CANNA, c.1936
Oil on canvas. 24¼ x 18¼in. (61.5 x 467cm.).
Provenance
Cheltenham, Municipal Art Gallery. Accession No. 1936.83. Gift of J.G. Flowerdew Lowson.
Exhibited
Cheltenham, Municipal Art Gallery, 1936, No. 13.
An information leaflet published by the Cheltenham Municipal Art Gallery says that this painting is typical of the work Colquhoun described as being magic-realist or super-realist in style during the 1930’s and 40’s. The painting ‘has an other-worldliness created by a very limited palette where the contrasting colours of red and green predominate. The fine glazes of colour exploit the heavy weave of the canvas and the organic form of the plant is pushed to the picture surface leaving the buildings beyond as a vague geometric shadow’.
A letter from Paul McKee, Curator of Fine Art at the Cheltenham Gallery (September, 2002), states that the work is signed and dated Colquhoun 31 vertically along the lower right edge. The information leaflet dates the work to 1936, and the letter states that the ‘1’ could be a ‘5’. The date 1931 seems to be too early. The first dated flower paintings appeared in 1932 but were watercolour and ink. The first datable oil of flower subjects did not appear until 1935.
In a subsequent e-mail, McKee stated that, at the gallery’s request, Colquhoun carried out restoration work in 1953. The artist ‘repainted considerable areas of it’ and the date may have become obscured. A date of 1935 or 1936 seems to be the most probable.