RSA Scottish Art
Reflections
 | Artist: John Maxwell |
| Title: Reflections | |
| Year: 1941 | |
| Medium: watercolour with ink & gouache on paper | |
| Dimensions: | |
| Suggested topic: | |
| Source: RSA | |
| View full screen image of this work | |
| Open print version of this work | |
| © the Maxwell Family | |
| Description: John Maxwell was a lifelong friend of William Gillies and was one of a group of artists dubbed the Edinburgh School.A travelling scholarship enabled him to study in Paris and visit Spain and Italy and, while he was there, discover the work of Marc Chagall and the Symbolists. This inspiration was to influence his work for the remainder of his career. Maxwell's figure paintings have a dream-like quality. The woman in Reflections floats weightlessly above a bed of flowers and fishes. The composition of this painting is fluid and free and very reminiscent of the work of Chagall but lighter in mood and colour. The perspective is quite disorientating. It looks as though the woman is lying down, or floating in a pool. But if you tilt your head to the left, she appears to be standing up. The fish and flowers add further to the feeling of there being no up or down. This uncertain perspective enhances the dreamy feeling of this image.The drawing of the figure is simplified and, apparently, distorted. For example the left arm looks too short but Maxwell has deliberately drawn it this way to frame the upper edge of the woman's torso. The face is drawn in profile, yet with one wide-open eye looking straight out to the viewer, reminiscent of ancient art, which he may have seen in the caves of France or Spain or the Cubist portraits of Picasso.The painting has been executed with joyful vigour. The figure is chunky and bold, with yellow highlights on the skin and a scratchy, dark defining line. The fish and flowers have been rendered in an almost child-like fashion. The blooms in the top right are created from liquid pools of yellow and ochre before being sketched by a delicate black outline. The palette used is bright but limited and has a chalky appearance. This pale colour scheme gives the image a cheerful quality, with the brightness of a summer's afternoon. | |
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