Lot 21
WILLIAM CROSBIE R.S.A. (SCOTTISH 1915-1999) §
UNTITLED (DOLL IN A STRIPED DRESS)
£630
Auction: 26 June 2024 from 10:00 BST
Description
Signed upper left, oil on board
Dimensions
54.5cm x 42.5cm (21.5in x 16.75in)
Provenance
The Scottish Gallery, Edinburgh
Footnote
William Crosbie was born in 1915 in Hankow, China to Scottish parents. The family returned to Glasgow in 1926, and in 1932 the young Crosbie was accepted to the Glasgow School of Art. A travelling scholarship enabled him to study in Paris under Aristide Maillol and Fernand Léger, and he later took a job with the Archaeological Institute on an expedition to Egypt, where he copied friezes in the newly-excavated Temple of the Bulls and Temple of Sakhara.
Upon his return to Glasgow in 1939, he engaged with ‘a little local renaissance’ with figures including the Scottish Colourist John Duncan Fergusson, the poet Hugh MacDiarmid, and the Kelvingrove director Thomas John Honeyman.
Crosbie's talents were diverse, and he applied himself with as much verve to painting and drawing as he did to mural, theatre and sculpture commissions. A pioneer of British surrealism, Crosbie is represented in all major museums and galleries in Scotland, as well as the Royal Collection and British Museum.
