Lot 167
ANNE REDPATH O.B.E., R.S.A., A.R.A., L.L.D., A.R.W.S., R.O.I., R.B.A. (SCOTTISH 1895-1965) §
STILL LIFE ON A RED GROUND
Scottish Paintings & Sculpture | 719
Auction: Evening Sale
Description
Signed, oil on canvas
Dimensions
86cm x 112cm (34in x 44in)
Provenance
Provenance: By family descent in 2005 to the current owner
Footnote
Still Life on a Red Ground is a later, majestic work painted on an unusually impressive scale. A selection of objects, from wine glass to bunch of glasses, has been carefully and unsymmetrically arranged. The varying spaces between the elements creates relationships and visual rhythm over the striped surface on which they sit, which is tipped up to the frontal plane. Redpath forgoes classical notions of perspective, form and volume as depth is flattened and an abstract field of colour is formed in the background, with the layering of warm and dramatic tones. A single broad and bravura brushstroke of white dispenses with any illusion beyond the fact of the canvas on which the work is painted. This avant-garde approach was partly the result of Redpath’s engagement with developments in contemporary French art – not least having seen exhibitions of Nicolas de Staël and Tachisme mounted by the Society of Scottish Artists in Edinburgh in 1954 and 1956.
