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Gillies made a rare foray south of the border in 1958 to the Cumbrian village of Cartmel. The Priory has a long colourful history surviving Scottish raids in the 14th Century, and Henry VIII and Cromwell in those succeeding. The Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art has a pencil drawing inherited from the Lillie Collection of the same subject, but from a different angle and there are at least two paintings including this splendid example. Gillies has placed himself, respectfully, outside the grounds, looking in over a low stone wall running the full length of his composition. The buildings and bare winter trees are brightly lit by a winter sun, under a dark sky.
Sir William Gillies is still highly underrated in Modern British terms. Born in Haddington, he trained and taught at Edinburgh College of Art, and did the latter as principal. He was a great influence on many of the next generation of the Edinburgh School. He himself studied in Paris with Andre Lhote and absorbed, variously, the work of Munch, Matisse, Braque and Bonnard. Still life and landscape oils tend to be composed studio pieces of subtle complexity. Watercolours are lyrically observed renderings of the Scottish Borders based on decisive pencil or pen drawings or for larger works, executed alla prima. Gillies had a long and fruitful relationship with The Scottish Gallery which continues in the secondary market.
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