Joseph Milner Kite (1862-1945)
Portrait of a Breton Girl
Oil on canvas, 40.5 x 30.5cm (16 x 12")
Signed
Exhibited:"Peintres Anglais en Bretagne" Exhibition, Musée de Pont-Aven, June - September 2004 No.36
In its relaxed brushwork, radiant colouring, and effect of dramatic sunlight, and its sympathy for its subject, a little Breton girl in bonnet and white collar, this is a quintessential example of one of Milner-Kite's portraits or figure studies, painted most likely at Concarneau in the early twentieth century. Strong sunshine falls upon the neck and shoulder of the girl, highlighting the healthy colouring of her cheeks and the dazzling white (and pink) bonnet and white collar, and casting a shadow on the front of her face. The figure is dramatically set against freely-brushed green foliage, while a little plant grows in front of her, suggesting her immersion in verdant nature.
Always striking in Milner-Kite's work is his cheerful palette: vibrant blues, pinks, greens, reds, umbers, siennas and whites.
Joseph Milner-Kite (1862-1945)
Joseph Milner-Kite was an English artist of the late 19th and early 20th Century who became a long term resident in France, and who was a central figure in the artists' colonies of Pont-Aven and Concarneau in Brittany. He was a friend of several Irish artists, notably John Lavery, and Roderic O'Connor his close contemporary, with whom he became a lifelong friend. His path crossed with many other Irish artists; indeed, he is a key figure in understanding the work of W.J. Leech, Katherine McCausland, Aloysius O'Kelly and Samuel Taylor in Concarneau in the early 20th Century.
Milner-Kite developed a vibrant Impressionist style. His Breton work distinctively combines free impressionist brushwork and radiant sunlight, and a 'Fauve' palette, with mid-19th Century Realism, his insubstantial figures casting substantial shadows upon the ground.
Milner-Kite was born in Taunton, Devon in 1862, the son of a chemist. He moved to London in 1881, then to Antwerp, where he was a student at the Academie Royale, 1881-83. he spent four seasons in the 'Antiek' class. He was an exact contemporary of Walter Osborne at Antwerp, and is said to have met O'Connor there. In 1883 Kite moved to Paris, studying at the Academie Julian in the atelier of Bouguereau and Laurens. Here he met Lavery. Kite made painting excursions to Normandy to Pont-Aven in 1886, Grez-sur-Loing in 1889, ad lived in Tangiers, 1887-89. He met up with O'Connor in Paris and Grez. In 1889, Kite settled permanently in Paris, living in Montparnasse. During the late eighties, he exhibited in England, and at the Paris Salon, and was an exhibitor at the Salon National in the nineties. In the early 20th Century, Kite and O'Connor were regular habitues of 'le Chat Blanc' cafe in the circle of other expatriate artists and writers, including Gerald Kelly, Somerset Maugham and Clive Bell.
Much of Kite's career was spent in Brittany, and he spent severl winters in Concarneau. he painted scenes of the fishing fleet and market of fishermen at work in Breton festivals, as well as portraits and landscapes. Most characteristic of Kite are his informal studies of barefoot girls and fisherboys, standing at the water's edge, casting enticing reflections in the sea ... Undoubtably his relaxed, colourful pintings provided a formative influence on O'Kelly, Taylor and other Irish artists at Concarneau.
Kite met up with Lavery in Beg-Meil in the summer of1904, and he retained contact with O'Connor in Paris through the 1920's and thirties. After O'Connor's death in 1940, Kite wrote to his widdow Rennee : ' I always considered him my best friend. I cherished both the man and his talent,' (J. Benington 'Roderic O'Connor' 1992, p.155)
Julian Campbell
