Haystack (1921)

This oil, in the pointillist style, is possibly unique in McCance’s oeuvre and extremely rare in Scottish art.

Born in 1894 in Cambuslang, Glasgow, William McCance studied at Glasgow School of Art from 1911 to 1915. He was a conscientious objector in World War I and was imprisoned. Following his discharge in 1920, McCance moved to London, where he was employed as a teacher and art critic writing for The Spectator. In the early 1920s, McCance developed a near abstract style, indebted to the work of Wyndham Lewis and the Vorticists, one of the very few Scottish artists to follow such a path. From 1930 to 1933 he worked as controller of the celebrated Gregynog Press in Wales. A collection of his paintings is held in the National Galleries of Scotland.

William McCance’s work has been offered at auction multiple times, the record price for this artist at auction is 68,110 USD for Boat Yard sold at Bonhams, New Bond Street in 2005.