Description
Object description
image: A soldier in a greatcoat and a girl sit arm-in arm, sleeping together on a station bench. He is leaning into the
corner and grips the girl's arm with both hands. Dressed in brown, she lies against him, her head resting on his shoulder, facing upwards.
Her hands lie together on his leg.
Physical description
original frame
Label
'Soldier and Girl Sleeping' belonged to the late Sheila Shannon, a literary editor and wife of the poet Patric
Dickinson. It shows a soldier in a greatcoat and his girlfriend asleep on his shoulder on a railway bench - a common enough sight in wartime Britain but almost certainly auto-biographical in this case, as Scott himself was separated from his wife Mary in 1942 after he joined the Royal Engineers - she remained in Hallatrow, Somerset while he was stationed in London. Scott's wartime paintings, though few in number, were either a visualisation of his own inner feelings or his experiences as a soldier.
From 1937 to 1939 the Scotts spent extended periods abroad in France and Italy; the summers were spent in Pont Aven where they ran a Summer Painting School. The outbreak of war forced them to return, first to Dublin, then to London and finally, in July 1941, they moved to Somerset, where Scott began to teach part-time at the Bath Academy of Art. But rather than wait for his call up he volunteered, and a year later he was in the Royal Engineers, based in London, which enabled him to continue to use his old studio in Chelsea. Scott had his first one man exhibition at the Leger Galleries in September 1942, but later that winter he did a new painting which was accepted for the Leicester Galleries popular annual show, Artists of Fame and Promise in January - February 1943. Soldier and Girl Sleeping (cat.no.2) was bought jointly by Sheila Shannon and W.J.Turner. Two years later this purchase led to a fruitful collaboration between the artist and the
writers.
The story of the illustrated anthologies of poetry edited by Shannon and Turner for the publisher Frederick Muller Ltd is detailed in Bonham's catalogue entry. Both Soldier and Girl Sleeping and Night Convoy, another of Scott's wartime paintings in the Museum's collection (acquired in the 1970s) appear as lithographic illustrations in Soldiers' Verse, a volume selected by Sheila's future husband Patric Dickinson. In the book, the girl has her face turned towards the man, his arm is around her shoulders instead of clasping her arm and his face is drawn in more detail than in the painting. The painting is darker and bleaker and the simplified, stylised faces show the lingering influence of French painting, particularly Braque.
In a biographical note written in 1972 (Paintings and Drawings 1938-71, Tate Gallery), Scott referred to the effect that Christopher Wood and contemporary French artists had on his painting: `I started to think of a primitive realism as something to be aimed for. I could see it in Rousseau, Modigliani, Bonnard and Matisse – these paintings had more meaning for me than the whimsy of Paul Klee which was making a strong appeal to the literary world at that time.'
However, once transferred to the Royal Engineers map section in the small rural town of Ruabon, North Wales – where several other artists such as Henry Cliffe, Carel Weight and Patrick Gierth that the Army did not quite know what to do with ended up – Scott succumbed to the prevailing influence of Neo-Romanticism, a phase that he subsequently disowned in no uncertain terms.
Label
William Scott was a young progressive artist when the Second World War broke out. By July 1941 Scott and his wife Mary
had moved to Somerset, where Scott taught at the Bath Academy of Art. He volunteered for Army service and in 1942 was based in London with the Royal Engineers, where he was able to use his old studio in Chelsea. Scott's rise in the art world gathered pace with his first one-man exhibition in September 1942. His wartime work often presented a visualisation of his own inner feelings and experiences as a soldier. 'Soldier and Girl Sleeping' appears to be an autobiographical representation of Scott's own infrequent meetings with his wife during his Army service. The dark setting lends an air of bleakness and the stylised, simple faces and hands display the influence of French painting, particularly Braque. It demonstrates the 'primitive realism' that Scott strived for at this time.
Inscription
W Scott 42