'Pear Still Life', 1971, oil on canvas, 20in x 2ft (51 x 61cm), priced £45,000 from Piano Nobile as part of its Craigie Aitchison exhibition.
However, the finished composition, offered at the Piano Nobile exhibition Craigie Aitchison and the Beaux Arts Generation, was pared down to just a lemon, pear, distant tree and branch with berries.
The process was typical for the Scottish artist, who said: “When I’m painting all I do is alter. I can’t get started until I’ve got the turps to rub it out.”
The show runs from November 14-January 29, 2020. Appearing alongside Aitchison’s works are those by four of his contemporaries: Michael Andrews, Frank Auerbach, Leon Kossoff and Euan Uglow. All were first exhibited at Helen Lessore’s Beaux Arts Gallery in the late 1950s and early ‘60s.
