William Scott R.A., (British, 1913-1989)

Still Life with Fish 77.5 x 100.8 cm. (30 1/2 x 39 5/8 in.)

Still Life with Fish
signed 'W.SCOTT' (verso)
oil on board
77.5 x 100.8 cm. (30 1/2 x 39 5/8 in.)
Painted in 1955

Provenance
With Hanover Gallery, London, 1963, where acquired by
Cyril and June Mardall

Literature
Mervyn Levy, William Scott's Circle and Square, Studio, vol. 164, no.832, August 1962, p.49 (ill.b&w)
Alan Bowness, William Scott: Paintings, Drawings and Gouaches 1938-1971, Exhibition Catalogue, Tate Gallery, London, 1972, p.73 (ill.b&w)
Sarah Whitfield, William Scott, Catalogue Raisonné of Oil Paintings 1952-1959 Volume 2, Thames & Hudson, London, in association with the William Scott Foundation, 2013, p.125, cat.no.270 (col.ill & ill.b&w)

'William Scott was the first British painter of significance to get to know the new heroes of American painting, as well as some of its less prominent contributors.' (Norbert Lynton)

The mid-1950s was a significant time for William Scott's career. In 1953 he was given his first solo exhibition at the Hanover Gallery in London, and twelve of his paintings travelled to Brazil for the prestigious São Paulo Biennial. This was also the year he visited New York for the first time (following a stint of teaching modern art at Banff School of Fine Arts in Alberta, Canada), and was introduced to the renowned art dealer Martha Jackson by Andrew Ritchie, the Director of MoMA New York, who had seen his Hanover Gallery show. Whilst his stay in New York was not a lengthy one, just under one week, through Jackson he met Mark Rothko and Jackson Pollock among others, and was exposed to the work of Willem de Kooning at his makeshift studio on Long Island. Commenting on this time, William Scott remarked much later in 1972:

'My experience in America gave me a determination to re-paint much that I had left unfinished in terms of the symbolic still life. With the example of Ben Nicholson, whom I much admired, there was no reason for me to be devoted solely to abstraction and I embarked on a process of rediscovery.' (William Scott, quoted in Sarah Whitfield, William Scott, Tate Publishing, London 2013, p.43).

William Scott's painting not only captured the eye of Martha Jackson in New York, the Director of the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, James Johnson Sweeney, also evidently admired his work. In his December 1953 exhibition, Younger European Painters, William Scott was the only British representative. A year later, Scott's work appeared alongside Barbara Hepworth sculptures and Francis Bacon paintings in a joint show Martha Jackson staged, titled Three British Artists. The year Still Life with Fish was painted, 1955, proved even more significant for Scott. Four of his canvases - three of which were on a new, much larger scale, drawing on his recent exposure to Contemporary American art ? were exhibited in The New Decade show at MoMA New York. Like the present painting, two of these impressive still life works showed a keen interest in firm horizontal divisions, an austere palette and flatness of the picture surface. They lean to varying degrees towards abstraction whilst still retaining recognisable objects: cooking utensils, a fish fryer, saucepans and bowls. Each have in common Scott's penchant for tilting the surface of the table top upwards, cleverly distorting the perspective, a device which he was known to have admired in Cézanne's still life subjects. In Scott's Still Life with Fish the gleaming white saucepan lid on the right hand side echoes the angle of the table top, so that we see the whole of its upper surface.

The passion William Scott held for still life can be traced back to some of his earliest recorded works such as Still Life No.1, dated 1935 (sold in these rooms on 15 June 2004, lot 61). His admiration for the French Old Master, Jean Baptiste Simeon Chardin (1699-1779), began during his time spent at the Royal Academy Schools in the early 1930s under the directorship of Sir Walter Russell, a man keen to instil firm academic principles in his students. Like Chardin's 1728 masterpiece, The Ray, in the Louvre, Still Life with Fish is divided into three distinct horizontal elements and employs the device of resting a fish over the front edge of the table so that it protrudes towards us. Lighting was also fundamental to Chardin, and in the Mardall William Scott the natural colour of the bare board has been used to great effect, illuminating the objects from behind.

In September 1958, three years after Still Life with Fish was painted, Cyril Mardall's architecture firm, Yorke Rosenberg and Mardall commissioned William Scott to design and complete an ambitious mural for the entrance hall at Altnagelvin Hospital in Londonderry, Northern Ireland (where Scott spent the majority of his childhood). It was finished in 1961 and unveiled at the Tate Gallery prior to instalment. During these three years, it occupied much of Scott's time and in August of 1959 he was known to have discussed murals with Mark Rothko when the American visited his Somerset home with his family. Norbert Lynton comments on this very personal project:

'William Scott had not previously undertaken a large public art work. Contemporary debate on the subject of art in relation to architecture will have added to his self-consciousness, whilst also tempting him to accept the invitation. Working for a public utility also implied working for ordinary people ? staff, patients and patients' visitors ? instead of for the art market, and this certainly appealed to him' (Norbert Lynton, William Scott, Thames & Hudson, London, 2004, p.224).

The Catalogue Raisonné entry for Mardall's Still Life with Fish makes a number of interesting observations regarding the painting:

'Undated, it can be ascribed to 1955. The composition is close to that of Fish and Frying Basket (cat.no.269), which was painted in the first half of the year. Given the significance of the inclusion of the fish, the two paintings may have been painted close together. The painting remained in the artist's studio [see fig.1] and was left unsigned. In 1963 it was sold through the Hanover Gallery and was bought by Cyril Mardall, one of the partners in the architectural firm of Yorke Rosenberg and Mardall (see Altnagelvin Mural, cat.no.489). At Mardall's request, Scott added his signature to the painting, inscribing it on the back of the hardboard support. The title recorded above is found on a Hanover Gallery label on the verso, together with a date of 1954 which, for reasons stated above, has not been followed. The paint is so thinly applied in some areas that much of the brown towards the top of the painting appears to be mostly the colour of the bare hardboard.' (Ed. Sarah Whitfield, Vol.2, William Scott, Catalogue Raisonné of Oil Paintings 1952-1959, Thames & Hudson, London, 2013, p.125).

'William Scott's sons confirm that he liked catching fish as well as eating them, notably mackerel and sardines. On camping holidays in Cornwall and Brittany they recall him frying the fish, with the heads left on in the French manner. When in Enniskillen [his boyhood home town], he enjoyed fishing in the lake, alongside other amateur fishermen. (Norbert Lynton, William Scott, Thames & Hudson, London, 2004, p.336).

We are grateful to the William Scott Foundation for their assistance in cataloguing this lot.