SPRING

An original illustration executed in watercolour, graphite, pen and ink with gilded highlights depicting a woman emblematic of Spring contained within a roundel, surrounded by a background of intricate foliage. Signed by the artist in ink to the lower right. The image measuring 18.5 cm square. Contained within the original black-painted wooden frame, glazed. Original manuscript label to the reverse of the frame stating "Annie French / Eaglesmore, 25 Trinity Rise, / Tulse Hill / 'Spring'", and with a printed framer's label. Condition is excellent, with just the slightest hint of minor spotting in places.

Scottish artist Annie French (1872-1965) attended and later taught at the Glasgow School of Art during the era of the 'Glasgow Girls' (of which she was one, alongside her contemporaries Margaret and Frances MacDonald and Jessie M. King) and the 'Glasgow Boys', whose distinctive collective style helped to shape the aesthetics of the British Art and Crafts Movement at the turn of the twentieth century. The present painting forms a splendid example of French's work, demonstrating her typically delicate, fluid style, combining intense detail with a fine and sweeping line, resulting in the creation of an airy and subtly dynamic atmosphere. Here, the central roundel depicting a quintessentially Art Nouveau woman emblematic of spring, is embellished using French's exquisite colours, highlighted in gilt, which stand jewel-like in contrast to the fine, muted colours of the dense, whimsical foliage of the surrounding borders.