We were fortunate to have had such a magnificent exhibition of John’s life’s work here in Edinburgh last winter. (National Gallery) All of the different phases of his painting were laid out before us… the early student masterworks…. the dark night of the soul following his visit to Buchenwald….the wild, wild period…recovery and redemption after his liver transplant …colour and a new veneration for life… the glorious Italian landscapes…. all the way through the ups and downs of his life until the last self portrait, painted on the day of his 70th birthday… surely one of the greatest paintings of human vulnerability ever made.
Alexander Moffat
John Bellany at home in Tuscany
With Alan Davie