Early Spring

Artist Robert Henderson Blyth (Glasgow, Scotland, 1919 - 1970)

Date1959

Mediumoil on canvas

ClassificationsPaintings And Drawings

DimensionsOverall: Height: 70.4 cm, Width: 76.3 cm
Frame: Height: 84.8 cm, Width: 90 cm

AcquisitionPurchased in 1977.

LocationView by Appointment - Aberdeen Treasure Hub

Object numberABDAG000036

Keywords

About MeRobert Henderson Blyth was born in Glasgow and trained at Glasgow School of Art. He joined the Royal Army Medical Corps in 1941 and served until the end of World War II. His war pictures are highly regarded and seem to have left an impression on him - his later work, retaining a somewhat dark mood and a limited, sombre palette

Blyth was appointed to a teaching position at the Edinburgh College of Art in 1946 and served as Artist-in-Residence at Hospitalfield House (Arbroath) in 1947. In 1954, Blyth moved to Gray's School of Art in Aberdeen where, in 1960, he took up the post of Head of Drawing and Painting, a position he filled until his early death.

Landscape painting became an ever more important part of his output and he developed a distinctive style in which, as here, he often took a low viewpoint and broke up the composition with unusual and dramatic positionings of objects in the foreground, contrasted with almost surreal landscape features and buildings in the far distance, a striking combination which recalls the art of Marc Chagall and closer to home, John Maxwell.

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There is a lot to enjoy and admire in this painting, including the vivid use of green for the fields. What’s your favourite part of it?