Introduction by - Osbert Lancaster

THE work of Giles, like that of all great artists, has many aspects. There is Giles the nature-lover whose cows have frequently, and almost always favourably, been compared to those of Cuyp. Giles the landscapist who lives in the Constable country and carries on the best traditions of Gainsborough in that painter’s birthplace. There is Giles the recorder of intimate domestic interiors who combines the scrupulous fidelity of a Vermeer with the warm affection of a Chardin. Examples of his works In all these genres will be found in the present volume.

But of all the roles which the artist assumes my favourite remains Giles the child-lover. Has any artist ever caught the fragrant, elusive charm of early childhood with such unvarying success? Reynolds, perhaps, in 'The Heavenly Choir.' But then by confining himself solely to heads, Reynolds deliberately shirked the issue in a way of which Giles would be ashamed. All Giles’s children have a full complement of limbs; indeed, occasionally, one is not quite certain that some of them have not exceeded their quota.

Kate Greenaway? Possibly, but there is in Giles’s work a vein of charming fantasy which she, I think, never quite managed to achieve. Indeed, some people have been heard to wish that the muter would devote himself exclusively to child portraIture, and while I cannot approve of any limitation of his genius, I can appreciate their sentiments.

Nevertheless, so great is his energy, so protean his accomplishment, that I am confident that sooner or later not only will his usual output be steadily maintained, but we shall be privileged from time to time to see on the walls of Burlington House a new 'Bubbles ', a 20th Century 'Cherry Ripe' above the familIar signature.. . . Giles

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