Falchi Arte Moderna, Milan
Private Collection
New Art Centre, London
Bernard Jacobson Gallery, London
Private Collection

Milan, Falchi Arte Moderna, William Scott, October 1972, cat. no.3, illustrated in the catalogue;
Dublin, Kerlin Gallery, William Scott, 11 October - 9 November 1996, cat. no.7.

Bernard Jacobson Gallery, William Scott, Modern British Masters Vol.1, 1990, no.16, illustrated in colour;
Norbert Lynton, William Scott, Thames and Hudson, London, 2004, illustrated plate 216, p.340.

The canvas is in good original condition. There are some tiny lines of craquelure in a few places across the paint surface but the surface is in good overall condition. There is no sign of retouching under ultra-violet light. Held in a simple wooden frame. Please telephone the department on 020 7293 5381 if you have any questions regarding the present work.
"In response to your inquiry, we are pleased to provide you with a general report of the condition of the property described above. Since we are not professional conservators or restorers, we urge you to consult with a restorer or conservator of your choice who will be better able to provide a detailed, professional report. Prospective buyers should inspect each lot to satisfy themselves as to condition and must understand that any statement made by Sotheby's is merely a subjective, qualified opinion. Prospective buyers should also refer to any Important Notices regarding this sale, which are printed in the Sale Catalogue.
NOTWITHSTANDING THIS REPORT OR ANY DISCUSSIONS CONCERNING A LOT, ALL LOTS ARE OFFERED AND SOLD AS IS" IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE CONDITIONS OF BUSINESS PRINTED IN THE SALE CATALOGUE."

The present work is registered with the William Scott Archive as no.723.
Sarah Whitfield is currently preparing the Catalogue Raisonne of works in oil by William Scott.  The William Scott Foundation would like to hear from owners of any work by the artist so that these can be included in this comprehensive catalogue or in future projected catalogues.  Please write to Sarah Whitfield c/o Sotheby's, 20th Century British Art Department, 34-35 New Bond Street, London W1A 2AA.

Scott's return to still life painting was perhaps not what his public might have expected after the paintings of the 1960s. Indeed when the first major opportunity to view them arose, at Scott's Tate retrospective in 1972, the critical response was mixed (Robert Melville's description of Linear Forms II as 'excessively aesthetic' is not untypical of the reactions), and perhaps their presentation in the context of an exhibition of an artist whose work most critics would have felt they knew very𒈔 well was likely to cause some puzzlement. And yet in the decades since their inception, it is perhaps these later still life paintings that have come to symbolise so much of Scott's painting and vision, drawing together the many strands of his previous work and distilling it into a series of images that still feel as fresh todaᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚ⁤⁤⁤⁤ᩚ⁤⁤⁤⁤ᩚ⁤⁤⁤⁤ᩚ𒀱ᩚᩚᩚy as forty years ago when the first was painted.

Their subjects are unmistakeable, the pans, bowls and objects of the still life paintings Scott had produced in the years after the end of WWII and into the 1950s. In the same ways that he had developed the compositional vocabulary built on the basic forms and elements of kitchen paraphernalia through that period until they became removed from their original forms and were released into the abstract paintings of the 1960s, so their return was never likely to be simply a rerun. These elements are here simplified to their most basic forms, cutting them loose from any associations they may have and allowing them to operate in a purer way. In their physical scale, these paintings are big, and the use of one dominant colour usually paired with black and white gives them a presence which reproduction never captures. Although the texture of the paint is very different from the richly layered and scraped surfaces of the 1950s, there is no less lushness in the handling of the paint, but the drier surfa🍌ces and the wider areas of single colour show a different aim, one of allowing the colour to flood the image. Close inspection often shows the changes Scott made in the making of each painting, incorporating each alteration into the whole just as he always had done. However, unlike many artists' revisiting of earlier motifs, Scott had managed to find a way in which he could produce large paintings of simplified or abstracted forms within a limited but rich palette with notable painterly qualities that seemed to stand apart from his earlier work.

Beginning in 1969, this series of paintings is a remarkable group, and is perhaps one of the rare example🌞s of an a♍rtist in later career creating a body of work which both draws upon earlier precedent but also develops a very specific voice of its own.