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• Auction House:
  Mossgreen
• Sale Name:
  Important Art
• Sale Date:
  20 Nov 2017 ~ 6.30pm
• Lot #:
  11
• Lot Description:
  Justin O’Brien
  (1917-1996)
  Woman Talking to an Angel in a Tree, (1976)
  oil on canvas
  47.5 x 35.5 cm 
  signed upper right: ‘O’BRIEN’; inscribed verso with title: Woman talking to an Angel in a Tree
• Provenance:
  Macquarie Galleries, Sydney (label verso); Private collection, New South Wales
• Exhibited:
  Justin O’Brien, Macquarie Galleries, Sydney, 13–25 October 1976, cat. no. 5
• References:
  Justin O’Brien, Macquarie Galleries, Sydney, 1976, (unpaginated catalogue);Anthony Bradley, The Art of Justin O’Brien, The Craftsman’s Press, Sydney, 1982, pp. 26, 76, 77 (illustrated)
• Notes:
  Justin O’Brien’s reputation rests largely on his religious oeuvre. Equally, much of Australia’s religious art history rests on the art of Justin O’Brien. With the exception of the eremite Leonard French, it is difficult to identify any artist that consistently concentrated their work on Christian imagery more than the methodical and devout O’Brien. The original source of O’Brien’s godly bent can be traced back to his parents – both dedicated Roman Catholics. However pious, his domestic conditions were equally liberal; interests in the arts were not only accepted, but often encouraged. It was in these private quarters, at age six, in the name of religious instruction, and perhaps art historical education, that O’Brien was first introduced to the art of the Renaissance. He later recalled with fondness ‘the sepia slides of Donatello’s David, Ghiberti’s Doors and Michelangelo’s Pieta. I remember how I used to look forward, so impatiently, while I was at school, for those special evenings to arrive.’1 Later, while O’Brien’s moral and dogmatic foundations were extended at the Christian Brother’s College in Sydney’s East, his artistic disposition was sharpened in the atelier of Edward Smith. A British portrait painter of little note, Smith was to be of some significance in the painterly guidance he provided his pupils. Smith’s Royal Academy grounding instilled in his young disciple an academic sense of refined style, ordered composition, chromatic balance, and above all, great skill in draughtsmanship. Following Smith’s traditional four-year apprenticeship, O’Brien continued his education at the more progressive and modern Peter Dodd Art School. In 1940, however, a sudden excited decision to join the army signalled an abrupt, if temporary, end to his serene existence. Sent to serve in Palestine and Greece, he soon became a prisoner to German soldiers, languishing in POW camps until the end of the war. In these conditions, he painted the odd portrait of fellow inmates, often using scavenged materials, making slow progress. It was not until his return to Sydney in 1944, that O’Brien began producing his first body of Christian-inspired compositions. Although it has been suggested that he was painting an ‘increasingly popular’ theme, the reality is that O’Brien was unconventional in his choice of subject matter.2 Post-World War II Australia, distinguished by rising secularisation, saw religious art becoming increasingly démodé. Abstract Expressionism and Minimalism, imported from the US, were dominating the local studios. With increasing self-referential and real-world substance making it onto canvas, very few found the space for divine manifestations. Despite these contradictory circumstances, in 1951, the Blake Prize for religious art was founded.3 With little serious competition, O’Brien’s The Virgin Enthroned (National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne) was the obvious winning entry.4 Woman Talking to an Angel in a Tree, was exhibited in 1976 at Macquarie Galleries and featured on the cover of the associated catalogue. The show centred around a nucleus of only eight oil paintings (including a loan from the Rockhampton Art Gallery) and accompanied by a larger assortment of twenty-six watercolours and drawings. The exhibition sold extremely well and the National Gallery of Australia in Canberra purchased two works including View at Tivoli (circa 1974-6). Curiously, none of the exhibits carried any religious titles or explicitly divine references. Indeed, the vast majority of the works were still life subjects of fruit, flowers, baskets, landscapes and house portraits. Even in the present work, the religious connection is only hinted at with the presence of an angel. In his major monograph on the artist, Anthony Bradley correctly identified that the present work was ‘really a moonlight annunciation’.5 O’Brien produced a number of variations on the theme of the annunciation. They include: the study for a commission from the Church of the Annunciation in Nazareth, Israel, Annunciation, 1968 (private collection, Sydney); Madonna and Angel 1968-9 (St Paul’s Collage, University of Sydney); the Small Annunciation (Hamilton Art Gallery, Victoria); the large triptych, the Annunciation, 1974 (Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery, Hobart) and Study for Annunciation (private collection, sold Christie’s, 22 November 2005, lot 65, $89,625). The implied subject matter, however, is where the common threads end. The boy with wings and the woman in a blue-grey palla and red tunic allude to the Archangel Gabriel and the Virgin Mary. Unlike O’Brien’s earlier versions of the episode, where the figures are set with golden halos, the sacred positions of the two figures here is not made explicit. Earlier examples echo more heavily the style and model proposed by Duccio di Buoninsegna’s Annunciation of the Virgin’s Death 1308-1311 (Opera del Duomo) or were represented as frescos with the paintings, further removing them from any realistic representation. Angel talking to Woman in a Tree, on the other hand, is set amongst a bucolic moon-lit Tuscan farm. The scene’s naturalistic context is underscored by a web of twisting and intertwining tree trunks and branches on which the angel figure rests (conceivably an unprecedented solution in the iconographic history of the subject). The gilt skies that covered many of O’Brien’s paintings is here replaced with a natural twilight-blue backdrop. Although the composition is largely built up on flat planes of soft colours, the illusion of perspective is more convincingly suggested than previously. The only notable nod to the mediaeval masters is seen in the lunette that crowns the composition – a common aspect of Trecento panels that have been divorced from their original polyptych, and reframed, exposing the earthy under-paint. Woman Talking to an Angel in a Tree, (1976) – kept in the one collection for over forty years – is a charming figure and landscape study from the small and refined oeuvre of Justin O’Brien. It illustrates the artist ability to imply religious imagery within the context of a secular environment. In pursuit of this fine balance, he has produced an elegant picture that compliments the spiritual essence of Italian landscape and its cultural heritage. Petrit Abazi 1 Cited in Christine France, Justin O’Brien: image and icon, Craftsman House, Sydney, 1987, p. 9; 2 See Ibid., p. 12; 3 The move to set up a major prize for religious art can be read more as a push to ignite religious fervour in Australian art than as a response to a growing interest in the genre. 4 Other notable entrants included Donald Friend, Michael Kmit, Paul Haefliger and Arthur Boyd. See ‘Religious art: Blake Prize exhibition’, in The Sydney Morning Herald, 13 March 1951, p. 7 ; 5 Anthony Bradley, The Art of Justin O’Brien, Craftsman’s Press, 1982, p. 26.
• Estimate:
  A$40,000 - 60,000
• 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.