We are delighted to announce the acquisition of the painting Flossie Jolley by Margaret Morris for The Fleming Collection. To mark the occasion SWARN member Alice Strang has written a very informative article for our Collection Spotlight series about collecting the work of Scottish women artists and the art market.
As interest in the work of Scottish women artists goes from strength to strength, the art market is playing an increasingly significant role as a source of important and rare works by such artists, many of whom are not yet widely represented in public holdings.
This was demonstrated by Lyon & Turnbull’s Scottish Paintings and Sculpture sale of 16 June 2022. It included paintings by Dorothy Johnstone (1892-1980), Margaret Morris (1891-1980), Helen Stirling Johnston (1888-1931) and Anne Redpath (1895-1965), amongst other leading female names in twentieth-century Scottish art history. The sale, its preview and catalogue – all available in on-line formats - provided an opportunity to see and learn about the works during the brief period they emerge between owners.
Dorothy Johnstone (1892-1980), The Black Hat, 1913, oil on canvas, 67 x 75cm
© Artist’s Estate, photo courtesy Lyon & Turnbull
The oeuvres of women artists can be curtailed for various reasons. In the case of Dorothy Johnstone, the ‘Marriage Bar’ legislation, which forbade married women from teaching full-time, meant she had to resign from her post at Edinburgh College of Art (ECA) on marrying her colleague, David Macbeth Sutherland, in 1924. This was followed by the birth of their three children and a move to Aberdeen following her husband’s appointment as Head of Gray’s School of Art. As a result, Johnstone’s career lost momentum, meaning its most important period was restricted to the twelve years between her graduation in 1912 and her wedding.
The appearance on the market of Johnstone’s The Black Hat, signed and dated 1913, was therefore cause for celebration. Revealing her precocious talents, Johnstone created it aged only twenty-one, the year after competing her training at ECA. It reveals her preference for figure painting, often on a sizeable scale and with her subjects presented against a muted, plain background. In this case, the sitter is seen half-length and seated in a Regency black and gilt painted chair, elegantly dressed in an outfit crowned with the titular headpiece. It is an extraordinarily assured work by an emerging artist, who had only begun exhibiting at the Royal Scottish Academy the previous year. Johnstone went on to be elected an Associate Member of the Academy and her death was marked by a Memorial Exhibition mounted at Aberdeen Art Gallery in 1983.
Margaret Morris (1891-1980), Flossie Jolley, oil on canvas, 39.5 x 27cm
© The International Margaret Morris Movement Ltd, photo courtesy Lyon & Turnbull
On occasion, a woman artist’s reputation can be overshadowed by that of her male partner, as has been the case posthumously for Margaret Morris and the Scottish Colourist John Duncan Fergusson. However, during their lifetimes the couple enjoyed a collaborative professional relationship, such as at Morris’s celebrated Summer Schools, at which she taught dancing and he taught art. Fergusson encouraged Morris to paint, in addition to her set and costume design, whilst she and her pupils provided models and subject matter for his practice.
The dancer Flossie Jolley was the subject of a portrait by Morris in the June sale. She was one of the original members of Morris’s first touring company of ‘Dancing Children’, established in 1910. Jolley was to remain with Morris until at least 1918, taking on choreography and teaching responsibilities. As one of only twenty-one paintings by Morris to appear at auction since 2000 (according to artnet.com), the rarity and significance of this work was confirmed by its acquisition for The Fleming Collection.
Its Director, James Knox, has explained: “This painting is an important addition to our already strong holding of works by Scottish women which ranges from historical rarities to young contemporaries. Furthermore, her dazzling portrait of dancer Flossie Jolley, which has long been hidden from public view, is set to become one of the stars of the Fleming Collection’s touring programme planned for next year, not just in the Scottish Women Artists show, but also in the previously male preserve of the Scottish Colourists, such are the rich narrative threads that can be spun from this rare and fine work.” The first iteration of the Fleming Collection’s Scottish Women Artists show, Scottish Women Artists Transforming Tradition is at the Sainsbury Centre for Art, Norwich until 4 September 2022.
Helen Stirling Johnston (1888-1931), The Harbour, Kirkcudbright, oil on canvas, 63.5 x 76cm,
photo courtesy Lyon & Turnbull
Whilst the term ‘Glasgow Girl’, used to describe Scottish women artists associated with the city, is now commonly used, current research is driving momentum for the categorisation of ‘Kirkcudbright Girl’, such has been the historic draw of this artists’ colony in Dumfries and Galloway for female practitioners. One such painter who can claim this description is Helen Stirling Johnston, as yet not widely known. She was born in Troon and trained at Glasgow School of Art. She was a member of the Glasgow Society of Lady Artists and exhibited at the Royal Academy, Royal Scottish Academy and the Royal Glasgow Institute. It appears that whilst based in Glasgow, Johnston would spend several months a year in Kirkcudbright and is known to have used a studio at 9 High Street. Just three of her paintings are listed as being in British public collections on Art UK (artuk.org), all in the collection of Dumfries and Galloway Culture. The auction preview therefore provided a scarce opportunity to see her work at first hand, in the form of The Harbour, Kirkcudbright. This shows the view looking south-west over the River Dee from the harbour, including Shore House on the left. It is hoped that more will be come to light about Johnston in due course.
Anne Redpath (1895-1965), White Cyclamen, oil on board, 51 x 61cm
© Artist’s Estate, courtesy Royal Scottish Academy of Art & Architecture, Edinburgh,
photo courtesy Lyon & Turnbull
In contrast, Anne Redpath is widely considered the doyenne of post-World War Two Scottish painting. Despite a significant period spent away from the easel whilst raising her family, Redpath’s prolific and important output means that her work is well represented in public collections, often exhibited and is the subject of several publications. Appreciation of her late work is developing, as exemplified by White Cyclamen in the June auction. Ill-health led to Redpath learning to paint with her left hand and, once recovered, using both hands interchangeably; it also brought a renewed vigour to her work. She developed a new relationship with oil paint, often applied in generous quantities with a palette knife and enjoyed as much for its materiality as for its colour. The resultant images introduced a level of abstraction previously unseen in her practice, which – whilst remaining figurative – pulsed with an energy beyond representation. The cyclamen was a favoured motif for Redpath and in this work can be seen emerging from a maelstrom of expressive mark-making showing the artist at the height of her powers.
Next time you would like to see works by Scottish women artists, established and emerging, you might like to visit your local auction house as well as your local gallery.