Norman Garstin (1847 - 1926) Summer in Winter/ Alienis Mensibus Aestas Oil on canvas, 59 x 78.5cm (23 x 31) Signed and inscribed 'Tangier' and dated 1886 Exhibited: Aberdeen 1886 Literature:...

Norman Garstin (1847 - 1926) Summer in Winter/ Alienis Mensibus Aestas Oil on canvas, 59 x 78.5cm (23 x 31) Signed and inscribed 'Tangier' and dated 1886 Exhibited: Aberdeen 1886 Literature: Norman Garstin Irishman and Newlyn Artist, by Richard Pryke 2005. Illustrated plate 10, page 50 Provenance: De Veres, November 2001, Lot No.165, where purchased by present owner. Our thanks to them for their permission to reproduce this catalogue note. This beautiful work was painted by Garstin while he was in Morocco from mid 1885 to mid 1886. Garstin did not embark on his career as a painter until 1880, having previously had a somewhat desultory life, including diamond mining at Kimberley (where he shared a mess tent with Cecil Rhodes). From 1881 to 1884 he trained in the studio of Carolus-Duran, the fashionable Parisian portrait painter, who also trained Singer Sargent. In Paris he became friendly with Ion Perdicaris: a wealthy and colourful Greek-American, who knew Karl Marx. After leaving Paris, Garstin took the opportunity to travel in Italy, Spain, and Morocco, where he stayed with Perdicaris. While he was in Morocco Garstin painted 25 or more pictures. Many of these were small and some were only sketches. The present work is therefore of particular interest as being one of the few large Moroccan pictures. It is likely to be Alienis Mensibus AEstas (summer in unseasonable months). This was exhibited at the Summer Exhibition of the Aberdeen Artists Society, at a price of £45, and appears to have been sold. The picture is a characteristic work being realist (and not impressionist) with a careful and economical use of paint, and, like some of his other works, has great atmosphere. The simple subject matter is also typical of Garstin, who was not, like many other artists of the time, attracted by hareems and the exotic. Dr. Richard Pryke

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