Peonies and Lilies

Matthew Smith is recognised as one of the greatest pioneers of Modern British art. Often referred to as the ‘English Fauve’, he developed a unique modernist style, which emphasised the flatness of the painting surface by using broad areas of strong colour.

Smith first studied design at Manchester School of Art and then art at the Slade, but he struggled to follow the rigid confines of an academic institution where drawing was favoured over expression. He found the alternative training in France, and by 1910 he had settled in Paris, where he enrolled at Henri Matisse’s school of art, the Atelier Matisse. Although he may have only spent a few weeks at Matisse’s school, the influence of Fauvism is clear in his work: the quick application of paint, the separation of pure colours on the canvas and the recognition of colour as being of equal importance to form.

Smith’s stay in France brought other influences. It is known that he visited the Paris home of the modernist art collectors Gertrude and Leo Stein. There, he would have been introduced to the best works of Matisse, Vuillard, Bonnard, Cézanne, Van Gogh and Van Dongen. By 1911 and 1912 he was showing his first publicly exhibited works at the Salon des Indépendants, where in 1911 it staged the launch of the Cubist movement. Thus, when he had to return to England following the outbreak of the First World War, he had obtained a far greater knowledge of modern artistic trends than almost all of his English contemporaries.

During the time he was away, London had changed and had become a more ‘modern’ city. Roger Fry had staged his Post-Impressionist exhibitions, the Omega workshop had emerged, and Wyndham Lewis’ Vorticist movement had arisen. Taking a studio at Fitzroy Street, Smith responded almost immediately to the wealth of these creative influences.

This outpour of creativity continued into the 1920s, a prolific period for Smith, during which he created some of his finest works. Peonies and Lilies is a particularly strong example of this fruitful period, where he boldly plays with the use of colour, transposing the traditional notion of still life painting. Using a series of rich blues and pinks, which he applies with thick, vigorous brushstrokes, Smith succeeds in creating a work which is not only visually arresting but imbues a wonderful sense of drama and visceral energy.