Radical Perspectives: Professor Elizabeth Cowling on 'Femme au Violon' by Roderic O'Conor

By Elizabeth Cowling, 08.02.2025

Roderic O'Conor, 'Femme au Violon', (1911). Courtesy of Dr Bernard Jaffa.

In this new series of films, the Fleming Wyfold Foundation's Curator Emeritus James Knox asks professors of art history to talk about a work from the Fleming Collections's exhibition, 'The Scottish Colourists: Radical Perspectives', showing at Dovecot, Edinburgh (7th February - 28th June 2025). 

 

 

Professor Elizabeth Cowling shares insights about 'Femme au Violon' (1911) by Roderic O'Conor.

 

Elizabeth Cowling is Professor Emerita in History of Art at the University of Edinburgh. A scholar of Cubism, Primitivism, Surrealism, and Picasso. Her books include Picasso: Style and Meaning (2002) and Visiting Picasso: The Notebooks and Letters of Roland Penrose (2006). She curated Picasso’s Late Sculpture: ‘Woman’ (2009) and Picasso Portraits (2016-17). She co-curated Dada and Surrealism Reviewed (1978), On Classic Ground: Picasso, Léger, De Chirico and the New Classicism, 1910-1930 (1990), Picasso: Sculptor/Painter (1994), Matisse Picasso (2002-3), Picasso Looks at Degas (2010-11), and the Met exhibition Cubism and the Trompe l’Oeil Tradition (2022-23) She is currently the lead scholar on two major Research Center digital projects. (Metropolitan Museum of Art)

 

Roderic O'Conor (1860-1940) was an Irish painter who spent much of his later career in Paris and as part of the Pont-Aven movement. O'Conor's work demonstrates Impressionist and Post-Impressionist influence. This painting typifies O'Conor's interest in interior scenes depicting female models using limited palettes.