George Leslie Hunter (British, 1877-1931) The Blue Teacup, circa 1928-9 55.2 x 45.4 cm. (21 3/4 x 17 7/8 in.).THE LEYDEN COLLECTIONGeorge Leslie Hunter (British, 1877-1931)The Blue Teacup, circa 1928-9 inscribed by Arthur Leyden 'By Leslie Hunter/about the 1920's/A.T. Leyden' (to backing paper, verso)oil on board55.2 x 45.4 cm. (21 3/4 x 17 7/8 in.).ProvenanceArthur Leyden and thence by descentLiterature & MediaBill Smith and Jill Marriner, Hunter Revisited, the Life and Art of Leslie Hunter, Atelier Books, Edinburgh, 2012, p.156Palin on the Colourists, Directed by Eleanor Yule, First aired on BBC 2, 2000; BBC DVD, 2008 BBC Worldwide Ltd. After viewing successive Matisse exhibitions at Bernheim-Jeune, Paris in 1922, 1923 and 1924, Hunter had been more than ready to push forward. When he re-located to Provence in the South France in 1927, it inspired a life-affirming liberation of his own sense of bold colour, form and pattern. By late summer 1928 he was feeling confident that his work had reached the kind of level that would benefit from showing in New York, where he knew Matisse, Picasso et al were gaining a significant following. He was also free to organise it himself as crucially his contract with art dealers Reid & Lefèvre exempted him from paying commission to them where the United States was concerned.Gathering together his best work, he sent it in advance to Arthur. On 19 November 1928, he sailed to New York to reside with Arthur and his family for six months while he scouted for a gallery to exhibit his work. Peploe and Fergusson had recently shown at Kraushaar Art Galleries, but it was Ferargil Galleries who specialised primarily in American art that offered Hunter his much longed-for solo exhibition in New York. In the meantime, Hunter's compulsion to paint continued and this he carried out in Arthur's apartment. According to Arthur's daughter Peggie, The Blue Teacup was painted there.The Ferargil exhibition opened in April 1929 to much fanfare and enthusiastic newspaper reviews including in The New York Times by no less than Lloyd Goodrich (1897-1987) who went on to become Director of The Whitney Museum of American Art.Will Irwin (1873-1948), Hunter's friend from San Francisco days, a journalist of international renown wrote the introduction to the catalogue. He commented on meeting Hunter over the years in New York, Paris, London and Glasgow:"I had laughed with him many times over these recurrent meetings of ours before I realised how much the boy I knew and starved with in San Francisco was coming to mean in modern art."(Bill Smith and Jill Marriner, Hunter Revisited, the Life and Art of Leslie Hunter, Atelier Books, Edinburgh, 2012, p.151)The Blue Teacup, is very much Hunter's bold statement that he has arrived in his naturalised country demonstrating a firm grip on what it means to be modern. And this was in no small part, thanks to the unfailing support of his cousin Arthur Leyden.