Beschreibung:

Craigie Aitchison C.B.E., R.S.A, R.A. (British, 1926-2009) Sheep and Orange Tree oil on canvas 51 x 40.5 cm. (20 x 16 in.) Painted in 1986 Fußnoten Provenance With Albemarle Gallery, London With Timothy Taylor Gallery, London, 2012, where purchased by the present owner Private Collection, New York Horses, birds, donkeys, dogs and as in the present example, sheep all receive the same treatment in Craigie's work. The animals are positioned against the artist's trademark vivid colour-blocked ground in a variety of poses. There is a mystical quality to these simple, quiet creatures; they sit obediently, stand still, float in space and even lie moribund in brilliant landscapes of intense orange, pink, yellow, purple, green and blue. That colour was so central to Craigie's oeuvre is hardly surprising when one considers his love of the Mediterranean. Born in Edinburgh he first travelled to Italy (from Rome through Umbria and Tuscany to Venice) in 1954 and went on to buy a house in Siena years later that he would visit annually. The clear light he discovered there and radical simplification of 13th and 14th Century Italian art left a lasting impression and shaped the rest of his career. The present work depicts a sheep nestled at the foot of that most Italianate of symbols, an orange tree, with a lone bird delineated in a single stroke soaring over the high horizon line. Six symmetrical fruits jut outwards from the trunk and solitary branch and the scene is set against two horizontal bands of purple and green. Painted in 1986, this work dates from a period of great success for the artist following a number of solo and group exhibitions and having become an Associate of the Royal Academy in 1978. Craigie's work is held in many notable collections including V&A, Tate, Government Art Collection, Pallant House Gallery and Scottish National Gallery of Art, among others.