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signed l.l.: Arthur. Melville

watercolour with bodycolour

PROVENANCE

Christie's, 26 November 1997, lot. 536;
private collection
EXHIBITED

London, Royal Society of Painters in Watercolours, 1900, no. 49;
London, Royal Society of Painters in Watercolours, 1900, no. 49;
Newcastle-Upon-Tyne, Laing Art Gallery, Memorial Exhibition, 1906, no. 37;
London, Royal Institute, The Collected Works of Arthur Melville R.W.S., January - February 1907, no. 67;
Nottingham, Castle Museum and Art Gallery, Memorial Exhibition, 1907, no. 21;
London, Whitechapel Art Gallery, 1908, no. 133;
Glasgow, Glasgow Art Gallery and Museum, Glasgow Art Gallery and Museum Autumn Exhibition, no. 268
LITERATURE AND REFERENCES

Agnes Ethel Mackay, Arthur Melville: Scottish Impressionist (1855-1904), 1951, p. 130, repr. pl. 21;
Iain Gale, Arthur Melville, 1996, pp. 87, 88, 99
CATALOGUE NOTE

'The cock fight was Melville's last major watercolour. Exhibited in 1900, it was painted around that time, from sketches made during his trip to the orient in 1882. The subject is a group of men, seated in a Arab courtyard, their concentration focused on a cock fight. What marks this picture out in particular from Melville's previous work though, is the fact that he has carefully scraped out the images of the cocks themselves. Seen in relation to the rest of his ouevre, the reason for this becomes evident. Without the cocks the tension within the structure of the picture becomes heightened to an unprecedented degree. The eye is guided across the picture plane, from the arch of the building down to the eyes of the chief figure. It is this man's face, specifically the very point of his gaze, which now becomes the focus of the painting, rather than, as previously the case, the fight itself. With this masterly stroke, extraordinarily advanced for its time, by which the painting is transformed from an anecdotal narrative into a study of emotion. Melville created a picture of quite extraordinary psychological impact and, quite possibly, the most important watercolour he ever painted.' (private correspondence from Iain Gale, 1997).