WHYTE'S IRISH & INTERNATIONAL ART MONDAY 2 DECEMBER 2024 FROM 6PM

104 71 William Crozier HRHA (1930-2011) STILL LIFE WITH PLANT AND BOUQUET oil on canvas 30 by 36in. (76.2 by 91.4cm) Frame Size: 32 by 38.25in. (81.3 by 97.2cm) Provenance: Collection of Bank of Ireland This sparse still life comprising a potted plant and a bouquet of flowers, the latter placed on a table the former suspended against the backdrop, is a bold and theatrical painting that demonstrates the artist’s expert use of vibrant colour, proportion, space and brushstroke. The narrow borders across the base and right-hand side of the composition frame the scene and are a familiar device in his oeuvre, as is the dot motif. Crozier acknowledged the influence his time working in the theatre had on his work with Brian McAvera for the Irish Arts Review in 2003, ”I learnt the skills of scale... of how to make things real... The theatre has had a permanent influence on my painting. I tend to “light”my paintings as they would do in a play or opera I use, consciously or unconsciously, various leitmotifs to unite the space.” Constructions in Colour & Light, Bill Crozier & Brian McAvera, Irish Arts Review (Spring 2003) Vol. 20., no. 1 Born in Scotland but with Irish roots, William Crozier graduated from the Glasgow School of Art in the early 1950s and later moved to London where he successfully exhibited at the ICA, Drian and Arthur Tooth galleries, moving in the same circles as Lucian Freud and Francis Bacon. Also during the decade he visited Paris, which left a lasting impression on him, and in 1953 relocated to Dublin working in the Olympia theatre painting stage sets. There he moved within the Irish literary set counting among his friends Patrick Kavanagh, whose influence helped shape his interpretation of the Irish landscape. Crozier was awarded Premio Lissone in Milan in 1960 and three years later traveled to Spain in the company of Irish poet Anthony Cronin, a trip which greatly impacted his work. He became an Irish citizen at the age of 43 and after two decades teaching, from the 1980s divided his time between homes in Hampshire andWest Cork where his paintings of the Irish landscape became iconic. Retrospectives of the artist’s work were held in the Crawford Art Gallery, Cork and the Royal Hibernian Academy, Dublin in 1991. In 1992 he was elected Aosdána and he won the Oireachtas Gold medal for Painting in Dublin in 1994. He was also an honorary member of the RHA. He died at his home in the UK in 2011 and in 2017 the Irish Museum of Modern Art mounted ‘The Edge of the Landscape’ , a two-part retrospective of his work in Dublin and Cork as part of their Modern Irish Masters Series. His work is found in the national galleries of Ireland, Canada, Poland and Australia, Tate, London and other major collections in Ireland and the UK. €8,000-€12,000 (£6,720-£10,080 approx.) Click here for more images and to bid on this lot71