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

Scott returned to painting still life compositions in 1955, moving away from the abstract works that he was producing in the three years before this. He used pears and saucepans as the key elements in these still lifes and, as we see in the present work, the surface is very dense. Scott himself said of another work of 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 early 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' (see N. Lynton, William Scott, London, 2004, p. 148).