James Ferrier Pryde (1866-1941)

Painted before his first visit to Italy, Pryde has taken a familiar Edinburgh landmark, The British Linen Bank (now The Bank of Scotland) in St Andrew's Square, and transformed it to an isolated burnt out shell. Sightseers and workmen fill the foreground but in the finished oil painting, which was exhibited at the Goupil Salon, London, in 1908, they have been reduced to a single figure. The theatricality of the work was noted, and appreciated, by reviewers. It entered Lady Cowdray's collection in 1912 where it was known as The Shell. Cecilia Powell (op.cit.) in her discussion of the oil painting and the gouache study notes that the latter was offered for sale at Bradford for 200 pounds, and was at one time in the collection of Lord Henry Bentick, Lady Ottoline Morrell's brother.

We are very grateful to Patricia Reed for her assistance in cataloguing this lot.