This work was inspired by Berthe Morisot’s Le Cerisier (The Cherry Tree) of 1891. Scott uses elements of Morisot’s composition as a springboard: the diagonals of an A-frame ladder, the outlines of dresses, the arch of the tree’s foliage, and negative spaces of blue sky. As a young artist, Scott was drawn to Morisot’s painting for its daring brushwork and bold experimentation, and he spent a summer visiting her family in France; he is now an authority on her work. What he loves about Morisot’s Le Cerisier—its rigorous structure, its sunny colors—is expressed in his painting, in his personal idiom.
Scott studied and taught at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts (PAFA), focusing on figure painting and still life. He has had solo exhibitions in London, New York, Philadelphia, and San Francisco, and has been included in numerous group shows. In 2004, he was awarded an Independence Foundation Fellowship in the Arts and the Adolph and Clara Obrig Prize from the National Academy Museum in New York; in 2006, he received the Distinguished Alumni Award from PAFA. His work is in public collections including Woodmere, the Philadelphia Museum of Art, the Cleveland Museum of Art, the Delaware Art Museum, and others. Scott is represented by Hollis Taggart in New York.
