John Bellany, R.A.

Gifted by the artist to Norman Gray Esq;
Purchased by the present owner at auction in 1974

The board is sound. Some of the nail heads are visible about the edges. Some minor paint losses in the upper left corner; the surface is dirty and should benefit from a light clean; otherwise the work appears in good overall condition. Under ultraviolet light there appear to be no signs of retouching. Held in a wood frame.
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Like many of Bellany’s works, The Fisherman draws deeply on his childhood in the small fishing village of Port Seton. While some artists moved to live in such places, attracted by the picturesque and aesthetic qualities of light and landscape or by the opportunities for gritty realism offered by the harsh environment and the arduous nature of the fisherman’s life, Bellany had grown up inside an intensely spiritual, close-knit fishing community. It was this experience that gave him his uniquely expressionist vision. The Fisherman was painted in 1966, the year after he finished his degree at Edinburgh College of Art and was heading to London as a post-graduate at the Royal College. Often out of step – particularly with his contemporaries in London – he bravely shunned the more fashionable international abstraction that the schools were at that time promoting. Throughout his life Bellany’s inspiration derived from Scotland and remained unfailingly autobiographical.

The Fisherman bears many similarities to the monumental Fishers in the Snow, 1966 (Collection of the Scottish Parliament), which depicts figures on a quayside gathered around the day’s catch in a quasi-religious group. The composition on the right side of this picture is almost identical to The Fisherman which depicts two figures gutting fish on two packing cases with two boats moored beyond.

The 1960s is considered the most fertile and accomplished period of Bellany’s career, as is noted by John McEwan: ‘for many these grim, visionary testimonies to the stoicism of the fishing life have a metaphorical force he has never surpassed, linking him with that proud tradition of Scottish art, exemplified by Burns and Scott, which honours the courage and dignity of the working people’ (John Bellany, John McEwan, 1994, p.18).