Pieter Wagemans

Belgian, (Contemporary)

Building on the legacy of the Dutch Masters, Pieter Wagemans’ transcendent still life paintings have propelled the artist to the forefront of contemporary realist painting. Pieter studied at the Royal Academy of Fine Arts in Antwerp and was inspired by the Dutch still life painters David de Heem, Willem Heda and Rachel Ruys.

Pieter carefully composes each floral arrangement in his studio in Antwerp. This enables the artist to control the effect of light and the transitory nature of his subjects. Pieter bypasses the use of underpainting and paints each flower in turn, 'alla prima', so that each flower is captured in its prime. Sometimes this can take a whole day, others only a few hours. Often the flower compositions never existed in reality because the flowers were painted one by one over several weeks.

The fine painting of flowers demands considerable discipline, because the passing of time is an important challenge. A flower is always changing. Looking for symbolic value of a composition he builds a moving story. The ‘vanitas’ motif is a major source of inspiration. Reflecting on the transitory nature of life, beauty often is incorporated in the form of a flower.

Recognisable for the balance of light and shadow within elegantly composed floral vignettes, an exquisite colour harmony and intricate details, Pieter’s work appeals to and resonates with the contemporary collector.

Last Summer Flowers

Still Life with Red Tulips

Painted in 1972

Oil on canvas

51 x 60 cms / 20" x 23½”

Provenance

Private Collection, Florida.

Mary Nicol Neil Armour

Scottish, (1902-2000)

In the early twentieth-century Scotland found itself one of the leading centres of European artistic culture: producing a succession of movements in direct dialogue with first Impressionism, and then modernism. Where Glasgow and its renowned School of Art would produce the loose, realist brushwork of the Glasgow Boys and Glasgow Girls, Edinburgh would birth the startling boldness of the Scottish Colourists. In Mary Nicol Neill Armour, the last surviving artist to have worked during this heyday, we find the best of both traditions. Through planes of vivid colour and richly textured brushwork Armour brought a unique vitality to her still lives and landscapes. Winning acclaim from all quarters, she would eventually rise to become President of the Glasgow School: a fitting acknowledgement of Armour’s immense status.

Mary Nicol Neill Armour (née Steel) was born in Lanarkshire in 1902 to a family of Steel workers. The eldest of six children she excelled academically from a young age, and would win a rare scholarship to study at Hamilton Academy at the age of 12. Although she originally wanted to become an educator her art tutor, the well-known watercolourist Penelope Beaton, would encourage her to pursue a career as a painter. In 1920, Beaton would help persuage Mary’s father to help her enrol at the Glasgow School of art, where she would study for 5 years. Glasgow and its art school were at that time one of the leading centres of modern painting, with the influence of the Scottish Colourists, Glasgow Girls and Glasgow Boys all keenly felt by those studying in the city. Armour’s best known works, her highly coloured still lives, were created in direct dialogue with these movements. After graduation, Armour would become an art teacher in Glasgow to supplement her income, and in 1927 she would marry fellow painter William Armour. Although deeply in love, her marriage would force her to give up her teaching post, as the laws of the time prevented married women from working as educators. While this move gave her more time to paint, evidence by her exhibitions at the RA and receipt of the prestigious Guthrie prize in 1937, she rightly felt cheated. Thankfully, when the prohibitive legislation was repealed after the Second World War Armour would join the Glasgow School of Art as their still life painting professor. The return to teaching would inspire a new wave of creativity in the artist, helped by the fact that many of her students were returning servicemen who had been greatly influenced by modern European art.

Driven to adopt brighter colour and more fluid brushstrokes, Armour would retire in 1962 to paint full time: this decision would usher in the most productive and successful period fo her career. Winning the Cargill Prize in 1972, she would also find herself elected Honorary President of both the Glasgow Institute of Fine Arts and the Glasgow School of Arts. After ceasing painting in 1988 due to failing eyesight, Armour would spend her final years with her family, passing away at the age of 98. To this day her artistic achievements and contribution to education are recognised in the Armour Award, given annually to a young artist of distinction.

Gladwell & Patterson, London

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Index

Agapito Casas Abarca p.34

Adam Emory Albright p.84-87

Matthew Alexander p.79

Filippo Anivitti p.81

Mary Nicol Neil Armour p.152-153

Georges Bauquier p.98-101

Francesco Bergamini p.82

Auguste Bouvard p.56

Paul S. Brown p.142-147

Renèe Carpentier Wintz p.53

Édouard Cortès p.70-71

Willem Dolphyn p.148-149

Margaret Dovaston p.83

Donald Hamilton Fraser p.110-113

Ivon Hitchens p.118-125

Alexandre Louis Jacob p.38-45

Clarissa James p.128-131

Henri Le Sidaner p.66-69

David Leverett p.106-109

Gustave Loiseau p.2-23

For further information on any of these artworks please contact the gallery

Glenn Fuller (Director) glenn@gladwellpatterson.com +44 (0)776 782 4245

Research: Will Stewart and Ella Wells, Design: Ella Wells

All Rights Reserved Gladwell & Patterson, 2023

Maximilien Luce p.58-61

Paul Madeline p.46

Georges Marionez p.57

Maurice Martin p.64-65

Francisco Miralles Y Galup p.80

Pierre-Eugène Montézin p.32-33

Ronny Moortgat p.72-76

Sir Alfred James Munnings p.138-141

Jean-Baptiste Olive p.47

Charles Perron p.54-55

Pablo Picasso p.90-98

Georges Ricard-Cordingley p.35

Georges Charles Robin p.24-31

Dorothea Sharp p.88-89

David Shepherd p.132-137

Georges Terzian p. 102-105

Charles Henri Verbrugghe p.62-63

Pieter Wagemans p.150-151

Kenneth Webb p.126-127

Peter Wileman p.114-117

Raymond Wintz p.48-52