Lot Essay
Born in Australia in 1864, Edward Atkinson Hornel's family moved to
Scotland when he was two years old and settled in Kirkcudbright,
Galloway, a popular retreat for Glaswegian artists. In 1880 Hornel started his formal studies in art at the Trustees Academy in Edinburgh. His sister was teaching in Edinburgh at the time and this probably played a part in the decision to educate him there rather than Glasgow. Uninspired by his three years at the Academy, Hornel enrolled to study under Charles Verlat in Antwerp, an experience which immersed him in the avant-garde ideas engaging the continent during the period.
On his return to Kirkcudbright, Hornel became great friends with fellow artist George Henry. Funded by the dealer Alex Reid and the patron William Burrell, the two artists spent eighteen months travelling in Japan and the Far East from 1893 to 1894, visiting Tokyo, Nagasaki and Yokohama. Hornel was deeply impressed by the sophisticated and highly decorative Japanese prints that he saw. His work, including the present composition which he painted the year after his return from Japan, shows this influence in his intricate tapestry-like patterns held in tightly constructed compositions.
In a lecture given in 1895 Hornel explained, 'The genius discernable in their Kakemonos [hanging scroll paintings] is to be traced in their articles of common use, nothing being too common-place to form the basis of some work of art. And this is perhaps one of the greatest achievements of the Japanese, the raising of the common-place into the region of art, and investing it with a charm at once ... full of dignified line and splendour of colour, the greatest impressionism the world has so far possessed, in which all details are laid aside, or made subservient to the motif, giving you only the spirit and character of the figure, bird or flower portrayed. I know of no art which for directness of impressiveness can surpass the past achievements of the Japanese' (lecture written by Hornel and delivered in the Corporation Art Galleries, Glasgow on 9 February 1895. See B. Smith, The Life and Work of Edward Atkinson Hornel, Edinburgh, 1997, pp. 84-86).
Hornel dedicated the present work to his friend, Alexander Taylor (1849-1914), a Bury business man, councillor and collector, specialising particularly in Japanese prints. He was one of the first members of the Bury Art Gallery and Library Committee and a patron and friend of Hornel's. He presented a painting by Hornel, Spring's Awakening, to the Gallery when it opened in 1901.
Scotland when he was two years old and settled in Kirkcudbright,
Galloway, a popular retreat for Glaswegian artists. In 1880 Hornel started his formal studies in art at the Trustees Academy in Edinburgh. His sister was teaching in Edinburgh at the time and this probably played a part in the decision to educate him there rather than Glasgow. Uninspired by his three years at the Academy, Hornel enrolled to study under Charles Verlat in Antwerp, an experience which immersed him in the avant-garde ideas engaging the continent during the period.
On his return to Kirkcudbright, Hornel became great friends with fellow artist George Henry. Funded by the dealer Alex Reid and the patron William Burrell, the two artists spent eighteen months travelling in Japan and the Far East from 1893 to 1894, visiting Tokyo, Nagasaki and Yokohama. Hornel was deeply impressed by the sophisticated and highly decorative Japanese prints that he saw. His work, including the present composition which he painted the year after his return from Japan, shows this influence in his intricate tapestry-like patterns held in tightly constructed compositions.
In a lecture given in 1895 Hornel explained, 'The genius discernable in their Kakemonos [hanging scroll paintings] is to be traced in their articles of common use, nothing being too common-place to form the basis of some work of art. And this is perhaps one of the greatest achievements of the Japanese, the raising of the common-place into the region of art, and investing it with a charm at once ... full of dignified line and splendour of colour, the greatest impressionism the world has so far possessed, in which all details are laid aside, or made subservient to the motif, giving you only the spirit and character of the figure, bird or flower portrayed. I know of no art which for directness of impressiveness can surpass the past achievements of the Japanese' (lecture written by Hornel and delivered in the Corporation Art Galleries, Glasgow on 9 February 1895. See B. Smith, The Life and Work of Edward Atkinson Hornel, Edinburgh, 1997, pp. 84-86).
Hornel dedicated the present work to his friend, Alexander Taylor (1849-1914), a Bury business man, councillor and collector, specialising particularly in Japanese prints. He was one of the first members of the Bury Art Gallery and Library Committee and a patron and friend of Hornel's. He presented a painting by Hornel, Spring's Awakening, to the Gallery when it opened in 1901.