AN ORCHARD OF PEARS NO.1 (1976). UPDATE: THIS MADE €135,000 AT HAMMER
This 1976 work by William Scott comes up at de Veres current sale of Outstanding Irish Art and Sculpture, which runs until June 13. The English summer of 1976 was marked by a heatwave that resulted in an abundant harvest in the apple and pear growing area around Scott’s Sommerset studio. A flourishing pear tree growing against the studio wall prompted him to do an extensive series of 17 paintings, collectively called ‘An Orchard of Pears’, throughout the autumn and winter of 1976/77. They were shown at Gallery Kasahara in Osaka, appealing to the Japanese taste for understatement. This painting was the first of these and it is estimated at €150,000-€200,000.
The pears are carefully placed, huddled around a central point emphasised by the circular plate while simultaneously drawing your eyes away from it. Notice the way the outward tilt of the pears pulls away from the centre, and how the pear at the right edge further unsettles the composition’s stability. Scott is a master of animating empty space by creating subtle visual tension between objects. His genius is that, as a viewer, we’re never conscious of this.
