GEORGE LESLIE HUNTER (SCOTTISH 1877-1931) PORTRAIT OF MISS MABEL COUPER IN EVERGREEN Pen and ink and coloured chalk (53.5cm x 33cm (21in x 13in)) Provenance: Christie's Scotland, Four Scottish Colourists, 7 December 1989, lot 348 where purchased by the current owner Literature: Bill Smith and Jill Marriner, Hunter Revisited: The Life and Art of Leslie Hunter, Atelier Books, Edinburgh, 2012, p.171, repr. col. fig.151 Note: Hunter came to know C. B. Cochran when the latter's production of Evergreen was presented at the King's Theatre, Glasgow in 1930. Mabel Couper was a member of its cast and this work depicts her in character. As Bill Smith and Jill Marriner have remarked 'Hunter...worked from publicity photographs, transforming the scene or figure by charging it with vitality in his sketch. This can be seen clearly in his ink sketch of Mabel Couper when compared with the corresponding photograph. Through his bold line and keen sense of pattern, Hunter captures an excitement and theatrical presence which the photograph fails to convey.' (op.cit., p.172)