About this artwork
This caricature shows E.A. Walton in fancy dress at the Grand Costume Ball organized by the Glasgow Art Club on 29 November 1889. It shows him dressed as one of his idols, the Japanese printmaker Hokusai (1760–1849). The strange motif on the floor behind him represents Whistler’s butterfly signature. Walton’s fiancée, Helen Law, is dressed up in a gold coloured costume decorated with these emblematic butterflies. A group photograph by James Craig Annan, taken on the night of the Ball, shows the Glasgow Boys dressed in fancy costume, posing in a studio setting in the guise of old master painters. Lavery also made an oil sketch of Walton and Helen Law on the night of the Ball and presented it to them as a gift for their engagement, which they had announced earlier that evening.
Updated before 2020
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artist:Sir James Guthrie (1859 - 1930) Scottish
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title:E.A. Walton Dressed as Hokusai
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date created:Unknown
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materials:Pen on paper
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measurements:13.80 x 10.50 cm
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object type:
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credit line:Dr Camilla M Uytman Gift 1981
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accession number:D 5102.48
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gallery:
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subject:
Sir James Guthrie
Sir James Guthrie
Guthrie became one of the leading painters in the group of artists called the Glasgow Boys. His early works of rural subjects painted with broad square brush strokes show the strong influence of French painters such as Bastien-Lepage. Guthrie was born in Greenock and trained as a lawyer before...