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Album Da Disegno 'Spirale'; Castledaccia, Sicily, 1956

Artist: McClure, David, RSA · 1926-1998Papermaker: Fabriano · b. 1264

Album Da Disegno 'Spirale'; Castledaccia, Sicily, 1956

On completion of his studies at Edinburgh College of Art in 1955, McClure was awarded the Andrew Grant Travelling Scholarship. He used the award to…

On completion of his studies at Edinburgh College of Art in 1955, McClure was awarded the Andrew Grant Travelling Scholarship.

He used the award to live and work in two very different island resorts; Millport on Great Cumbrae off the west coast of Scotland, and Casteldaccia on the northern coast of Sicily in the Mediterranean.

McClure, alongside his wife Joyce and the couple's baby son, Robin, arrived in Sicily in November 1956 after six months in Florence where they had arrived in May following their time at Millport.

The Sicilian coastal town was not populous and its economy based on agriculture and fishing was male dominated and was still largely conducted as it had been for centuries.

The town was also famous as the seat of the Sicilian wine trade and the McClure's found accommodation on the top floors of the battlemented Castel D'Accia on the main square, the ground floor of which remained connected with the wine making originally established there by the Duca di Salaparuta in 1826.

The sketchbook is commercially manufactured probably by the firm of paper manufacturers, Fabriano and the sketches on the first two leaves are dated November 1956, indicating that McClure lost no time after his arrival in getting started.

The original quota of leaves is not given but only fifteen remain intact.

The collation is as follows;
front cover: thin brown card printed in brown ink
leaf 1 (recto) landscape format sketch of a landscape with farm buildings on the horizon and cacti, grasses and trees in the foreground [dated Nov 56 at bottom left] with brown paint marks at bottom left
leaf 1 (verso) blank
leaf 2 (recto) landscape format sketch of a landscape with trees and colour notes [dated Casteldaccia Nov 56 at bottom left]
leaf 2 (verso) blank
leaf 3 (recto) landscape format sketch of a landscape with a boy in shorts standing amongst grasses in foreground with a village on a hill in the distance, with colour notes
leaf 3 (verso) blank
leaf 4 (recto) landscape format landscape sketch of a townscape on a hill with a prominent church, with colour notes
leaf 4 (verso) blank
leaf 5 (recto) portrait format sketch of a seated man wearing a cap and a silhouette of a woman in a black skirt
leaf 5 (verso) blank
leaf 6 (recto) portrait format sketch of a hunched man wearing a cap and jacket
leaf 6 (verso) blank
leaf 7 (recto) portrait format sketch of a young man wearing cap and jacket leaning against a post or door jamb, his hands in his trouser pockets, his legs crossed
leaf 7 (verso) blank
leaf 8 (recto) landscape format sketch of a shop front with the name UZZO with colour notes
leaf 8 (verso) colour notes for sketch on leaf 9(r) and paint splashes
leaf 9 (recto) landscape format townscape sketch of old buildings by a harbour, with boats in foreground with colour notes
leaf 9 (verso) oil stains and paint splashes
leaf 10 (recto) oil stains and paint splashes, landscape sketch of the prow of a wooden row boat on stocks with colour notes
leaf 10 (verso) oil stains
leaf 11 (recto) portrait format sketch of the head and shoulders of a moustached man in jacket and cap with colour notes
leaf 11 (verso) oil and paint stains
leaf 12 (recto) landscape format townscape sketch of building with window shutters and a balcony in a square at left and trees to right with colour notes
leaf 12 (verso) pastel marks
leaf 13 (recto) landscape sketch of pantiled buildings by a harbour with boats in a bay with colour notes
leaf 13 (verso) blank
leaf 14 (recto) landscape sketch of a church and trees and colour notes
leaf 14 (verso) portrait format streetscape of buildings on a narrow street with a sign reading BIBITE with colour notes
leaf 15 (recto) landscape format tonal sketch of a church with a multi-domed roof with colour notes
leaf 15 (verso) portrait format of a streetscape Via Tukory with a seated man under a parasol by a street stance with colour notes
rear cover

RSA Archives holds a small group of original correspondence relating to McClure's Sicilian trip.

The sketchbook was manufactured by the long established Italian papermaking firm of Fabriano

© The Royal Scottish Academy