Morgan O'Driscoll Irish & International Art Auction 21st October 2019

54 40 William Crozier HRHA (1930-2011) Plant Room at Night (2000) signed lower left and titled verso oil on canvas 80 x 100cm (31.5 x 39.5in) Provenance: Private Collection Literature: Kennedy, SB ‘William Crozier, an introduction’ in William Crozier ed. Crouan, K; with essays by Kennedy SB and Vann, P. Lund Humphries. London and Aldershot 2007, p.18, p.146, pl.133 illustrated. €8,000-12,000 (£7,079-10,619) Although primarily thought of as a landscape artist, the still life was always important for William Crozier as it allowed him to ‘compose within the canvas’, as he said. His subjects could be the objects around his home or, as here in The Plant Room at Night, the pots and beakers on his studio table. Crozier never considered these modest subjects as small-scale or domestic; instead he transformed them into objects as monumental as the grandest landscape. Crozier was strongly at- tracted to the tradition of still life painting which he believed was capable of conveying profound emotion. ‘It is one of the greatest concepts of Western art’ , he said, ‘which defines the essence of the European mind’ ‘The Plant Room at Night, painted in 2000, was cited by SB Kennedy as ‘Technically a tour de force (which) reaffirms Crozier’s achievement and place in contemporary painting.’