Details

Object type

painting

Title

Man's Head with Tartan Scarf

Artist/Maker

John Quinton Pringle artist

Culture/School

Scottish

Date

circa 1892

Materials

oil on canvas

Dimensions

framed: 375 mm x 325 mm x 55 mm;unframed: 305 mm x 254 mm

Description

Head and shoulder length portrait of a young gentleman, perhaps a boy, with short brown hair and brightly red lips. The sitter is painted in profile to left, and is wearing dark jacket and tartan scarf od dark green colours with red stripes. This is a very interesting example of Pringle’s work in portraiture dating from his non mature period. It is bold and vigorous in technique and dates most probably around early 1890s.

The note in catalogue of Glasgow Saltire Club’s 1946 exhibition reads as follows: ‘The composition of the large shapes has the same dignity that appears in No.21 (note: the painting is portrait of artists elder brother Christopher Nisbeth Pringle now in the collection of Tate) and again shows Pringle’s excellent sense of scale, which makes many of his pictures appear much larger than they actually are. The subject is one of Pringle’s brothers (Robert Christie Pringle), the date is uncertain, but probably about 1890.’ Robert Christie was born in 1875, and dating of this portrait seems to correspond with the sitter’s young appearance.

James Quinton Pringle was the second of eight children born to parents James Christie Pringle and Jane Bowie (born Davidson). The other siblings were his older brother Christopher Nisbeth, and younger James Christie, Donald Smart, Barclay, Mary Smart, Robert Christie and Archibald Donald. While living at home with his parents in the late 1880s and early 1890s, Pringle used his family members as models for his portraits in drawing, watercolours and oils. Number of these portraits are in the collection of Glasgow Museums.

Credit Line/Donor

Gifted by John W Pringle, 1947

ID Number

2663

Location

Kelvingrove Looking at Art