Two
young Scottish women wear smart business jackets and fashionable tartan
skirts. They are depicted as discerning Art Connoisseurs evaluating a
small bronze dancer. The Artist Helen Paxton Brown incorporates them at
the top of a composition of stacked silhouetted graphic arts objects,
such as a sword, a wooden painter's palette with brushes, a
lithographer's press and roller, bagpipes, a pen and an inkwell, a
fruit-on-the-vine, and a nude male. All elements of the drawing are
meticulously rendered in precise detail. The small bronze dancer, for
example, is only one inch tall but is perfect in its proportion and line
of action.
The work is masterfully rendered in minute detail using
the finest thin black lines, showcasing extremely small and precise
detail. Her composition is quite complex as well and demonstrates the
remarkable technical skill of the artist.
We are unsure of the date,
but the subjects' short dresses may suggest it is closer to mid-century
than the turn-of-the-century. Yet all other aspects of the work suggest
it is from 1915 - 1925. Despite the subject's short skirts, one could
make the case that the work was executed closer to the turn of the 20th
century since that was when both Jessie M. King and her friend Helen
Paxton Brown were in their prime—the look and feel of the paper point to
this work being around 100 years old. Clearly, the work should be
celebrated for its artistic skill and for featuring women as critics,
not men.
If it were done from 1915- 1925 .. that would make it more significant.
Additionally, it came from the collection of Jessie M. King who died in 1949.
Titled
" The Critic," I DEDICATE THIS DRAWING TO E. A. TAYLOR, Lower center -
Ernest Archibald Taylor, better known as E A Taylor, was a Scottish
artist, an oil painter, watercolourist and etcher, and a designer of
furniture, interiors and stained glass. He was also the husband of famed
Scottish Female Illustrator Jessie M. King. . Unsigned. Framed under
glass 21.25 x 15.25 . The work came from the collection of Jessie M.
King who died in 1949. Pen and ink on paper with silver metallic paint
highlights
From: Wikipedia
Helen Paxton Brown (1876 – 20 March
1956) also known as "Nell", was an artist associated with the Glasgow
Girls. Born in Hillhead, Glasgow to a Scottish father and English
mother[1] and she spent most of her life in Glasgow. Best known for her
painting and embroidering she also worked in a range of mediums such as
leather, book binding and also painted china.
Education and career

Brown studied at Glasgow School of Art (GSA) from 1894 to 1901 under
directorship of the progressive Fra. H Newbery.[2] She was a student of
Ann Macbeth at GSA and then went on to teach art embroidery to teachers
at GSA from 1904 to 1907 (embroidery being an important part of GSA
craft at that time) and then book binding from 1911 to 1913. It was
whilst studying at GSA that she met her good friend Jessie M. King who
she shared a studio flat with at 101 St Vincent Street, Glasgow from
around 1898 until 1907 when King got married. The women's friendship was
longlasting and strong despite the different trajectories of their
careers. King attracted international acclaim but despite some early
notice Brown had less success. The two women often modelled for each
other and were inseparable companions during the years they lived
together.[3]

After GSA Brown went to Paris to attend sketching classes and was an
admirer of the free style of French Impressionists and would continue to
visit Paris throughout her career. Her work mainly captures people out
enjoying life, capturing atmosphere and café scenes (reflecting her
interest in fashion and clothes), but she also painted landscapes and
flowers too.

She is quoted as saying that she chose embroidery because she enjoyed
"playing with colour" but also because it would sell as "art for art's
sake is the road to starvation nowadays".[4] She was reportedly
vivacious and noted for her witty wisecracks[5]

In the 1900s Patrick Geddes and Fra Newberry led a number of Scottish
masques and pageants relating to Pan-Celtic events involving a range of
Arts and Crafts designers from Edinburgh and Glasgow. Helen Paxton
Brown was involved in the "historical" pageant production at the
University of Glasgow.[6]
Exhibitions and commissions
Glasgow School of Art

Brown joined "The Glasgow Society of Artists" (started by physician
Alexander Frew, husband of painter Bessie MacNicol) which women could
join unlike the all-male Glasgow Art Club. Although short-lived, the
society provided an alternative for those painters dissatisfied with the
Glasgow establishment.[3] She was also a member of the Glasgow Society
of Lady Artists from 1905 and became an honorary member in 1948 where
her work could often be found as well as at the Glasgow Art Institute.

From 1920s Brown started using more bright colours and bolder designs
in both her painting and embroidery. This development was shown in a
joint exhibition with Jessie M. King at the Glasgow Society of Lady
Artists’ exhibition in April 1931 called "Spring in Three Room"[7] which
not only showed their paintings but saw them taking over three rooms
which were decorated in bright yellows and creams showing different home
decoration, in stark contrast to the then contemporary style of dark
furniture. Jessie M. King and Paxton Brown exhibited their work on
several occasions together.