* JOHN BELLANY CBE RA HRSA (SCOTTISH 1942 - 2013), THE PORTRAIT OF ALBERT IRVIN RA oil on canvas, signed and titled, dated 1987 verso framed image size 151cm x 121cm, overall size 170cm x 137cm Note 1: From 1973 to 1978 Bellany was head of the Faculty of Painting at Croydon College of Art, where his colleagues included David Royle, Denis Bowen, Barry Martin and Mel Gordon. It was at this time that he became a close friend of the abstract-expressionist painter Albert Irvin OBE RA. They had first met at the RCA and Irvin selected his "Three Fishermen" for a London Group exhibition. Bellany invited Irvin to teach at Croydon on a part-time basis, a compliment later returned when Bellany left Croydon and Irvin found him a job at Goldsmiths College of Art. Bellany was drinking heavily at this time and as Albert Irvin later commented "To go out with John meant you were going to lose two days of your life". Bellany's 1988 liver transplant started early in the morning of 30th April - the day before "May Day", the seafarers distress call. An irony not lost on him. Remarkably, he was deemed well enough to receive visitors by 12 May and the first were Bert and Betty Irvin. Irvin wrote: John was in his single room in Ward C9 with balloons tied to his bedhead. Watercolours and drawings that he's done since he's been here were on the walls as was the photograph of him and Helen by Lord Snowdon and several of his postcards.The rest were in a box under his bed. He looked yellow and his eyes were very yellow, as Helen had warned us. He was magnificent. His will to survive and his optimism were indomitable. His sense of humour was superbly and ridiculously intact, as when he insited that we have photographs taken with him with his pyjamas open & his operation and pipes, and bottles and bags on display". Albert Irvin was known as "Uncle Bert" to the Bellany family. Note 2: Collector demand has never been higher for the work of John Bellany and numerous examples have been sold in recent months by both McTear's and others at ever more impressive prices. In The Scottish Contemporary Art Auction of 29th May 2022 "The Finnon Smoker" by Bellany sold for £80,000 (hammer) and in the same sale, "Bass Rock Fable" (a 76 x 61cm unframed oil) sold for £12,000 (hammer). In our 21st August 2022 auction, lot 137 "The Newspaper Hat" (a 61 x 51cm oil) sold for £9500 (hammer). "Like-for-like" auction prices for original paintings are usually difficullt to assess, but in The Scottish Contemporary Art Auction of April 2023, two Bellany paintings which had been acquired in our auctions in September and November 2014 were consigned for sale by the same owner. The original 2014 selling prices were £1800 and £4000 and the same paintings sold in April for £3800 and £7000 (all hammer prices). This equates to a growth in value of 86.2% in fewer than nine years. In The Scottish Contemporary Art Auction of 25th May 2023, lot 282, "Restless Wave" a 90 x 90cm oil (by Bellany) sold for £9000 (hammer) and in our auction of 9th November, lot 92, "Harbour" a 90 x 120cm oil by Bellany sold for £11000 (hammer).