Girl with a Tinsel Scarf

Artist William John Leech (1881 - 1968)

Datec. 1912

MediumOil on canvas

Dimensions60.4 x 100.3 cm

ClassificationsPaintings

Credit LineCollection & image © Hugh Lane Gallery. Purchased, 1976. © The Estate of William John Leech.

Object number1490

DescriptionAlthough Leech did not always date his work and often exhibited the same work under different titles at intervals of several years, 'Girl with a Tinsel Scarf' can be fairly accurately to around 1912 - to his short -lived first marriage. The sitter here is clearly the same woman who posed for such well known pictures as 'The Sunshade' and 'Convent Garden in Brittany' and who has been identified in those pictures by Denise Ferran as Elizabeth Saurine. Stylistically these works are also linked, the same concern for geometry and pattern suggested in the spokes of the umbrella in 'The Sunshade' can be seen in the concentric diamond pattern of 'Girl with a Tinsel Scarf'. The angle of vision, with the face turned away is also common to both. The sombre green and black palette employed for this picture acts as a link between such early works as the 'Man with a Bottle', and 'The Green Room - Interior of a Cafe' and the sun dappled, flower-filled canvases of 'Convent Garden'. The deliberately reduced spatial setting, the proximity of the girl, her rapt gaze and outstretched open hand suggesting dialogue with someone we are not permitted to see, all make 'Girl with a Tinsel Scarf' unusually dramatic. The drama here is emphasized by the strongly contrasting tones and colours and the way the emphatic diagonal sweep of the scarf is continued in the folds of the background drapery. The interest in decorative values which characterises Leech's work from the 1920s onwards is already evident here in the cobwebby patterns of the scarf, the paisley fabric and striped tiger skin.

(Extract from 'Images and Insights', Hugh Lane Municipal Gallery of Modern Art, Dublin, 1993, p. 96)

On View

Not on view