William Scott, R.A. 1913-1989

Leger Gallery, London, 1942
R. Senhouse, purchased from the above
Sale, Christie's, London, 27th October 1972, lot 55

John Lehmann (ed.), New Writing, Penguin, 1947, p.26. illustrated in colour.

In 1938, Scott and his new wife Mary Lucas moved to Pont-Aven, where they set up a small painting school with Geoffrey Nelson. Scott was finding his own voice at this time, having to combine his rigorous Academy training with the examples of contemporary British work he knew from England, Impressionist and Post-Impressionist masters seen in Paris and the early Italian ‘primitives’ he had seen on his travels in Italy.

Despite the inescapable shadow of Gaugin and his circle over the place, the short period in Pont-Aven saw Scott begin to develop his mature style and the distinctive vocabulary of his art took shape. The paintings are almost entirely figure studies or still life, and their variety and sense of exploration is notable. Virtually all the figure paintings take Mary as the subject, and we find her presented both clothed and semi-draped. However, the present work stands out from these others, both in its form and highly intimate subject matter.

The studies of Mary are mostly set in interiors, with her seated, often slightly to one side, and usually with little else around her. They are strong images, combining simplicity of form with a powerful sense of solidity and presence. However, Girl on a Beach takes the subject outside, placing her on the beach, schematised strips of sand, sea and sky behind her, a setting that would become more widely used in later pictures. However, where the painting differs from the others is that when it was painted, Mary was pregnant with their first child (Robert was born in Dublin in January 1940). Thus the mother and child format which he uses is in fact a contemplation of the concept of impending motherhood.

The present work is listed with the William Scott archive as no.757.