At the conclusion of a dismal five-hour dash through incessant rain to London, James Shaw stood in silence as his son Michael’s broken body lay before him.
asserted
body → stand → him
He had expected to see him in his St Bartholomew’s Hospital bed, but death had come quickly – an hour before family members could reach him.
uncertain
members → expect → him
Their goodbyes were now being said in the mortuary chapel.
asserted
goodbyes → say → chapel
A devout Catholic and a Lanarkshire miner all his adult days, the father was a man rooted in traditional beliefs.
asserted
father → root → beliefs
It made the scene which followed all the more striking.
asserted
which → make → ?
After a brief eulogy, as Michael’s siblings were turning to leave, the father walked slowly towards his son, leaned forward and gently kissed him on his forehead.
asserted
father → turn → forehead
It was, says Michael’s older brother Peter, who was there that day 33 years ago, an act of ‘unconditional love’ which has been etched on his memory ever since.
asserted
which → say → memory
In 2006, the art investor found his own way to express his love for the ‘beautiful soul’ lost to his family so tragically young.
asserted
investor → find → family
It lay in a painting which he vowed to secure, even if it meant breaking the auction investor’s cardinal rule: he entered a bidding war without setting himself an upper limit.
The estimate for Robert Colquhoun’s 1945 canvas Actors on a Stage was £30,000 but that figure came and went in a heartbeat.
asserted
figure → lie → heartbeat
It broke through £40,000 and, minutes later, £50,000 – and still the price climbed.
asserted
price → break → 40,000
‘There was no way I was losing it,’ says Mr Shaw.
asserted
Shaw → be → it
Something about the painting spoke to him in a way no other artwork had done before, or could do again.
uncertain
artwork → speak → way
Actors on a Stage, by Robert Colquhoun, which is now in Peter Shaw's collection
The connoisseur in him recognised the piece as an example of European modernism by a significant Scottish artist at the peak of his powers.
asserted
connoisseur → recognise → powers
But the bereaved brother saw in its depiction of an emotionally intimate scene between two men a representation of Michael.
asserted
brother → see → Michael
It seemed to embody who his sibling had been: a working-class gay man living in an age when acceptance was far from a given.
asserted
acceptance → seem → given
For Mr Shaw, its true value lay beyond art.
asserted
value → lie → art
The canvas was a sacred memorial for his brother – the most fitting tribute he could pay – and he had to have it.
uncertain
he → pay → it
The hammer finally came down at £60,000 – one of the highest prices ever paid for a Colquhoun artwork.
asserted
hammer → come → artwork
Who knows how much more the collector may have paid if his rival bidder had not flinched?
uncertain
bidder → know → more
Now, 20 years on, the painting is the most personally significant in a hoard of more than 12,000 treasures valued conservatively at more than £10million.
asserted
painting → value → 10million
Experts have described it as the finest private collection of Scottish artworks in the world.
asserted
Experts → describe → world
Mr Shaw is now seeking to gift everything – including the Colquhoun – to the nation.
asserted
Shaw → seek → nation
As the Mail revealed last month, he has hung none of his acquisitions on his own walls because he sees himself more as their guardian than their owner.
asserted
himself → reveal → owner
All he asks in return for the handover is a suitable public building within easy reach of working-class communities to display them.
asserted
he → ask → them
Publicity-shy and reclusive throughout his decades-long quest to build the most comprehensive collection possible, the 72-year-old is now anxious for the story behind his most momentous purchase to be told.
asserted
story → build → purchase
‘On a personal level, Actors on a Stage is by far the most important picture in my collection,’ he says.
asserted
he → say → collection
The realities of Michael Shaw’s short life are ones his brother feels both Robert Colquhoun and his fellow artist and lover Robert MacBryde would instinctively recognise.
asserted
Colquhoun → feel → life
All three moved to London to escape the culture of entrenched masculinity and overt prejudice prevalent in their part of the world.
asserted
three → move → world
Mr Shaw reveals Michael moved south in the mid-1970s after attempting to end his relationship with his Scottish boyfriend at the time.
asserted
Michael → reveal → time
He was threatened with being exposed as gay unless they remained a couple.
asserted
they → threaten → ?
‘Michael had not come out at that point, and rather than cause his parents pain, he suddenly left for London, saying he had got a job at the Home Office,’ says Mr Shaw.
asserted
Shaw → come → Office
‘It was only much later he told my sisters he was gay.
asserted
he → tell → sisters
Leaving home, not coming out, going through HIV and Aids until near death – all of it shows a man who thought first of his family rather than himself.
asserted
who → leave → family
We would have given much more support during his dark days had we known.’
asserted
we → give → days
Like the Two Roberts, as they came to be known, Michael had a bohemian streak and was passionate about many forms of art.
asserted
Michael → come → art
He was a talented actor in his youth and, at Glasgow University, studied classics.
asserted
He → study → classics
He was also an opera expert, regularly attending the Proms in London.
asserted
He → attend → London
Like his elder brother, his grounding in the visual arts began with the large print of Salvador Dali’s Christ of St John of the Cross hanging in the living room of the Bellshill cottage where they grew up with their seven siblings.
asserted
they → begin → siblings
His religious sensibilities never left him, even as he pursued a lifestyle he knew the church condemned.
asserted
church → leave → lifestyle
It was ‘typical of him,’ says Mr Shaw, that he called his mother in his final days to offer comfort by telling her: ‘I am reconciled to Mother Church.’
asserted
I → say → Church
…and 46 more, not listed.
The Aporia
