Sir William Russell Flint’s nubile young ladies have come to epitomise the sensual glamour of the first few decades of the twentieth century. Like Hollywood screen goddesses or fashion models, they often strut, pose and recline in various attitudes of sensual abandon. In An Amazon Reproved, however, Flint draws on classical subject matter to render a beautiful but dejected young huntress leaning against her curved bow. Drawn in red chalk, this delicately romantic study is similar in form to a number of the poses that the artist sketched in Studies for Amazons (Private Collection).
The gentle tilt of the Amazon’s head in this present work as well as her slender shoulders and elegant profile pose are all imitated in Studies for Amazons. This red chalk drawing, however, seems highly polished and demands to stand alone in its own right. Flint’s careful shading and delineation of the artfully arranged drapery that cascades from the woman’s enviable form vividly captures a sense of gentle contemplation. The Amazon’s pose, her feet firmly together and the disconsolate slump of her shoulders, makes her appear smaller than the typically masculine depictions of Amazon warriors.
The Amazons were a legendary race of warrior women who were skilled with the bow and at horsemanship. They were believed to have established themselves in Asia Minor after originating from the Caucasus. They invaded Attica and its capital Athens but were repulsed by Thebes. The battle scene is often depicted as a chaotic melee of warriors and horses.1 Flint’s depiction, however, is in keeping with the influence that the Pre-Raphaelites exerted on a number of his figure compositions.
Flint studied at the Royal Institute of Art, Edinburgh and subsequently moved to London taking up freelance illustration commissions for various magazines and publishers. Some of his best known efforts include illustrations for Thomas Malory’s Morte d’Arthur (London, 1910) and Homer’s Odyssey (London, 1924). He cemented his artistic reputation with watercolour landscapes of the British Isles and France, Italy and Spain with many of the latter including references to local customs. On returning to his native Scotland after the Great War, Flint continued to work as a freelance artist and became one of the most sought after artists of his day. It has been written that he ‘combined thought, feeling and knowledge of the subject with confidence and love, and he communicated that love to the spectator in unmistakable terms. Such is the reason for his universal success with artists, connoisseurs and the public in general.’2
Whilst his work won immediate favour with amateur collectors, Flint was also rapidly recognised by societies including the Royal Society of Oil Painters to which he was elected in 1912. He was elected a member of the Royal Society of Painters in Watercolours in 1917, and President of the latter from 1936-56. Knighted in 1947 he was accorded a solo exhibition at the Royal Academy in 1962, the highest distinction that an artist can achieve during his lifetime. Adrian Bury describes how ‘in the infinite variety of temperament, vision, technique, achievement despair and triumph recorded in the long history of art, Sir William Russell Flint takes a unique place. At its best, his work is perfect and without criticism.’3
1 Hall, J., Dictionary of Subjects and Symbols in Art (2nd Ed. 2008).
2 Lewis, R. Biography of Sir William Russell Flint 1880-1969 (Edinburgh, 1980), introduction.
3 Ibid, introduction.
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