George Leslie Hunter’s paintings are known for their vibrant demonstration of colour across still life and landscape subjects. Alongside his fellow ‘Scottish Colourist’ friends, Hunter’s practice was heavily inspired by the French Impressionist artists, having visited France frequently over the early 1900s and later purchasing a studio there in the 1920s.

From 1907 onwards, having been profoundly moved by the paintings of Henri Matisse and the strong light of the French sun, Hunter employed bold contrasting colours and decorative fabric patterns into his oils. Additional inspiration from Paul Cézanne can also be seen, with the use of subtle perspective and the repeated white tablecloth motif: often folded or draped in a way which intentionally cuts through composition of well-defined items. The inclusion of contrasting colours and bold, grounding outlines across these scenes gave Hunter’s painting a wonderful freshness and exuberance that was widely celebrated amongst critics. In a 1923 review of the Leicester Galleries exhibition ‘Three Colourists’, The Times Newspaper wrote of his painting ‘…his still life paintings are strong and simple in design and gorgeous in colour…He makes the heart glad like wine'.

Still life, circa 1918 is an incredibly successful example that demonstrates Hunter’s shift towards a modernist painting style. At a time of rising popularity for the artist, Hunter created many works of this still life theme, moving away from the darker palettes inspired by Manet and French Old Masters and instead incorporating the brighter tones and Fauve-esque handling of paint. Vases, flowers and fruit featured heavily in these works, allowing Hunter to create infinite busy compositions which were full of experimental perspective and colour. As in the present work, the deliberate flattening and simplification of objects down to their basic form gave the artist a focus on the emotional application of these elements, more so than realistic depictions of each item.