WHYTE'S IRISH & INTERNATIONAL ART 27th September 2021 at 6pm

128 105 Peter Howson OBE (Scottish, b. 1958) BRIDGE TO NOWHERE oil on canvas signed lower left 72 by 48in. (182.9 by 121.9cm) Frame Dimensions: 72 by 48in. (182.9 by 121.9cm) There is a shallow indentation of the canvas visible on close inspection in the upper left quadrant of the work. Otherwise very good condition. Peter Howson was born in London of Scottish parents and moved with his family to Prestwick, Ayrshire, when he was four. His work has encompassed a number of themes. His early works are typified by very masculine working class men, most famously in The Heroic Dosser (1987) and in the present work Bridge To Nowhere. Later, in 1993, he was commissioned by the Imperial War Museum of London, to be the official war artist for the Bosnian War. Here he produced some of his most shocking and controversial work detailing the atrocities which were taking place at the time, like Plum Grove. He was the official war painter during the Kosovo War for the The Times, London. In more recent years his work has exhibited strong religious themes which some say is linked to the treatment of his alcoholism and drug addiction at the Castle Craig Hospital in Peebles in 2000, after which he returned to Christianity - his parents had been very religious and his first painting, aged 6, was a Cruciufixion scene. His work has appeared in other media, with his widest exposure arguably for a British postage stamp he designed in 1999 to celebrate engineering achievements for the millennium. In addition his work has been used on album covers by Live (Throwing Copper), The Beautiful South (Quench) and Jackie Leven (Fairytales for Hardmen). His work is exhibited in many major collections. Howson was appointed Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) in the 2009 Birthday Honours. In November 2010, BBC Scotland aired a documentary named “The Madness of Peter Howson”which followed the final stages of the completion of a grand commission for show in the renovated St Andrew’s Cathedral and also dealt with Howson’s struggle with mental illness and Asperger’s syndrome. In September 2014, Howson suggested he would hand back his OBE, predominantly because of his dislike of British foreign policy but it is not clear if he ever did so. €5,000-€7,000 (£4,270-£5,980 approx.) Click here for more images and to bid on this lot105