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WILLIAM SCOT T (1913-1989) Untitled (Still Life), 1950 Oil on canvas Signed lower left 'W SCOTT' 85.5 x 108.5 cm (33 ¾ x 42 ¾ in) Exhibited Leicester Galleries, London, Recent Paintings by William Scott, 1-22 February 1951, no.25 (as Pan, Eggs and Toasting Fork) [?] Royal Scottish Academy, Edinburgh, Annual Exhibition, 1951, no.319 (as Kitchen Table Still Life) [?] Literature S. Whitfield (ed.), William Scott, Catalogue Raisonne of Oil Paintings, Vol 1, Thames & Hudson in association with the William Scott Foundation, 2013, no.176, pp.250 (illustrated in colour) Ede had acquired his first William Scott painting before 1962, when he described to John Blackburn his 'chockablock' house, containing paintings by David Jones, Ben and Winifred Nicholson, Christopher Wood, Alfred Wallis, Gaudier-Brzeska, Miro, and later Roger Hilton William Scott and William Congdon. 1 This was Still Life with White Mug (1957): a vibrant work with an orange ground. By May 1962, Ede was considering a second acquisition, for which Scott suggested a 'swap' of a Wallis. 2 From two paintings sent by Scott for Ede to choose from, he kept the tiny Bowl (White on Grey) (1962), still despairing of finding 'anywhere to put it!' 3 Ede acquired a third work, Message Obscure I (1965), and in 1969 enquired unsuccessfully after a fourth, which he had seen five years earlier at documenta III, in Kassel. 4 Ede's relationship with Scott, although not one of a close friendship, belies a suggestion that his taste remained rooted in the past. Each acquisition was of a recent painting, each more abstract than its predecessor. 1 Ede, letter to John Blackburn, 31 May 1962, Blackburn Archive, quoted in Massey, p.23. 2 William Scott, letters to Ede, 1 March 1962 and undated [1962], Kettle's Yard Archive, KY/EDE/1/1. 3 William Scott, letter to Ede, 5 December 1962, Kettle's Yard Archive, KY/EDE/1/1; Ede, letter to John Blackburn, 12 January 1962, Blackburn Archive, quoted in Freeman, p.255. 4 William Scott, letter to Ede, 4 June 1969, Kettle's Yard Archive, KY/EDE/1/1. 94