The Parasol and Pierrot is a strikingly decorative picture: a wonderful period piece, it demonstrates Purvis' talents as a figure painter. This work vividly recalls the world of the 1920s: for the fortunate few it was a golden age of parties and pleasure-seeking, champagne and fancy dress, bobbed hair and ballgowns. One can almost hear the jazzy dance music in the background. Before the First World War Purvis had studied in Glasgow, travelled in Italy and taught drawing in Dundee. Although his subject was a modern one, his approach to it was grounded in earlier art; neither a true portrait, nor a painting telling a story, this is, in effect, the twentieth-century equivalent of the ‘fancy picture’ of earlier times. The model is thought to be Poppy Lowe.

John Milne Purvis, 1885-1961

Born in Perth, Purvis trained at Glasgow School of Art under Francis Newbery. Awarded a travelling scholarship in 1908, he studied the Old Masters in Italy. Purvis's career as Master of Drawing at Dundee School of Art was broken by war service on the Western Front from 1916 to 1919. His best work was produced in the early 1920s and 1930s. In the 1920s he was in touch with Edinburgh circles and employed Poppy Lowe, the noted model of Stanley Curister. In the 1930s Purvis travelled to Spain and North Africa, both of which provided subject-matter for many of his later works. He also pointed many fine watercolours of Scotland.