John Bellany was born at Port Seton in 1942 into a family of fishermen and boatbuilders, steeped in Calvinism as a child, his art is profoundly religious in its intimation of mortality. Throughout his career he painted elemental allegories encompassing the complexities of the human condition and anchored in the rich poetry of the sea.

After he moved to London in 1965 to study at the Royal College of Art, his vision and iconography became broader. In the 1970s, when his personal life was in turmoil, he embarked on a near fatal journey of self-destruction, which is reflected in the angst-ridden images in his paintings of the period.

In the late 1980s, after overcoming serious health issues his work became more optimistic ...