Sir William George Gillies (1898–1973) was a renowned Scottish

landscape A landscape is the visible features of an area of land, its landforms, and how they integrate with natural or man-made features, often considered in terms of their aesthetic appeal.''New Oxford American Dictionary''. A landscape includes the ...

and

still life A still life (plural: still lifes) is a work of art depicting mostly wikt:inanimate, inanimate subject matter, typically commonplace objects which are either natural (food, flowers, dead animals, plants, rocks, shells, etc.) or artificiality, m ...

painter. He is often referred to simply as W. G. Gillies.

Life

Gillies was born in Haddington,

East Lothian East Lothian (; sco, East Lowden; gd, Lodainn an Ear) is one of the 32 council areas of Scotland, as well as a historic county, registration county and lieutenancy area. The county was called Haddingtonshire until 1921. In 1975, the histo ...

. He had just enrolled at the

Edinburgh College of Art Edinburgh College of Art (ECA) is one of eleven schools in the College of Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences at the University of Edinburgh. Tracing its history back to 1760, it provides higher education in art and design, architecture, histor ...

, when he was called up for service in

World War I World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

with the

Royal Engineers The Corps of Royal Engineers, usually called the Royal Engineers (RE), and commonly known as the ''Sappers'', is a corps of the British Army. It provides military engineering and other technical support to the British Armed Forces and is heade ...

. After the War, he returned to the College, and after graduation taught there for over 40 years with other notable Scottish artists including

Adam Bruce Thomson Adam Bruce Thomson OBE, RSA, PRSW (22 February 1885 – 4 December 1976) or ‘Adam B’ as he was often called at Edinburgh College of Art, was a painter perhaps best known for his oil and water colour landscape paintings, particularly ...

. He was Principal of the College from 1959 until his retirement in 1966. In 1922 along with nine fellow students, including

William Crozier William Crozier may refer to: *William Crozier (artillerist) (1855–1942), American general, artillerist and inventor *William Crozier (Scottish artist) (1893–1930) * William Crozier (Irish artist) (1930–2011) * William Crozier (cricketer) (187 ...

William Geissler William Hastie Geissler (1894 - 1963) was a Scottish artist known for his watercolours of the natural world. He was one of The Edinburgh School, and much of his earlier work came from sketching trips undertaken with other members of this group ...

and

William MacTaggart Sir William MacTaggart, (1903–1981) was a Scottish painter known for his landscapes of East Lothian, France, Norway and elsewhere. He is sometimes called William MacTaggart the Younger to distinguish him from his grandfather, the painter Willi ...

, he founded the 1922 Group, an exhibition society which promoted their works at the New Gallery in

Edinburgh Edinburgh ( ; gd, Dùn Èideann ) is the capital city of Scotland and one of its 32 Council areas of Scotland, council areas. Historically part of the county of Midlothian (interchangeably Edinburghshire before 1921), it is located in Lothian ...

for the next ten years. Assisted by a travelling scholarship, Gillies studied under

André Lhote André Lhote (5 July 1885 – 24 January 1962) was a French Cubist painter of figure subjects, portraits, landscapes and still life. He was also active and influential as a teacher and writer on art. Early life and education Lhote was born ...

Paris Paris () is the capital and most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), making it the 30th most densely populated city in the world in 2020. S ...

in 1923 and he went on to visit

Italy Italy ( it, Italia ), officially the Italian Republic, ) or the Republic of Italy, is a country in Southern Europe. It is located in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea, and its territory largely coincides with the homonymous geographical re ...

in 1924. For a brief period after these experiences he worked in a

cubist Cubism is an early-20th-century avant-garde art movement that revolutionized European painting and sculpture, and inspired related movements in music, literature and architecture. In Cubist artwork, objects are analyzed, broken up and reassemble ...

manner, but would later revert to a more traditional style. His cubist influenced works are typified by the 1933 still life, ''Two Pots, Saucer and Fruit''. The arrangement of the objects, which are close together on a tilted table top, are influenced by Cézanne, whereas the understated colours and textures are reminiscent of

Braque Georges Braque ( , ; 13 May 1882 – 31 August 1963) was a major 20th-century List of French artists, French painter, Collage, collagist, Drawing, draughtsman, printmaker and sculpture, sculptor. His most notable contributions were in his all ...

and

Picasso Pablo Ruiz Picasso (25 October 1881 – 8 April 1973) was a Spanish painter, sculptor, printmaker, ceramicist and Scenic design, theatre designer who spent most of his adult life in France. One of the most influential artists of the 20th ce ...

. In 1934 Gillies attended an exhibition of

Paul Klee Paul Klee (; 18 December 1879 – 29 June 1940) was a Swiss-born German artist. His highly individual style was influenced by movements in art that included expressionism, cubism, and surrealism. Klee was a natural draftsman who experimented wi ...

's work and was impressed by the childlike qualities and imaginative use of colour that he saw. Klee's influence is clear in Gillies' 1934 work, ''The Harbour'', which depicts the harbour at

Anstruther Anstruther ( sco, Ainster or Enster ; gd, Ànsruthair) is a small coastal resort town in Fife, Scotland, situated on the north-shore of the Firth of Forth and south-southeast of St Andrews. The town comprises two settlements, Anstruther ...

. Gillies has created a grid-like composition, using bold blocks of contrasting colour emphasising the vertical lines of the buildings and the ships masts. This is balanced by the use of rippling horizontal brushstrokes. Although he experimented with

portrait A portrait is a portrait painting, painting, portrait photography, photograph, sculpture, or other artistic representation of a person, in which the face and its expressions are predominant. The intent is to display the likeness, Personality type ...

ure in his early career, Gillies concentrated principally on landscapes and still lifes, frequently depicting the

Lothian Lothian (; sco, Lowden, Loudan, -en, -o(u)n; gd, Lodainn ) is a region of the Scottish Lowlands, lying between the southern shore of the Firth of Forth and the Lammermuir Hills and the Moorfoot Hills. The principal settlement is the Sco ...

Fife Fife (, ; gd, Fìobha, ; sco, Fife) is a council area, historic county, registration county and lieutenancy area of Scotland. It is situated between the Firth of Tay and the Firth of Forth, with inland boundaries with Perth and Kinross (i ...

and

Border Borders are usually defined as geographical boundaries, imposed either by features such as oceans and terrain, or by political entities such as governments, sovereign states, federated states, and other subnational entities. Political borders c ...

regions. Several of his works feature ceramics created by his younger sister, the potter

Emma Smith Gillies Emma Smith Gillies (1900–1936) was a Scottish potter best known for her early adaptation of Art Deco painted vases and jugs. Pottery Emma Gillies was born in the small town of Haddington, outside the city of Edinburgh in Scotland. In Haddi ...

, who died prematurely in 1936. Both in his prolific output over the course of his career, and in his 40 years of teaching, Gillies influence on Scottish painting of the twentieth century has been profound.

References

External links

*
Works in the National Galleries of Scotland

Biography of & artworks by Sir William George Gillies at the Gracefield Arts Centre in Dumfries, Scotland
biography & virtual representation of Sir William George Gillies's artwork of Gracefield Arts Centre at exploreart.co.uk

{{DEFAULTSORT:Gillies, William George 1898 births 1973 deaths Landscape artists Alumni of the Edinburgh College of Art 20th-century Scottish painters Scottish male painters People from Haddington, East Lothian Royal Scottish Academicians Artists from Edinburgh Royal Academicians 20th-century Scottish male artists