George Leslie Hunter (British, 1877-1931) Trees 26.4 x 21.5 cm. (10 3/8 x 8 7/16 in.)THE LEYDEN COLLECTIONGeorge Leslie Hunter (British, 1877-1931)Trees inscribed to board by Arthur Leyden 'Painting by/Leslie Hunter 1910/A.T. Leyden' (verso)oil on canvas, laid on board26.4 x 21.5 cm. (10 3/8 x 8 7/16 in.)ProvenanceArthur Leyden and thence by descentThis picture was painted three years before the commercial success of Hunter's first exhibition at art dealer, Alexander Reid's prestigious Glasgow gallery, La Société des Beaux-Arts in 1913.Thanks to Arthur Leyden, it is another rare survivor from this period, ranking in style and date with two other oils, Paris Boulevard by Night and Sunlit Avenue, Northern France (Bill Smith and Jill Marriner, Hunter Revisited, the Life and Art of Leslie Hunter, Atelier Books, Edinburgh, 2012, plates 23 and 24 respectively). The landscape in colour, form, the river or canal and building on the left have more in common with Northern France than Scotland, which is consistent with Hunter's known whereabouts at this time. As in Tulips, French modernist, Édouard Manet (1832-1883) was an early hero. The tone and palette are similar, as is the animation and application of opaque brushstrokes, although the sweeping application in Tulips has given way to shorter strokes.Interestingly, the observations Hunter makes twelve years later in his notebook (datable to circa 1920-1923) about what he fully understands from the art of Paul Cézanne (1839-1906) and Hunter's struggle to balance such aims with his own early painting style based on Manet's technique are as relevant in 1910 as they were in the early 1920s. He underlines key words, their simplicity loaded with meaning:"Painting is the registration of ones colour sensations/There is no such thing as line/There is no such thing as modelling/There are only contrasts/It is because I cannot render my sensations at once! Hence I put on colour again/I put it on as best I can but when I begin I endeavour always to paint with a full impasto like Manet giving the form with the brush." (Hunter's Notebook, Private Collection)