Raymond McIntyre
Aotearoa New Zealand, b.1879, d.1933
Meditation
- Purchased with assistance from the Olive Stirrat Bequest, 1984
- Oil on canvas
- 745 x 590mm
- 84/26
- 1905
Tags: hair, ovals (plane figures), people (agents), portraits, women (female humans)
The sitter for this painting wears no jewellery or other adornments and she shows little emotion. In giving no clear clues to her personality, Raymond McIntyre shows her as a symbolic figure, simply suggesting the mood of meditation. An early work by McIntyre, Meditation was painted before he had travelled to London and seen the contemporary styles of Post-Impressionism. The dark, subdued tones were commonly used by his generation of students at the Canterbury College School of Art. Born in Christchurch, McIntyre was awarded a bronze medal for a life study when he was a student at the School of Art. He also studied as a private pupil under Petrus van der Velden (1837- 1913). McIntyre arrived in London in 1909 and studied at the London City Council Central School of Arts and Crafts. In 1911 he began a long association exhibiting with the Goupil Gallery, then the leading international contemporary art gallery in London. McIntyre died suddenly, aged 54.