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拍品专文
William Scott painted a numbered series of works called Poem for a Jug between 1979 and 1980. The title for the series was inspired by John Keats's poem Ode on a Grecian Urn. The entire group of 26 paintings was exhibited at the Gimpel Fils exhibition in May - June 1980, and the series culminated in the present work, the last and one of the largest.
Both Poem for a Jug, no. 26 and Poem for a Jug, no. 16 (please see lot 160) were purchased by Sir Philip and Lady Powell at the 1980 exhibition, and have been passed by descent to the present owner. Lady Philippa Powell (1928-2006) had been a student at the Bath Academy of Art in Corsham, while Scott was teaching there, and she and her husband became close friends of Scott's.
Her husband, Sir Philip Powell, C.H. (1921-2003), was a highly influential architect of the post-war period, and was termed the 'Father of Humane Modernism'. In 1946, he and Hidalgo Moya set up an architectural practice, Powell and Moya, when they won Westminster City Council's competition for a high-density housing project at Churchill Gardens in Pimlico. The flats were angled to provide open views of the Thames, and heating was provided under the river by nearby Battersea Power Station. Powell's modernist concerns took inspiration from Walter Gropius, the founder of the Bauhaus whose former design centre in Dessau Powell had visited before the War. Powell and Moya's focus on functional design and social awareness led to many commissions throughout their careers, including the NHS's first large general hospital in Swindon, the Princess Margaret Hospital (1957) and the Queen Elizabeth II Conference Centre, Parliament Square (1986). Notable projects also included The Cripps Building at St John's College, Cambridge (1966-67), the Blue Boar Quad at Christ Church, Oxford and the Picture Gallery at Christ Church, Oxford (both 1968).
Perhaps Powell and Moya's most extraordinary and distinctive construction however, was Skylon, a vertical aluminium form which they designed to celebrate the Festival of Britain in 1951. Standing at 296 feet tall on the South Bank, this vertiginous and elegant structure was likened by Powell to 'an airship turned on its end'. Sadly Skylon was dismantled after the Festival, but this imposing and futuristic form remains an evocative and lasting symbol of the optimism following the austerity of post-war Britain.
Both Poem for a Jug, no. 26 and Poem for a Jug, no. 16 (please see lot 160) were purchased by Sir Philip and Lady Powell at the 1980 exhibition, and have been passed by descent to the present owner. Lady Philippa Powell (1928-2006) had been a student at the Bath Academy of Art in Corsham, while Scott was teaching there, and she and her husband became close friends of Scott's.
Her husband, Sir Philip Powell, C.H. (1921-2003), was a highly influential architect of the post-war period, and was termed the 'Father of Humane Modernism'. In 1946, he and Hidalgo Moya set up an architectural practice, Powell and Moya, when they won Westminster City Council's competition for a high-density housing project at Churchill Gardens in Pimlico. The flats were angled to provide open views of the Thames, and heating was provided under the river by nearby Battersea Power Station. Powell's modernist concerns took inspiration from Walter Gropius, the founder of the Bauhaus whose former design centre in Dessau Powell had visited before the War. Powell and Moya's focus on functional design and social awareness led to many commissions throughout their careers, including the NHS's first large general hospital in Swindon, the Princess Margaret Hospital (1957) and the Queen Elizabeth II Conference Centre, Parliament Square (1986). Notable projects also included The Cripps Building at St John's College, Cambridge (1966-67), the Blue Boar Quad at Christ Church, Oxford and the Picture Gallery at Christ Church, Oxford (both 1968).
Perhaps Powell and Moya's most extraordinary and distinctive construction however, was Skylon, a vertical aluminium form which they designed to celebrate the Festival of Britain in 1951. Standing at 296 feet tall on the South Bank, this vertiginous and elegant structure was likened by Powell to 'an airship turned on its end'. Sadly Skylon was dismantled after the Festival, but this imposing and futuristic form remains an evocative and lasting symbol of the optimism following the austerity of post-war Britain.