About this artwork

This painting is from a series begun in 1909, called 'The Human Comedy'. The paintings were inspired by a four-poster bed, reputed to have been slept in by Mary, Queen of Scots, from the palace of Holyrood House in Edinburgh. The theatricality of the paintings, with the melodramatic lighting effects and enormous bed dwarfing the human figures, owes much to Pryde's interest in the theatre. In this particular painting, a brooding figure stands beside the tattered bed, with odd bits of furniture - the 'lumber' indicated in the title - scattered about.

Updated before 2020

  • artist:
  • title:
    Lumber: A Silhouette
  • date created:
    About 1921
  • materials:
    Oil on canvas
  • measurements:
    151.80 x 131.10 cm; Framed: 160.30 x 147.30 x 7.00 cm
  • object type:
  • credit line:
    Purchased 1975
  • accession number:
    GMA 1521
  • gallery:
  • artwork photographed by:
    Antonia Reeve
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James Ferrier Pryde

James Ferrier Pryde