William Scott, CBE, RA 1913 - 1989
William Scott was born in Greenock on the Firth of Clyde in Scotland in 1913. The family lived in poor circumstances in Scotland, and in 1924 his father decided to bring them to live in Ireland, in his hometown of Enniskillen, County Fermanagh. His father, recognising William's talent for art, sent him to a local art teacher, Kathleen Bridle for lessons in drawing and painting. It was through her that William Scott was introduced to the works of Cezanne, Derain, Modigliani and Picasso. She also arranged for William to receive a scholarship to attend the Belfast College of Art. He enrolled in 1928 at the age of fifteen and stayed there for three years.
In 1931 he moved to London in the hope of entering the Royal Academy Schools. He originally trained as a sculptor for two and a half years, before transferring to the school of painting in January 1934, where he studied under Sir Walter Russell. In July 1935 he was awarded a Liverhulme Travelling Scholarship. He did not take up the scholarship immediately but stayed in London, where he made regular visits to the major art galleries. He spent six months in Cornwall in 1936 and began to focus his attention on what he called "primitive realism", a trait that he found in the paintings by artists, such as Modigliani and "Le Douanier" Rousseau. In 1937 he married Mary Lucas, a fellow student at the Royal Academy Schools, and they spent the next two years abroad, in Italy and France. They then settled in Pont Aven in Brittany, and with the start of the Second World War in 1939 they moved to Dublin for a short period before returning to London. William Scott served as a private with the Royal Engineers from summer 1942 until spring 1946. He was not appointed as an official war artist and, consequently had little time for painting.
After the war, he resumed painting and accepted a position as senior painting master at Bath Academy. He was fascinated by the work of the French masters of still life painting, Chardin, Cezanne and Braque, and following their example he began to restrict his subject matter to common kitchen objects, pots, pans, fruit, eggs, fish and bottles. The content of his still life paintings was deliberately uninteresting so it allowed him to concentrate on contrasting forms and spatial relationships.
From the 1950's to the 1980's Scott devoted himself to the study of forms in space, and his painting moved intermittently from abstraction to the depiction of recognisable imagery. In 1953 he met with the American abstract expressionists, Jackson Pollock, de Kooning, Rothko, Kline and others. However he did not follow their style, but continued to follow European traditions. This was reaffirmed by his visit to the Lascaux caves in France, where the prehistoric cave paintings renewed his interest in primitivism. Scott was elected an associate of the Royal Academy in 1977 and a full member in 1984. His paintings earned him an international reputation and his work is now housed in many important public and private collections. He died at his home near Bath in 1989.
In 1931 he moved to London in the hope of entering the Royal Academy Schools. He originally trained as a sculptor for two and a half years, before transferring to the school of painting in January 1934, where he studied under Sir Walter Russell. In July 1935 he was awarded a Liverhulme Travelling Scholarship. He did not take up the scholarship immediately but stayed in London, where he made regular visits to the major art galleries. He spent six months in Cornwall in 1936 and began to focus his attention on what he called "primitive realism", a trait that he found in the paintings by artists, such as Modigliani and "Le Douanier" Rousseau. In 1937 he married Mary Lucas, a fellow student at the Royal Academy Schools, and they spent the next two years abroad, in Italy and France. They then settled in Pont Aven in Brittany, and with the start of the Second World War in 1939 they moved to Dublin for a short period before returning to London. William Scott served as a private with the Royal Engineers from summer 1942 until spring 1946. He was not appointed as an official war artist and, consequently had little time for painting.
After the war, he resumed painting and accepted a position as senior painting master at Bath Academy. He was fascinated by the work of the French masters of still life painting, Chardin, Cezanne and Braque, and following their example he began to restrict his subject matter to common kitchen objects, pots, pans, fruit, eggs, fish and bottles. The content of his still life paintings was deliberately uninteresting so it allowed him to concentrate on contrasting forms and spatial relationships.
From the 1950's to the 1980's Scott devoted himself to the study of forms in space, and his painting moved intermittently from abstraction to the depiction of recognisable imagery. In 1953 he met with the American abstract expressionists, Jackson Pollock, de Kooning, Rothko, Kline and others. However he did not follow their style, but continued to follow European traditions. This was reaffirmed by his visit to the Lascaux caves in France, where the prehistoric cave paintings renewed his interest in primitivism. Scott was elected an associate of the Royal Academy in 1977 and a full member in 1984. His paintings earned him an international reputation and his work is now housed in many important public and private collections. He died at his home near Bath in 1989.
