Girl in a Wood

Robert Sivell was born in Paisley and studied at the Glasgow Shool of Art. Just after the First World War he co-founded the Glasgow Society of Painters and Sculptors with his close friends Archibald McGlashan and James Cowrie, who were equally rebellious and independent-minded young artists. He married Isobel Sayers of Kirkcudbright and settled there in 1920. In 1936 he became Principal of Painting and Drawing at Gray's School of Art, Aberdeen, where Alberto Morrocco was one of his students. On his retiral in 1954 he returned to live in Kirkcudbright.   This charming portrait of Sivell's daughter, Elspeth, probably dates to around 1935 when the artist and his family were still living near Kirkcudbright. He was a prolific portrait and figure painter. A large portrait of Provost Robb of Kirkcudbright, reminiscent of a mural in scale, hangs in the Tolbooth Art Centre. A collection of over 120 of Sivell's works are held in the collection at Aberdeen Art Gallery and Museum, and his best-known work is the large mural which decorates the Aberdeen University Students Union.