In many ways John Bellany has always faced east – to the sea, during his childhood in the East Lothian fishing village of Port Seton; to the Low Countries and Germany, where as an art student he found inspiration in the work of Rubens, Rembrandt, Max Beckmann and Otto Dix; even to China, which he visited in 2003 and where he painted The Bundt Shanghai, a colourful scene of the city's famous waterway.
In many ways John Bellany has always faced east – to the sea, during his childhood in the East Lothian fishing village of Port Seton; to the Low Countries and Germany, where as an art student he found inspiration in the work of Rubens, Rembrandt, Max Beckmann and Otto Dix; even to China, which he visited in 2003 and where he painted The Bundt Shanghai, a colourful scene of the city's famous waterway.
John Bellany's 1964 triptych Allegory
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A retrospective of John Bellany charts the arc of his life from the east coast to his own impending end via illness, Italy, marriages and Mexico. By Barry Didcock
It sits in the room which closes this overdue survey of his rich, 50-year career, a huge block of orange-red dominating the painting's upper-right quadrant and looking for all the world like a vast, Impressionist sun rising in the sky.
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