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• Auction House:
  Bonhams Australia
• Sale Name:
  Important Australian Art
• Sale Date:
  25 Nov 2020 ~ 6pm (AEDT)
• Lot #:
  10
• Lot Description:
  Tom Roberts
  (1856-1931)
  Kallista, 1920
  oil on canvas on plywood
  45.0 x 35.5cm (17 11/16 x 14in).
  signed and dated lower left: 'Tom Roberts 20'
• Provenance:
  Mr H.D. Giddy, Melbourne; Lady F. Giddy, Melbourne; Christie's, Melbourne, 6 March 1970, lot 108; The Bugle Galleries, South Australia (label attached verso); Lawsons, Sydney, 16 July 1991, lot 228B, as Kallista, Dandenongs; Private collection, Sydney; Bonhams, Melbourne, 18 August 2014, lot 19; Private collection, Melbourne
• Exhibited:
  Probably Exhibition of Paintings by Tom Roberts, Athenaeum Hall, Melbourne, 30 March - 17 April 1920, cat. 60, as Hill and Valley; Tom Roberts - Retrospective Exhibition, National Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney, November 1947 - January 1948; National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne, February - March 1948; Art Gallery of South Australia, Adelaide, May 1948, cat. 33 (label attached verso); 2nd Anniversary Exhibition, The Bugle Galleries, South Australia, March 1977 - 17 April 1977
• References:
  Tom Roberts Exhibition, The National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne, Souvenir Catalogue, 1948, p. 14; Helen Topliss, Tom Roberts 1856-1931, A Catalogue Raisonne, Oxford University Press, Melbourne, 1985, Volume 1, cat. 517, as The View from Kallista
• Notes:
  Within the cannon of Australian landscape painting the Dandenong Ranges in Victoria have been of enduring interest. From early depictions such as Eugene von Guerard's Ferntree Gully in the Dandenong Ranges, 1857, the verdant landscape just outside Melbourne with its dense temperate rainforest and tall Mountain Ash trees has been a recurring subject. Tom Roberts, like his close friend and painting companion Arthur Streeton, would revisit the landscape and motif throughout his career, ultimately returning towards the end of his life to live there with his family. Early explorations of the subject such as Across the Dandenongs, 1889, exhibited in the 9x5 exhibition and now held in the collection of the National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne, foreshadow what was to be a deepening love for the ranges with its gullies and vistas. Following his return to Australia from London in 1919, Roberts immersed himself in painting, exhibiting in 1920 at the Atheneaum Gallery in March. Along with a group of Italian and English subjects, the exhibition also featured studies painted in and around the Sassafras Forest, with Kallista possibly catalogue 60, then titled Hill and Valley. In 1923, Roberts and his wife Lillie purchased land in South Sassafras, soon renamed Kallista, and built a wooden house which they called 'Talisman', spending the remainder of their lives amongst the beloved bush. Purchased by Mr H.D. Giddy, then Chairman of the National Bank, Kallista, 1920 was one of the few privately owned paintings to be selected for inclusion in the 1947-1948 travelling retrospective. Exhibited alongside masterpieces such as Bailed up, 1895, now in the collection of the Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney, and Shearing the Rams, 1890, now in the collection of the National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne, the retrospective of some 90 works was considered a fitting tribute. Of particular note was a broadly syndicated review which described 'the history of Australian art may be likened to a river fed by many tributaries. Some of the tributaries have been of but small significance; others have been like rivers themselves, whose force and volume irresistibly alter the course of the main stream... The retrospective exhibition of 90 pictures by Tom Roberts, now being held at the National Gallery, Melbourne, is therefore both fitting and welcome. Fitting, as a further tribute to the memory of the man who gave to Australia the nucleus of an authentic art as distinct from the derivative European product of his predecessors; welcome, as a salutary reminder of the values for which he stood in both art and life. Sincerity, integrity in fine craftsmanship, and a sensitive appreciation of the beauty in all its subtle forms — these were the tenets of his code. "To paint what you love and to love what paint" was his favourite dictum, it is this spirit of joy in the doing that pervades the whole exhibition, and makes it a stimulating episode in the current affairs of art.'1 1. 'Tom Roberts', Gippsland Times, Victoria, 8 March 1948, p. 4
• Estimate:
  A$120,000 - 160,000
• 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.