Sir William Russell FLINT

(Edinburgh 1880 - London 1969)

Perthshire Hillside in Autumn

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Watercolour.
Signed and dated W. RUSSELL FLINT 1913 at the lower right.
Titled and inscribed Perthshire Hillside in Autumn / W Russell Flint / 12 Bedford Road / Bedford Park on the old backing board.
276 x 384 mm. (10 7/8 x 15 1/8 in.)
William Russell Flint was always particularly fond of the scenery of his native Scotland. As his friend and biographer Arnold Palmer has noted of the artist, ‘The dark, rich landscape of Scotland is what he likes best to render; and after Scotland, Spain, and next in order Southern France.’ The artist himself has noted that ‘I suppose I have painted more Scottish landscapes than anything else; and I never paint anything with greater pleasure...We once spent a glorious autumn in the Highlands, six weeks of perfect painting weather from the start of October to mid-November. The trees, rowan, beech, birch and oak, became more and more autumnal till all was a blaze of vermilion and gold...A lot of work was done there: I think I painted forty water-colours.’



Flint first exhibited a number of Highland watercolours in his second one-man show, at the Fine Art Society in London in 1911. Another Perthshire landscape watercolour, dated 1917 and of similar dimensions to the present sheet, was on the art market in London in c.1990.







Born in Scotland, the son of a commercial artist, William Russell Flint began his career in the same field. One of his first jobs was as an artist on the staff of the Illustrated London News, where he worked between 1904 and 1907. His reputation as an illustrator was such that after four years he could leave the full-time employ of the Illustrated London News and work freelance, receiving commissions from other magazines such as the Pall Mall Magazine, Pearson’s and several others monthly periodicals. Since 1905 he had been exhibiting his work in the watercolour section of the Royal Academy exhibitions, and sat about this time also began to receive commissions for book illustrations. He mounted an exhibition of his landscape watercolours – all done, as he wrote, ‘direct from nature and not too comfortably’ - at the New Dudley Gallery in London. In 1914 Flint became an Associate member of the Royal Society of Painters in Water-Colours, becoming a full member three years later. In 1936 he was elected President of the Society.

Provenance

The Fine Art Society, London, in 1914 The Print Rooms, Los Angeles Erwin H. Furman, Los Angeles.

Sir William Russell FLINT

Perthshire Hillside in Autumn