Leo Webster
Specialist
Lot 195AR
Mabel Gear(British, 1900-1997)Black and White - A Pair of Poodles
8 November 2023, 14:00 GMT
EdinburghSold for £2,560 inc. premium
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Harriet Stubbs
Cataloguer
Mabel Gear (British, 1900-1997)
Black and White - A Pair of Poodles
signed 'M. GEAR' (lower right)
oil on canvas
39 x 29.5cm (15 3/8 x 11 5/8in).
signed 'M. GEAR' (lower right)
oil on canvas
39 x 29.5cm (15 3/8 x 11 5/8in).
Footnotes
Gear was born at Ashford Rectory in Suffolk. She studied at the Colchester School of Art, and at Bushy in Hertfordshire, where her tutor H. Septimus Power, an Australian animal and equestrian artist greatly influenced her.
Between 1921 and 1928 Gear exhibited at the Royal Academy (11), and regularly at the Royal Institute of Oil Painters (25), the Royal Institute of Painters in Watercolour (10), the Royal Society of British Artists (2), the Royal Scottish Academy (1), the Society of Women Artists (3), the Walker Art Gallery (8), Goupil Gallery and in Sweden and Paris. She was elected to the ROI in 1925, and RI in 1927.
Upon Gear's election to the ROI and RI, her ability at painting animals and her popularity were quickly recognised by the postcard publishers Valentine & Sons of Dundee and London. She became their biggest single selling artist. Her popularity continued and she worked extensively on other commercial commissions for The Medici Society, Raphael Tuck and Vivian Mansell. Like Maud Earl, Gear, produced work for Black and White whisky's advertising campaigns.
Gear worked almost exclusively in watercolour, and to a lesser extent gouache, working over pencil with added white body colour, ideal for reproduction in print. Her oils are therefore quite rare.