This sketchbook dates between 1923 and 1927 and shows Crozier’s using his experience in Europe to inform his work upon his return to Edinburgh. It was in the possession of his friend and painter William Gillies and was donated to the RSA in 1973 as part of the W G Gillies Bequest.
Pages 11 through 13 indicate the effect that industrialism had on Crozier’s work in cubism, using building sites and industrial architecture as inspiration in his sketches. In the loose papers seen on pages 15 and 16, there is evidence of Crozier working towards his painting Edinburgh (from Salisbury Crags) finished in 1927, which adopts the cubist techniques and architectural geometry Crozier discovered whilst travelling through France and Italy. Notes throughout the sketchbook remark on colours and features of the landscape, alongside sums mapping out the possible size of paintings.
Some of the sketches are shown upside down to stay true to the original object.
