Still Life II (with Fruit)

Location

Country: Luxembourg
City: Luxembourg
Place: British Embassy

Cut fruit and other objects are positioned in this lithographic print, on a table, draped in a diamond-patterned cloth, and with a top that appears foreshortened. The artist, Robert MacBryde also worked as a set designer and the still life was a recurring interest in his practice. One of his most famous paintings, The Backgammon Player (c.1946, Glasgow Museums), prominently incorporates a still life. The print was one of a few, commissioned by the art dealer Robert Erskine of St George’s Gallery, London, in 1960 along with three lithographs by Robert Colquhoun (1914–1962), a fellow artist, and life-time lover of MacBryde. Both artists made the prints at the Curwen Studio in East London under the supervision of master-printer Stanley Jones.

Robert MacBryde was born in Maybole, Ayrshire. After leaving school, he worked in a factory until 1933, going on to enrol at the Glasgow School of Art, where he met Robert Colquhoun. The two men became life-long lovers, living together at a time when homosexuality was illegal in Britain. Health issues meant MacBryde did not serve actively during the Second World War and his still life paintings received much critical acclaim in the 1940s, as did the work of his partner. The success of both men, however, waned in the 1950s. When evicted from their Soho studio, they moved together to rural Essex, after the writer Elizabeth Smart engaged them to take care of her children there, while she worked in London during the week. In 1951 they were commissioned to make stage and costume designs for a production in London. Both men were sociable characters but also heavy alcoholics, and were in worse health when they returned to London, some years later. Colquhoun’s sudden death in 1962 while preparing work for an upcoming exhibition was a devastating blow to MacBryde, who continued to drink heavily. He then lived between London and Ireland, relying on the support of friends such as Smart, the poet, George Barker and the artist, Francis Bacon. He died in a car accident in Dublin in 1966.

Places

Subjects

still life

Materials & Techniques

lithograph

Artist

Robert MacBryde (1913 - 1966)

Title

Still Life II (with Fruit)

Date

1960

Medium

Lithograph

Acquisition

Purchased from Editions Alecto, March 1969

Inscription

below image, br: Robert MacBryde

GAC number

8491