Sir James Guthrie (1859-1930)

Artist Name Sir James Guthrie (1859-1930)
Title Portrait of Mary Martin in Riding Habit
Description This beautiful Victorian Scottish portrait oil painting is by noted Glasgow Boy artist Sir James Guthrie PRSA. The young female sitter, Miss Mary Martin, was painted in 1900 as part of a series of paintings of the Edward Martin family, painted in London between 1894-1900. As well as this lovely painting of Mary, Guthrie also painted siblings Jeanie, Jessie and Ned as well as their parents. The series has been described in the  biography on Guthrie by Sir James Caw as a 'delightful series of portraits' and 'few portraits of children at once so significant and beautiful have ever been painted'. The portrait is a  'tribute to Whistler.... with Whistlerian decorative arrangements based on a limited range of low tones and colour'. The three quarter length portrait of Mary is indeed painted in tones of brown and umber with the focus on her sweet facial details and her hand holding a riding crop. A truly magnificent Whistlerian Scottish Victorian Glasgow Boy portrait oil painting.  

Signed and indistinctly dated middle left.
 
Provenance Mrs Burnett-Stuart of Howe Green, Hertfordshire.
Literature: Sir James Guthrie, Sir James L. Caw, 1932, pp.85, 221
 
Medium Oil on Canvas
Size 35 x 59 inches
Frame Housed in a complementary Victorian gilt frame with embossed decoration, 67 inches by 43 inches and in good condition.
Condition Good condition.
Biography Sir James Guthrie (10 June 1859 – 6 September 1930) was a Scottish painter, best known in his own lifetime for his portraiture, although today more generally regarded as a painter of Scottish Realism. Guthrie became one of the leading painters in the group of artists called the Glasgow Boys. His early works of rural subjects painted with broad square brush strokes show the strong influence of French painters such as Bastien-Lepage. Guthrie was born in Greenock and trained as a lawyer before turning to art. After brief but stimulating periods in London and Paris, he committed himself to painting directly from nature in Scotland. Guthrie also experimented with pastel drawings and established a reputation as a successful portrait painter. He became president of the Royal Scottish Academy in 1902 and was knighted the following year.
Elected ARSA1888, RSW 1890, RSA 1892, HROI 1903, HRSW 1903, RBA 1907, HRA 1912. Exhibited regularly RSA, RSW, GI (80), 1882-1929,  and AAS. Represented in major galleries throughout Scotland as well as abroad.
Price SOLD
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