William Crozier (Scottish artist)
Encyclopedia
Scottish people
The Scottish people , or Scots, are a nation and ethnic group native to Scotland. Historically they emerged from an amalgamation of the Picts and Gaels, incorporating neighbouring Britons to the south as well as invading Germanic peoples such as the Anglo-Saxons and the Norse.In modern use,...
landscape
Landscape art
Landscape art is a term that covers the depiction of natural scenery such as mountains, valleys, trees, rivers, and forests, and especially art where the main subject is a wide view, with its elements arranged into a coherent composition. In other works landscape backgrounds for figures can still...
painter
Painting
Painting is the practice of applying paint, pigment, color or other medium to a surface . The application of the medium is commonly applied to the base with a brush but other objects can be used. In art, the term painting describes both the act and the result of the action. However, painting is...
.
Born in Edinburgh
Edinburgh
Edinburgh is the capital city of Scotland, the second largest city in Scotland, and the eighth most populous in the United Kingdom. The City of Edinburgh Council governs one of Scotland's 32 local government council areas. The council area includes urban Edinburgh and a rural area...
, Crozier studied at Edinburgh College of Art
Edinburgh College of Art
Edinburgh College of Art is an art school in Edinburgh, Scotland, providing tertiary education in art and design disciplines for over two thousand students....
and was a fellow student and friendly with William Gillies
William George Gillies
Sir William George Gillies was a renowned Scottish landscape and still life painter.Gillies was born in Haddington, East Lothian; he studied at Edinburgh College of Art and taught there after graduation for over 40 years. He was principal of the College from 1959 until his retirement in 1966...
, Anne Redpath
Anne Redpath
Anne Redpath OBE was a Scottish artist whose vivid domestic still lifes are among her best-known works.Redpath's father was a tweed designer in the Scottish Borders. She saw a connection between his use of colour and her own...
and William MacTaggart
William MacTaggart
Sir William MacTaggart was a Scottish painter known for his landscapes of East Lothian, France, Norway and elsewhere. He is sometimes called William MacTaggart the Younger to distinguish him from his grandfather, the painter William McTaggart.-Life and work:William MacTaggart was born at Loanhead...
. These artists are all associated with The Edinburgh School
The Edinburgh School
The Edinburgh School refers to a group of 20th century artists connected with Edinburgh. Most studied at Edinburgh College of Art during or soon after the First World War, and some taught there together in the mid-20th century. As friends and colleagues, they discussed painting and were influenced...
.
Assisted by a travelling scholarship, Crozier studied under the cubist
Cubism
Cubism was a 20th century avant-garde art movement, pioneered by Pablo Picasso and Georges Braque, that revolutionized European painting and sculpture, and inspired related movements in music, literature and architecture...
painter André Lhote
André Lhote
André Lhote was a French sculptor and painter of figure subjects, portraits, landscapes and still life. He was also very active and influential as a teacher and writer on art....
in Paris
Paris
Paris is the capital and largest city in France, situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...
in 1923. He also travelled to Italy
Italy
Italy , officially the Italian Republic languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Italy's official name is as follows:;;;;;;;;), is a unitary parliamentary republic in South-Central Europe. To the north it borders France, Switzerland, Austria and...
, where he was particularly taken by the bright sunlight and resultant deep shadows, a quality which he later sought to capture in his work. This aspect of his painting and the cubist influences are evident in his 1927 painting, Edinburgh (from Salisbury Crags). The buildings are represented as simple geometric blocks with intense contrast between the sunlit facades and heavily shaded sides.
Crozier suffered from haemophilia and was affected by ill health for most of his life. He died aged only 37 after a fall in his studio.