style. “In the early 1920s Hunter began to show greater freedom in the use of colour and a retreat from the previous precision of representation.” (D. Ogston, George Leslie Hunter 1877-1931, Baillieknow Publishing, 2002. p.48). This freedom is shown by the fluidity of the thickly applied impasto brushstrokes of this work. It marks a change from his earlier style of painting, particularly the period during the First World War, where Hunter was influenced by the precisionist technique and naturalistic palette of the seventeenth-century Dutch still life artists.

Hunter became less interested in truth to nature and more interested in creating form and space through colour, using minimal detail and the flattening of forms. The colour relationships create a balanced, decorative arrangement and in the Fauvist manner the picture plane is flattened. The red, blue and pink anemones dominate the top third of the canvas and contrast against the dark outlines of the flowers and the light background. The short impasto brushstrokes create a sense of energy, and immediacy. Despite less precision in modelling his forms, there is a confidence in his application of line and colour.

Rather than contenting himself with conventional representations of still life painting: objects on a table against a dark curtain, Hunter experimented with the format.  Just as Manet and Degas cropped their pictures to create a sense of spontaneity, the objects of this still life have been arranged unconventionally. The black Japanese vase sits on a table, with an apple sitting on top of a book to the right. The image is cropped along the top edge, a picture frame just visible. This provides balance to the work, echoing the shape of the table edge below. The apple appears to float on top of the book, the strong outline, size and brightness of the colour bring it forward, flattening the picture space.

A distinctive feature of the painting is the heavy black outline around the objects, reminiscent of Post Impressionism. Yet despite this, the image is very bright and energetic, due to the rich colour of the flowers and apple, and the light blue background. Hunter’s accomplished skill as a colourist is also evident in this image. The luminous apple and pink paint at the edge of the table convincingly suggest sunlight shining into an airy room.  The combination of his colour choices and originality of composition make this painting a successful example of the development of Hunter’s later style. Honeyman confirms that "it is this unerring sense of colour that made Hunter the artist he became...never a jarring pattern is found, or an inharmonious tone in his colour schemes – rich and glowing as they are without a hint of garishness." (T. J. Honeyman, Introducing Leslie Hunter, Faber & Faber, 1937. p.133).