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William Scott , Irish, 1913-1989

Title

Trees, Ruabon

Date1945

MediumWatercolour, pen and ink on paper

Dimensions

27.5 × 38 cm

Signedlower right: W. Scott

Credit LinePurchased, 2022

Object numberNGI.2022.35

DescriptionThis striking watercolour is one of a series Scott made while working in the cartography section of the Royal Engineers at Wynnstay Hall, near the village of Ruabon, North Wales in 1944/45. The expressive brushstrokes, sombre colouring and focus on the dead tree may reflect his state of mind. He wrote to a friend in 1944: ‘I am still in the army stationed in North Wales, a depressing spot near Chester.’ This slightly disconcerting visualization of the damp North Wales landscape characterizes how Scott’s work straddles figuration and abstraction yet focuses closely on what he referred to himself as ‘the things of life’. It was among 50 works on paper exhibited in his second solo exhibition at the St Leger Gallery in London in early 1945. He also exhibited one of his North Wales landscapes in the Irish Exhibition of Living Art of 1945.
ProvenanceLeicester Galleries, London; Christie's, London, 11 October 1973, lot 38; Private collection; Magdalene St Gallery, Cambridge; Private collection; Christie's, London, 25 May 1994, lot 2; Sotheby’s New Bond Street, London, Sale L22307 26 May 2022, Lot 119; Purchased, 2022Exhibition HistoryLondon, J. Leger and Son, Water-Colour Drawings by William Scott, 3 - 23 February 1945, no. 22;
London, Leicester Galleries, Artists of Fame and of Promise, Part Two, 20 August - 19 September 1959, no. 31