The Golden Age of Glasgow’s Art Trade: April 1902 – Mr Stuart Park’s Flower Pictures, in the Renfield Street Gallery of Messrs Craibe Angus and Son

An article on page six of The Glasgow Herald, on Wednesday the 9th of April, 1902, reads:

 

MR STUART PARK’S FLOWER PICTURES.—

There is now on view, in the Renfield Street gallery of Messrs Craibe Angus & Son, a

collection of flower pictures by Mr Stuart Park. There are in all 46 canvases. This is

the first time we have seen so many studies of the same kind brought together. Although

the theme is a limited one, Mr Park develops it with such varying notes of grace that each

work is felt to have a charm of its own. Alike as to form and colour his flowers are very

perfect; they are not dead things, but bear the bloom and texture of the living essence. The

exquisite purity of his whites, the strength of pinks and purples, the fineness of the shadows,

the semi-transparency of the petals – these are qualities which are abundantly found in his

azaleas and orchids and roses. Mr Park shows a large variety of azaleas, a lovely flower of which

he seems to be especially fond. The orchid he paints with suggestion of rich bloom, and a group

of cinerarias he sets against a decorative white background, which throws up the mass of purple

and green. He has one example of the hydrangea, the late Albert Moore’s favourite blossom. In

all the studies, light and shadow are most delicately and truthfully observed. Nor does the artist

fail in point of arrangement. His flowers are charmingly grouped. The brush-work is also strong

as well as refined. The artist knows when he has got his flower and its surroundings in perfect

sympathy, and he goes no farther. Mr Park’s collection is of exceptional interest and beauty.”

 

There is an advertisement for the exhibition on the same page, in the Herald.

 

An example of Park’s fine work, an oil on canvas.