Harold Gilman
(England 1876–1919)
- Title
- Self-portrait
- Year
- circa 1908-circa 1909
- Media
- Painting
- Medium
- oil on canvas
- Dimensions
- 35.7 x 25.7cm stretcher; 51.2 x 41.0 x 6.0cm frame
- Signature & date
- Not signed. Not dated.
- Credit
- Purchased 1946
- Accession number
- 7837
- Location
- Not on display
- Further information
As a founding member of both the Fitzroy Street Group in 1907 and the ensuing Camden Town Group in 1911, Harold Gilman greatly contributed to the development of art in modern Britain. Although the works of engraver and painter Walter Sickert inspired the emergence of the two groups, it is Harold Gilman and his colleague Spencer Gore who are recognised with creating a new style within the country. Named after a squalid area of London, the Camden Town Group depicted the evolving people, activities and attitudes of the metropolis and focused on Britain’s transition from an industrialising nation into a modern state. Despite having introduced post-impressionism to Britain and often being labelled post-impressionist themselves, the Camden Town Group’s style is a culmination of the exciting developments it saw in modern European art. As exemplified in Gilman’s ‘Self-portrait’, the group drew from the impressionists’ treatment of light, Georges Seurat’s divisionism of colour, and from Fauvism’s painterly emphasis, in addition to emphasising the importance of post-impressionists, like Van Gogh. Standing half-turned, with his hands in pockets, against a halo of light pouring into an object-filled room, Gilman depicts himself as both an individual and as a man of culture and the world. (EF)
- Provenance
- Ernest Brown and Phillips Ltd, London (England), London/England, Purchased by the AGNSW from Ernest Brown and Phillips 1946
- Bibliography (4)
-
Perfect Moderns: A history of the Camden Town Group (2000), Wendy Baron (England) (Author), Ashgate Publishing Limited (England), England.
British painting 1800-1990 in Australian and New Zealand public collections (1997), Peter Tomory (United Kingdom) (Author), Anne Kirker (New Zealand; Australia, b.1947) (Author), The Beagle Press (Australia), Sydney, New South Wales, Australia.
Art Gallery of New South Wales catalogue of British paintings (1987), Renée Free (Australia) (Author), Trustees of the Art Gallery of New South Wales (Australia), Sydney, New South Wales, Australia.
Adelaide Festival of Arts 1966: Special exhibitions at the National Gallery of South Australia (1966), Editor Unknown (Editor), Adelaide Festival of Arts (Australia), Unknown.
- Exhibition history (2)
-
Artist's Glue, (04 Mar 1985–30 Jun 1985), at Lewers Bequest and Penrith Regional Art Gallery (Australia), 86 River Road Emu Plains, New South Wales, Australia 2750.
British Painting 1900-1950: Adelaide Festival of Arts 1966, (Mar 1966–Mar 1966), at National Gallery of South Australia (Australia), North Terrace Adelaide, South Australia, Australia 5000.