WHYTE'S IMPORTANT IRISH ART 28 November 2022 at 6pm

80 48 William Scott CBE RA (1913-1989) STILL LIFE WITH SAUCEPAN, 1968 gouache signed and dated lower right 23 by 36in. (58.4 by 91.4cm) Frame Size: 33 by 45.5in. (83.8 by 115.6cm) Provenance: Sotheby’s, 10 March 1993, lot 95; Private collection William Scott is recognised as one of the most significant artists of the twentieth century. His reputation is based on his ability to abstract from ordinary objects, recognising the profound potential of the familiar. Scott was born in Greenock in Scotland, and his family went to live in his father’s native Enniskillen some years later. After initial education as an artist, he subsequently migrated to London to hone his training at the Royal Academy Schools. Over the decades, Scott explored a range of themes - from landscape to the nude - but he was predominantly interested in still life, a traditional genre that he revolutionised. Scott’s still life imagery drew on the kinds of basic domestic objects familiar in any working class kitchen during his formative years. These provided for him a range of forms that he presented in his work, laid out as though distributed across a table top. While his work was always stylised, the contents are fairly recognisable in his earliest work, becoming increasingly abstracted as time went on, until eventually, in the mid 1960s, he distilled his imagery into pure abstraction in the celebrated Berlin Blues series. However, applying a limited range of colours, his work continued to straddle the interconnection between familiar forms in the tangible world, and their potential for abstraction as an arrangement of flat profiles on a surface. The artist’s still life images changed radically over time, becoming increasingly measured, spacious and airy by the late 1960s. Such works are visually harmonious and yet embody a vital tension related to colour combinations and the rhythms of forms across the picture surface. The gouache painting, Still Life with Saucepan (1968), is an effective example. It is one of a series of similar works that explore alternative colour combinations for their impact. As can be seen, the abstracted arrangement draws on the distinct profile of each object. Those on the left are deliberately ‘cut off’, as though continued beyond the limits of the picture plane. This device was adopted by artists in the late nineteenth century, influenced at the time both by the recent exposure to photography and to Japanese prints. The effect was to create a sense of immediacy and activity, as though the image was just a glance from a broader environment. This device was applied also by artists like William Scott in the twentieth century, imbuing a sense of continuity beyond the surface of the picture into the space inhabited by the viewer. Tangible experience and abstraction were thus correlated; the viewer could recognise the realism of the flattened shapes on the canvas, or note the abstract possibilities of the world around them. Dr Yvonne Scott, November 2022 €60,000-€80,000 (£51,720-£68,970 approx.) Click here for more images and to bid on this lot48