Landscape, 1932

Category

Museums & Galleries Item

Item no

20672

Title

Landscape, 1932

Description

A landscape painting of a Scottish countryside scene. Using dark tonal colours the artist has captured the intense drama of the autumnal season. Two small cottages are nestling amongst the rolling hills. Forests of green and golden-brown foliage cradle the landscape. In the background, fields of green and yellow meet with a dark tempestuous skyline.

Artist / maker

Gillies, Sir William George

Date

1932

Size

61.3 x 75.6 cm

Type

Oil painting

Location

City Art Centre

Accession number

CAC1983/26

This painting shows an affinity with the artist's native landscape, in his expressionist style of the 1930s. The Norwegian expressionist painter Edvard Munch had exhibited in Edinburgh in 1931. Gillies' was very struck by his work and according to Elder Dickson, his biographer, 'he was quite unprepared for this startling confrontation &. Everything he had seen before now seemed tame and spineless &. Here was painting which seemed to spring from the very roots of human passion and experience.'
Throughout much of the 1930's, Gillies wrestled with Munch's expressive style. His later work is nethertheless much more lyrical in tone, and painted in a less passionate manner. Here, Gillies' tries to work through the lessons of Munch, using dark tonal colour and a robust, expressive painting style.

By permission of the Royal Scottish Academy

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Related subjects

Agriculture and fisheries > Landscape > Fields

Agriculture and fisheries > Landscape > Meadows

Homes > Residential buildings > Cottages

Homes > Residential buildings > Crofts

Homes > Residential buildings > Houses

Landscape > Land > Hills

Landscape > Land > Woods and forests

Natural phenomena > Weather > Clouds

Natural phenomena > Weather > Storms

Plants > Trees > Trees