A new book exploring the life of an acclaimed Co Fermanagh artist has gone on sale.
William Scott was known to be a favourite artist of rock star David Bowie and had one of his paintings sell for over a million pounds before his death in 1989.
He is recognised as one of the most celebrated painters in the UK and his work can be found in public collections around the world, including the Tate Modern, the Guggenheim and nearer to home in the Fermanagh County Museum.
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Scott’s nephew, Cardwell McClure, has spent the last ten years finishing the 262 page book as well as overcoming a serious illness at the same time.
‘William Scott: A Family History’ looks into the life of the Co Fermanagh artist and will be officially launched at an event in Enniskillen Castle on Saturday, April 22.
Cardwell says he was inspired to write the book after the curator of the Fermanagh County Museum told him during a visit there ten years ago that while they had a lot of information about William Scott, they had little or no knowledge of his family who had been brought up in the town.
Cardwell agreed to find out more and during his three years of research he travelled far and wide in Ireland and Scotland to establish more about his uncles and aunts. By a stroke of good luck, he was able to access photographs and files his mother had kept.
“I didn’t come across some of them until we were clearing out the house after her death so I’m pleased to acknowledge that my mum played a huge part in the compiling of the book about her family,” Cardwell said.
“I only met him twice. Once was in 1951 when he was home for a funeral of a brother who had been killed in an accident in New Zealand and the other time was in 1981 during a visit to my mother and father.
“I took them all out for a meal in Portadown and I heard William reminiscing with my mother about the times he asked her to sit for him for his paintings. She was his first female sitter as such.
“At one point William invited me to visit him and his family in England and told me to bring a suitcase full of money because he would sell me any of his paintings for a thousand pounds – in cash!
“However I never took him up on his offer despite my father encouraging me to do so. I’ve had a look at the value of his paintings from that era and I reckon they’d be worth around £40.000 today. So I missed a chance.”
A section of the book deals with his connection to rockstar Bowie, after in 1993 the English singer bought a 1938 Scott painting called ‘Girl Seated at Table’ for £45,000.
After Bowie’s death in 2016 it sold for £337,000 and it was used to illustrate newspaper and magazine articles about the musician’s extensive collection, which sold for £24million.
The book, William Scott: A Family History is available now on Amazon.
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