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Lot Essay
In 1955, Scott reverted to still life compositions, away from the three year period of near abstraction that preceded it. He began by painting a number of small compositions with pears and saucepans as the key elements. In the present work, the three pears jostle for space against the saucepan within the densely worked canvas. Scott has used thick black outlines to denote the objects and these draw the viewer's eye into and across the composition. Norbert Lynton comments on Scott's still lifes of this period: 'Generally they are close-ups, presenting us with a few relatively large objects - not all the swarming, anonymous things we see in his larger paintings of 1956-57. Yet naturalism is not the aim, but rather a tighter, more integrated kind of composition' (N. Lynton, William Scott, London, 2004, p. 147).
A few years after the present work was painted, Scott commented in his British Council lecture, 1958, on another work in this series, Composition I: Pots and Pears (1955), 'The pots and pears in this picture have certain shapes that I always use. They're the shapes that have come about very slowly through the years, they've evolved from my earlier paintings. Perhaps they are very fundamental shapes. Some people may feel there's some kind of erotic feel about them. If that's so, it's probably due to my love for the primitive and for the elemental' (ibid., p. 148).
A few years after the present work was painted, Scott commented in his British Council lecture, 1958, on another work in this series, Composition I: Pots and Pears (1955), 'The pots and pears in this picture have certain shapes that I always use. They're the shapes that have come about very slowly through the years, they've evolved from my earlier paintings. Perhaps they are very fundamental shapes. Some people may feel there's some kind of erotic feel about them. If that's so, it's probably due to my love for the primitive and for the elemental' (ibid., p. 148).