In this work McCance shows himself reading a newspaper - an apt occupation for a self-portrait since the printed word played such a large role in his life. He contributed to many magazines, including Picture Post, was art critic of the Spectator for over three years in the 1920s (including the time when this work was painted); and in 1930 became controller of the Gregynog Press in Wales. Under McCance the Gregynog Press produced some of the highest quality books of any private press in Britain. His own painting style was formed by the new art movements that explored the dynamism of modern life and the nature of man in the machine age: the Cubism of the French painter Fernand Léger (1881-1955) and the Vorticism of the British writer and painter Wyndham Lewis (1882-1957). In The Result the dynamic contrasts between red and green and the interplay between formalised angularity and natural grace produce aesthetic tensions that brilliantly match the excitement associated with reading the sports pages.

William McCance, 1894-1970

Born in Cambuslang, McCance studied from 1911 to 1915 at Glasgow School of Art, where he met his wife, Agnes Miller Parker, a wood engraver. He spent the following years in semi-custody as a conscientious objector, and on his release in 1920 the couple moved to London. His painting developed rapidly, influenced by Cubism and Vorticism. McCance was also a talented printmaker, and in the 1920s he executed a series of abstract prints with a machine bias, similar to the work of Fernand Léger. In 1930 he became controller of the Gregynog Press in Wales, which produced limited-edition books. His three years at the Press mark its zenith, but his painting was curtailed drastically. He was lecturer in Typography and Book Production at Reading University from 1944 until 1960, when he returned to Scotland.