Dahlias, 1941
William Gillies is one of Scotland's most beloved, if lesser known, artists.
He is closely associated with the Edinburgh College of Art where he trained and then taught for some forty years, eventually becoming its Principal in 1959. He was a beneficent influence on a whole generation of artists, including Elizabeth Blackadder and John Houston who were students of his in the early fifties.
Like many of his contemporaries, he travelled to Paris early on in his career. Though impressed by the modern art he encountered there, he remained something of a traditionalist, favouring still life and landscape, especially of the Lothian and Fyfe areas.
In 1970 Gillies was knighted for his services to Scottish Art and given a large retrospective at the Royal Scottish Academy. He was elected Academician of the Royal Academy in 1971.