William Scott 1913-1989

Private collection

Kestner-Gesellschaft, Hannover, William Scott , 2 June – 17 July 1960 cat. no. 32 ( Untitled , 1958). This exhibition then toured as follows: Museum am Ostwall, Dortmund, 11 September – 2 October 1960, Stadtische Galerie, Munich, 12 January – 5 February 1961
Kunsthalle, Bern, Victor Pasmore William Scott , 12 July – 18 August 1963, cat. no. 20 ( Collage , 1958 Gouache and collage on canvas 90 x 152 Coll: the artist)
Ulster Museum, Belfast, William Scott , 12 September – 5 October 1963, cat. no. 63 ( Collage 1958 Gouache and collage on canvas 36 x 60 Signed W. Scott Lent by the Artist)

Martha Jackson Gallery, New York
The Artist
Private Collection

Norbert Lynton, William Scott, Thames & Hudson, London, 2004, p.175
William Scott: Catalogue Raisonne of Oil Paintings, edited by Sarah Whitfield, published by Thames and Hudson in association with the William Scott Foundation, no. 213

The Artist

Hanover Gallery, London

Michael Trevor Williams

The Artist

Private Collection

William Scott Catalogue Raisonné of Oil Paintings , 2013, edited by Sarah Whitfield: No.238 Volume 2, p.90

Mary Scott
Private collection

William Scott , exhibition catalogue, Berkeley Square Gallery, London, 1988, n.p., illustrated in colour ( as Brown Still Life , 1958) (first illustration)
William Scott and Friends,  exhibition catalogue, Osborne Samuel, London,  June – July 2013 (illustrated on cover)
Sarah Whitfield (ed.), William Scott Catalogue Raisonné of Oil Paintings , published by Thames & Hudson, 2013, No.358, Volume 2

Berkeley Square Gallery, London, William Scott , 26 September-15 October 1988, no cat. nos., illustrated in colour (as Brown Still Life , 1958)
Bernard Jacobson Gallery, London, William Scott: A Retrospective , 3 April-11 May 1997 (as Brown Still Life , 1957)
Kerlin Gallery, Dublin, William Scott , 9 October-2 November 1998, no. 2 (as Brown Still Life , 1957)
Osborne Samuel, London, William Scott and Friends, June – July 2013

Estate of the artist and thence by descent

William Scott Catalogue Raisonné of Oil Paintings , 2013, edited by Sarah Whitfield: No.394 Volume 2

This painting is unsigned, it was William Scott’s practice to only sign works when they were sold.

The Artist
Private collection, Family of the Artist, 1982

Sarah Whitfield (ed.), William Scott Catalogue Raisonné of Oil Paintings , published by Thames & Hudson, 2013, No.427, Volume 2

This painting is unsigned, it was William Scott’s practice to only sign works when they were sold. This was gifted to his son in 1982

Gimpel Fils, London 
Galerie Angst + Orny, Munich, 1976
Christie’s, London, 24 May 2012, lot 171
Private Collection, UK

Munich, Galerie Angst + Orny, William Scott Gouachen, January – February 1976

Verified by the William Scott Foundation

Scott’s still lifes reduced a narrow canon of domestic objects to a set of outlines and solids, tilted parallel to the picture plane. If his method was avowedly to look at Cézanne through the eyes of Chardin, ₁ he brought to this vision a particularly British sensibility. David Sylvester encapsulated this tendency, neatly, as a ‘liking for strange shapes, queer, misshapen shapes, either abstracted or invented’. ² Typical, for Scott, would be the long-handled frying pan, but also lemons, grapes and, most frequently, pears.

Chelsea Suite No. 4 (1975) was exhibited in a selection of gouaches and oils at the Galerie Angst + Orny, in Munich, at the same time as an extensive retrospective of drawings at the Martha Jackson Gallery in New York. Hilton Kremer, reviewing the New York exhibition, drew attention to the trajectory of Scott’s still lifes:

In the earlier drawings, there is more attention lavished on representational detail – details constantly and eloquently subject to correction, revision and the shifting ambiguities of perception – whereas in the later drawings, there is a more intense concentration and simplification. Objects and light, together with the spaces they occupy, are transmuted into a bold orchestration of shapes, textures and tonalities. ₃

In Chelsea Suite No. 4, Scott distils his subject to the chalk silhouette of a plate, with a knife, lemon and two pears, against a charcoal-grey ground. Enigmatically, he crops the second pear to a marginal sliver, as if it has just rolled out of sight.

₁ William Scott, in William Scott: Paintings, Drawings and Gouaches 1938–71, exhibition catalogue (London: Tate Gallery, 1972).

² David Sylvester, ‘Sickert’, in About Modern Art: Critical Essays 1948–96 (London: Chatto & Windus, 1996), p. 155

₃ Hilton Kramer, ‘Art: Seeing an Emotion’s Shape’, New York Times (11 January 1975), p. 21.

Stanley Jones, the Master Lithographer from Curwen who printed this lithograph for Scott

Aside from the edition of 150. Published by CCA Galleries