Searching the Bridgeman Art Library the other day for pictures of Edinburgh, I came up with one or two by the Scottish painter Stanley Cursiter whose work interests me. He was born in Orkney in 1887, he trained in Edinburgh and spent much of his working life here, becoming Keeper of the National Galleries of Scotland, and King's (and then Queen's) Painter and Limner for Scotland until his death in 1976.
Here is his "Reclining lady in white", showing him in the same camp as the early work of the Colourists Peploe (about whom he wrote a memoir) and Fergusson. It was this painting which was chosen for the cover of a major exhibition of Scottish art from the Flemings collection which was staged a few years ago, and I wish I could give you a better view of the bold brushwork and the restricted though subtly varied palette.
He said of another Colourist, Cadell, "...for him nature in her brightest dress was the reflection of his own joy in the paints of his palette", which I think says a lot about Cursiter as well as his subject.
The knitters amongst us will surely admire this, "The Fair Isle Jumper".
This is "Glass of milk", and I love its simplicity.
"Tea Room". Could this have been the famous Jenners tea room, overlooking Princes Street, or McVittie's perhaps?
Here's a location familiar to Edinburgh concert-goers: the Usher Hall.
I haven't shown his Orcadian seascapes or his futurist works here, but it seems his range is wider than the pictures I have included would suggest. I've been trying to find a book about Cursiter but have had no success so far, though I see from this article that there's a retrospective exhibition on in Orkney just now and a related book should be appearing. If anyone knows any more, I'd be delighted to hear from them.
