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Each time Gillies selected his sister Emma’s pots for a still life he acknowledged her. Her death in 1936 was one of several personal losses that Gillies bore in life. This small still life seems perfectly formed: the four ceramic vessels help define the space, two in diagonal conversation, two intimately close, the stems of the delicate poppies offering an embrace. Colour is strong and harmonious and the paint deliciously applied.
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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