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Lot Essay
‘In 1979 Scott began work on a numbered series of 26 paintings which he called Poem for a Jug. They were shown as a group at the 1980 Gimpel Fils exhibition and the numbering of each comes from this show. The series appears to have grown out of a group of four small ‘jug’ paintings shown at Gallery Moos, Toronto in 1978. The jug in all these paintings is a white square-shape earthenware type, with a small round handle and a sharply protruding lip. The similarity of this shape to the simple square of the mug that appears in several works by Ben Nicholson was not overlooked by Norbert Lynton when writing about Poem for a Jug (no.5) in his 2004 publication.
The title, as Scott told Jean-Yves Mock, was inspired by the poet John Keats. In a letter dated 26 April 1980, Scott wrote: 'My immediate problem for the catalogue when we discussed it last week as how to title so many works of the same subject. While at Coleford I arrived at the conclusion that one title could cover them all and inspired by Keats I decided to call it “Poem for a Jug” using “Poem” rather than “Ode” and “Jug” rather than “Urn”. I had already given this title to Gimpel’s for the printer and it appeared to meet with their approval.’’
(S. Whitfield and L. Inglis, William Scott: Catalogue Raisonné of Oil Paintings, London, 2013, p. 258)
The title, as Scott told Jean-Yves Mock, was inspired by the poet John Keats. In a letter dated 26 April 1980, Scott wrote: 'My immediate problem for the catalogue when we discussed it last week as how to title so many works of the same subject. While at Coleford I arrived at the conclusion that one title could cover them all and inspired by Keats I decided to call it “Poem for a Jug” using “Poem” rather than “Ode” and “Jug” rather than “Urn”. I had already given this title to Gimpel’s for the printer and it appeared to meet with their approval.’’
(S. Whitfield and L. Inglis, William Scott: Catalogue Raisonné of Oil Paintings, London, 2013, p. 258)