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Gouache on paper, portrait. Signed and attr. John Bellany RA (Scottish, 1942-2013) on lower right corner. 21 x 15 inch (53 x 38 cm). In 1968 Bellany graduated and his diploma show was hailed as great success. Many of the paintings from this and the earlier periods are now in public institutions as well as various national galleries. After graduation, Bellany was offered a teaching position at the Edinburgh College of Art but he carried on as a working artist and flit between various teaching jobs at different art colleges. When in 1974 he separated from his wife his art appears to take on a darker tone. The symbolism increases and it seems as though each picture can have a whole narrative of symbols within it, increasingly the pictures become wilder and wilder tending more to expressionism, at this point he suffered a nervous breakdown and returned to Port Seton for recuperation. The New York 1982 tour which included a showing at the Rosa Esman gallery, presented his work to a much greater audience, resulting in purchases to important private collections as well as to the NY MOMA. One of the works exhibited was Time and the Raven, a particularly strident work. The works title was borrowed by his friend Sir Peter Maxwell Davies for his UN composition of the same name in 1995. ellany's work is included in the Museum of Modern Art, New York, the Metropolitan Museum, New York, the Yale Center for British Art, New Haven, Connecticut, and Tate Britain, London. Another place where his work is featured is the National Portrait galleries. Additionally some of his works are held in Scotland by the National Galleries of Scotland and also by East Lothian Council reflecting his generosity to the local communities he lived in. PROVENANCE: Private collection (London, United Kingdom)