ADAM'S IMPORTANT IRISH ART 24th September 2025

64 38 WILLIAM SCOTT RA (1913-1989) Grey Pan on Ochre (1975) Gouache, 56 x 76cm (22 x 29 ¾”) Signed & dated (19)’75 Archive No.871 Provenance: With Bernard Jacobsen Gallery, New York, label verso; with Annandale Gallery, Sidney, Australia, label verso. Exhibited: Santa Barbara, CA, ‘ William Scott Gouaches ’, Santa Barbara Museum of Art, 30th Jan 1976 to 22 February 1976 and touring to New York, Martha Jackson Gallery, 13 March 1976 to 3 April 1976; Paris, F.I.A.C 16 October 1976 to 24 Octo- ber 1976; Perth, Aus., Perth International Drawing Contest, 30 March 1977; Texas, S.G.Matthews Gallery 18 October 1977 to 21 November 1977; Sydney, Aus., William Scott Paintings and Drawings, Annandale Galleries, 11 May to 12 June 1999, no.2 Literature: Bernard Jacobson Gallery, London William Scott. Modern Masters Vol. 1, 1990, no.37, illustrated. € 30,000 - 50,000 William Scott is one of a select few artists whose main sub- ject matter was still life. It’s a distinguished group, includ- ing Chardin, Braque, Morandi, and one could add Scott’s avowed exemplar, Cézanne, as an honorary member. For all of them, still life was a gateway into the world rather than an end in itself. Renowned for the continuity and consistency of his work, Scott was nonetheless remarkably open to new ideas and influences. Without this openness, he might well have grown up to be a very capable artist in a traditional vein. Instead, he always took on the challenge offered by what he encountered artistically. So in the early 1950s, meeting Rothko, de Kooning and other of the Abstract Expression- ists, he immediately engaged with their ideas, immediately seeing Rothko particularly as a major artist, for example. Visiting the palaeolithic cave paintings at Lascaux in the mid-1950s, he realised how much he could learn from these precursors, as with the Roman mural painters whose work he saw at Pompeii in 1957. And a major show of Ancient Egyptian art at the Royal Academy London in 1962 made an indelible impression. All of these experiences chimed with aspects of his own sensibility and galvanised him creatively. The rigorous styli- sation, prescribed colour palette and ritualised presenta- tion of Egyptian art, for example, are thoroughly in tune with his approach to still life as it developed from naturalis- tic beginnings to the spare elegance evident in both these works, painted some seven years apart. By the late 1960s, Scott had been through two phases of pure abstraction, and from then on he remained attached to relatively recognisable motifs, as with the kitchen im- plements here. While he only visited Japan in 1976, his work and indeed his own statements had long confirmed his interest in the role of empty space in a composition. Though the ochre-inflected, expansive, luminous grounds in these paintings belong entirely to his own palette, they recall his appreciation of the blankets of colour in Rothko. The poised serenity of both these compositions suggests a painter at the peak of his abilities. Scott was born in Greenock, Scotland, but the family set- tled in his father’s native town, Enniskillen. His art teacher, Kathleen Bridle, encouraged his talent and he attend- ed night classes, then Belfast College of Art and won a scholarship to the Royal Academy School in London. He spent time in France before the outbreak of war drove him back to England, during which he served with the Royal Engineers. In the postwar years he went on to teach and establish himself as a progressive artist, becoming a key figure in contemporary painting. He exhibited extensively internationally, achieving wide acclaim, and his work is included in numerous collections public and private. Aidan Dunne, August 2025