Adam's The Antoinette and Patrick J.Murphy Collection 23rd October 2019

150 137 WILLIAM SCOTT CBE RA (1913-1989) Figure Landscape Forms (1957) Gouache, 53 x 73cm (20 x 28.7“) Signed Provenance: With David Anderson Gallery, New York; with Martha Jackson Gallery, New York. Exhibited: Banbridge, William Scott in Ireland , F.E.McWilliam Gallery and Studio, March - September 2009, Cat No. 13. Literature: Denise Ferran, William Scott in Ireland, F.E.McWilliam Gallery and Studio, 2009, illus p.20 € 25,000 - 35,000 William Scott was born in Greenock, Scotland in 1913. In 1924 he moved to Enniskillen in Northern Ireland, the hometown of his father. Two years after his arrival, Scott’s father arranged for his young son to take evening class- es at the Enniskillen Technical School as a special pupil. Here, Scott came under the tutelage of artist Kathleen Bri- dle whose guidance had a significant impact upon the young artist. Following a stint at Belfast School of Art, Scott went on to the Royal Academy in London. During the thirties Scott and his wife, fellow artist Mary Lucas spent much in Italy and France. It was in France that Scott developed a fascination with the still-life paintings of Cezanne and Braque and had his work included in the 1938 edition of the Paris Salon d’Automne. In the years leading up to the outbreak of World War II Scott lived briefly in Dublin before joining the British Army. Following the war, while teaching at the Bath Academy of Art he developed affiliations with the St. Ives milieu and entered into a phase of stylistic experimentation and development. A temporary shift towards a more abstract visual vocabulary was influenced by Scott’s awareness of abstract expressionism which he encountered first hand when he travelled to New York and became acquainted with several artists including Willem de Kooning and Mark Rothko. A firm friendship developed between Scott and Rothko and the latter visited England in 1957 and stayed at the Scott family home in Somerset. This large, signed gouache on paper dates from the same year as Rothko’s visit and was produced during a particu- larly fruitful period for Scott. It was in the late fifties that his work began to garner considerable critical attention and he would go on to represent Britain at the Venice Biennale in 1958. This work demonstrates Scott’s transitory move away from the still life genre and domestic scenes showing the vistas of a kitchen table. Instead, we see a composition that evokes a landscape. The Intersecting lines that dominate this composition form an uneven grid and give this lyrical painting a cartographic quality whilst also evoking an aerial view of a patchwork of fields or the organic order of a dry stone wall. The work evinces Scott’s desire to create a synthesis of objects and space and is notably evocative of the work of the work of Peter Lanyon, who drew much inspiration from the coastal landscapes of Cornwall. As well as showing a move away from pictorial elements this work is also distinguished by a potent vibrancy that is achieved through Scott’s use of a luminous blue gouache applied with exuberance.