Alberto Morrocco, R.S.A., R.S.W.

Thackeray Gallery, London;
Private Collection

Victoria Keller and Clara Young, Alberto Morrocco, Mainstream Publishing Company, Edinburgh, 1993, p. 153, illus. pl. 84

Original canvas. The surface is in apparently excellent condition with areas of strong impasto. Ultraviolet light reveals pigments which fluoresce which are the hand of the artist. Held under glass in a gilt wood frame with a canvas inset; unexamined out of frame. Please telephone the department on 020 7293 6132 if you have any questions regarding the present work.
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Born in Aberdeen to Italian immigrant parents, Alberto Morroocco studied at Gray's School of Art at the remarkably young age of 14, where he was taught by James Cowie and Robert Sivell, who were both dedicated to the Renaissance style of art. This empahasis on draughtsmenship can be seen mainly in his early paintings, though it provided a strong basis throughout his career.

Throughout Morrocco's career he was influenced by a great many artists, as well as by movements like Modernism and Abstract Expressionism. He admired artists such as Picasso, Bonnard, Matisse and Braque and paid homage to them in his paintings, which also served as a method of investigating his own style. Much of his work exudes characteristics of his own personality, vibrant, charming, sophisticated and direct. Jack Knocks, who worked as a teacher with Morrocco in Aberdeen, remembers fondly his time at the school and nicked named the faculty group with which Alberto was head of as 'The Dream Team.'

Alberto Morrocco's talents did not go unnoticed and he was awarded a number of honours throughout his life. In 1951 he was elected Associate of the Royal Scottish Academy and an Academician in 1962. In 1975 he was also elected a Member of the Royal Society of Portrait Painters and in 1977 a Member of the Royal Glasgow Institute. Further still he was awarded honorary doctorates by the University of Dundee in 1980 as well as by the University of Stirling in 1987 and in 1993 he was awarded the O.B.E.

Morrocco painted relentlessly and even late on in his life whilst he was seriously ill he still continued exhibiting and painted up to 40 new works a year.