George Leslie Hunter (British, 1877-1931) Etaples, 1914 23.5 x 29 cm. (9 1/4 x 11 7/16 in.)THE LEYDEN COLLECTIONGeorge Leslie Hunter (British, 1877-1931)Etaples, 1914 signed 'Hunter' (lower right), inscribed by Arthur Leyden with his New York business address in pencil (verso)oil on panel23.5 x 29 cm. (9 1/4 x 11 7/16 in.)ProvenanceArthur Leyden and thence by descentExhibitedParis, Les Peintres Écossais 1930-1935, Mona Bismarck Foundation, 2004, No. 47Hunter painted on the northern coast of France in 1913 and 1914. In a letter from Scottish artist and Paris correspondent to The Studio, Edward Archibald Taylor (1874-1951) to Dr T.J. Honeyman, he sheds some light on Hunter's artistic progress:"...he had been where Cézanne had worked etc, and he...showed me a number of chalk drawings in colour he had done, quite a departure from the things he had originally shown me." (Bill Smith and Jill Marriner, Hunter Revisited, the Life and Art of Leslie Hunter, Atelier Books, Edinburgh, 2012, p.56)Almost certainly Hunter was referring to where Paul Cézanne (1839-1906) painted in the vicinity of Paris, rather than in Provence. These earlier works by Cézanne from 1873 to 1875 focused on the pictorial patchwork formed by the colour in the landscape, houses and rooftops. Likewise in Étaples, Hunter's beach scenes also form a patchwork but this time the bold colour blocks and flattened perspective are post-impressionist in conception, marking a fundamental shift in Hunter's treatment of Nature.Hunter went ahead with his painting trip to Étaples in August 1914. Arthur had planned to join him for a holiday but with the outbreak of war in Europe he backed out of it; a good decision as it turned out when Hunter duly landed himself in trouble. His biographer, T.J. Honeyman writes: "Hunter's sketching excursions led the excited authorities to look upon him with suspicion. His fresh complexion and blonde hair probably assisted the spy maniacs in their search for Teutonic agents, and he was arrested. He was not actually locked up, and while the local gendarme was engaged in searching his credentials, Hunter, in a panic made his escape and eventually reached Paris."(T.J. Honeyman, Introducing Leslie Hunter, Faber & Faber Ltd, London, 1937, pp.61-62)A year later in 1915, armed with this picture as a souvenir of the trip to Étaples that never was, Arthur moved to New York as the sole agent for Staines Linoleum. The address of the new business at 295 Fifth Avenue, the famous Textile Building is written on the reverse of the panel.