William Scott (1913-1989) Blue and Black Still Life, 1962

Oil on canvas

86.5 x 112 cm

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Born in Scotland, at the age of 11 his family moved to Enniskillen in Northern Ireland. In 1928 he enrolled at the Belfast School of Art, moving to London three years later to take up a place at the Royal Academy Schools.In 1938, Scott exhibited at the Paris Salon d’Automne, and was elected Sociétaire that same year. 

Scott joined the Army in July 1942, serving firstly with the Royal Army Ordnance Corps and then as a lithographic draughtsman with the Royal Engineers. On leaving the Army, Scott took up the position of Senior Painting Master at the Bath Academy of Art. During the decade Scott made frequent trips to Cornwall and became good friends with many of the St Ives Group. 

Scott’s work moved closer to non-figuration and his first one-man show at the Hanover Gallery in London, which opened in June 1953, included a number of, loosely, abstract paintings. That same year, an extended visit to North America resulted in friendships with New York based artists including Rothko and de Kooning. One of the first British artists to be aware of Abstract Expressionism, the work he saw in America made Scott aware of how much his painting was, and would continue to be, tied to a European artistic tradition. 

In 1972, the Tate Gallery mounted a major retrospective which included more than 125 paintings dating from 1938 onwards. In 1984 Scott was elected a Royal Academician.

Provenance:

Hanover Gallery, London. Justin Knowles, UK. Private collection, UK. John Heather, UK.

David Thomson, UK.

Exhibited:

1962, Seven British Painters, Hanover Gallery, London, cat.no.19.

Literature:

Exhibition catalogue, Seven British Painters, Hanover Gallery, London, 1962, cat.no.19.

Sarah WHITFIELD (ed.). William Scott: Catalogue Raisonné of Oil Paintings, Vol.3, Thames & Hudson, London, 2013, cat.no.493 p.110.