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• Auction House:
  Mossgreen
• Sale Name:
  The Ruth & John Clemente Collection
• Sale Date:
  11 Nov 2012 ~ 2.30pm
• Lot #:
  6
• Lot Description:
  Benjamin Duterrau
  (born London 1767; arrived Hobart 1832; died Hobart 1851)
  Portrait of the Walker Children
  oil on canvas
  63.5 x 74.5cm
• References:
  Waldemar Walker, ÒJohn Walker (1799-1874)Ó in Australian Dictionary of Biography; Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery correspondence; Christie's Sale, lot no. 402 October 1974; Joan Kerr (ed.), The Dictionary of Australian Artists: Painters, Sketchers, Photogravers and Engravers to 1870, pp. 245-6 (the painting is wrongly listed as belonging to the Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery).
• Notes:
  Provenance: John Walker to his daughter Margaret Wolfhagen (nŽe Walker), thence by descent to his great grandson, John Waldemar Wolfhagen; sold to Foscan Fine Art April 1974; acquired by Dr and Mrs J.F. Clemente. The Walker children's father made his fortune as a miller, merchant, brewer and landowner. Arriving at Hobart Town from Scotland in 1822, John Walker married Janet Glass, his first wife and mother of the children in 1827, the same year he became Government miller. Business prospered, enabling him to buy Clarendon, the colony's grandest house and the centre of a large pastoral enterprise in 1842. Walker entered public life, becoming Chief Town Commissioner of Hobart in 1846. He was elected to the Legislative Council as a member for Brighton in 1851 and with the introduction of responsible government, he represented Hobart in the Upper House. Duterrau's portrait belongs to the decades of the 1830s and 1840s during which he painted a number of Tasmania's early settlers. He had been apprenticed to an engraver in London where he exhibited portraits and genre pieces at the Royal Academy and the British Institute. In 1832 at the relatively late age of 65, he arrived at Hobart accompanied by his only daughter. He showed works brought from London in his Campbell Street studio in the hope of attracting commissions and he contributed to the town's cultural life, lecturing at the Mechanics' Institute on the importance of the fine arts to the future development of the colony. One of the first artists to execute accurate portraits of Aboriginal subjects, his best known work is The Conciliation (Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery), featuring the Aboriginal 'protector' George Augustus Robinson. The suggested date of c. 1839 for this portrait is supported by the appearance of the eldest Walker boy who could well have been about twelve years old at the time. Evidently, he predeceased his father since it was the second son, John Fletcher Walker, who stood in line to inherit Clarendon. John must therefore be the third and youngest child in the painting wearing a short dress, as was customary for young boys at the time until old enough to be 'breeched' or clothed in trousers. The little girl holding the rose is Walker's only daughter, Margaret. She later travelled to England with her widowed father where she met her future husband, Frederick Ferdinand Wolfhagen. The engagement of Duterrau's daughter as governess to the Lieutenant-Governor's children gave him immediate entrŽe to Hobart's government house circles. While he painted both Sir George and Lady Arthur and other members of local society, he was less popular than his rival Thomas Bock. However, Duterrau's comparatively rare portraits show that he had a sharp eye for reality, bringing out an individual's appearance without the veneer of flattery so often employed by professional portraitists. On the other hand, his love of vibrant colour contributes much to the aesthetic value of his paintings, nowhere more than in this sparkling portrait of the Walker children. Here the high-key colour perfectly matches the charming freshness of the young sitters and their decorative pets. The careful definition of each child's features balanced by the artist's tendency to simplify form has resulted in the most engaging example of Duterrau's oeuvre. Caroline Clemente
• Estimate:
  A$80,000 - 100,000
• Realised Price:
  *****
  

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• Category:
  Art

This Sale has been held and this item is no longer available. Details are provided for information purposes only.