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Untitled sketchbook

Artist: Gillies, William George, Sir, CBE RA RSA PPRSW · 1898-1973

The sketchbook is lacking its covers and contains twelve leaves each of which has either a pencil sketch or handwritten pencil notes on the recto face, with six having sketches on the verso faces also. Between sketches .9 and .10 there are sixteen crudely cut stubs where other pages have been removed. The binding is also fragile suggesting even more leaves may also have been removed.

the sketches are summarised as follows;
1. (recto) Back garden at 162 Willowbrae Road, Edinburgh, pencil, landscape, with trellises, plants and houses beyond (verso) blank
.2 (recto) a more schematic sketch of the same view as in .1 but with the trellises less obvious, pencil, landscape (verso) apparently random pencil marks suggestive of Paul Klee's 'taking a line for a walk.'
.3 to .6 inc.(recto) handwritten pencil notes over four pages headed on first page 'Priming Canvases' with detailed notes of the quantities of Casiene, Water, Ammonia, and Glycerine required and the process of preparation. On .4 is the company name 'Baird and Tatlock' and on .6 'Griffin and Tatlock/ Teviot Place/ Edinburgh.' All are blank verso except .3 which carries a humorous portrait format pencil sketch of a seated figure by an easel at bottom left, with a right hand [presumably Gillies'] holding a pencil at front right, with a view looking through the flaps of a tent to 3 sailing boats in a bay beyond. Hanging up within the tent at top left Gillies' tartan tie and a pocket watch.
.7 Back gardens [?at 162 Willowbrae Road, Edinburgh], with plants and three trees in foreground, arched trellis at back right and houses beyond [the houses are different in style from those in .1 and .2], pencil, landscape (verso) slight pencil scribble perhaps plotting out a compositional element of uncertain orientation.
.8 (recto) random pencil marks, landscape, perhaps plotting out a hilly landscape (verso) possibly a development of the recto sketch but here more formalised and with colour notes added and a pencil sum at bottom left
.9 (recto) pencil, portrait, heavily worked composition squared for transfer the composition with similarities to his oil 'Still Life with Picture Postcards' of c.1934 G.1991.889 (verso) pencil, landscape, back gardens at 162 Willowbrae Road, Edinburgh with arched metal fence at foreground, trellises, two-storey house at right, trees and other rooftops beyond at left.
.10 (recto) pencil, portrait, garden as above but with three trees against a trellis, sun high in sky, flowers and shrubs in foreground (verso) heavy agitated continuous pencil line, orientation uncertain
.11 (recto) pencil, landscape, trees in leaf on a hillside, possibly a preparatory study for his oil 'Trees in Leaf' of c.1934 G.1991.259 (verso) pencil, landscape, slight sketch of a garden with at left a picket fence with a square lawn on which stands a female figure in a skirt, her hands clasped before her waist, the right hand side less readily read
.12 (recto) pencil, landscape, back gardens at 162 Willowbrae Road, Edinburgh looking across neighbouring fences with two-storey blocks of flats beyond (verso) blank