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• Auction House:
  Bonhams Australia
• Sale Name:
  Important Australian Art
• Sale Date:
  25 Nov 2020 ~ 6pm (AEDT)
• Lot #:
  16
• Lot Description:
  Thomas Bock
  (1790-1855)
  Two Sisters
  pastel and chalk on paper laid on canvas
  55.0 x 39.5cm (21 5/8 x 15 9/16in).
  signed and dated lower right: 'T Bock / 1852'
• Provenance:
  Private collection, United Kingdom
• Notes:
  In 1991, the Queen Victoria Museum and Art Gallery, Launceston in conjunction with the National Gallery of Australia held a major exhibition dedicated to the work of Thomas Bock. Senior curator at the time, Andrew Sayers discusses Bock's skills as a draughtsman: 'Thomas Bock's reputation rests almost entirely upon his group of portrait drawings of Tasmanian colonists made in the 1840's and 1850's. Although he painted large and impressive oils, our sense of his work as an oil painter has been confused, until now, as a result of various implausible attributions. Other manifestations of Bock's artistic activity, such as his engravings and photographs, and his watercolour drawings of the Tasmanian Aborigines have been rather obscure and the province of specialist attention. More portrait drawings from his hand have survived than any other type of work which he practised; more of these drawings are signed (some even dated) that any other kind of work in his oeuvre. The represent perhaps the only group of works in which is his stylistic identity is strongly present and in which a development can be meaningfully discerned... Most of the drawings on which his reputation was based come from the years after 1845. Before this date Bock does not seem to have enjoyed widespread reputation, the sort of reputation which would cause people to immediately think of him if they were contemplating have a portrait taken. When his works were shown in the 1945 exhibition the reviewer in the Hobart Town Advertiser was moved to comment that 'Mr Bock deserves more patronage than we fear he has gained'. This situation of 'neglect' which 'damps and artist's energies, and almost forbids him to rise in his profession' indeed appears to have changed after the mid-1840's. The relatively large number of works which have survived from the last decade of Bock's life attest to this change. However, it must be said that whatever societal disregard could be claimed of his career before 1845, Bock was recognised as a skilful and talented artist by a small, but important group of patrons at least from the early 1830's. Bock's finished portrait drawings are typical of English portrait drawing fashionable in the first half of the nineteenth century. They are usually executed in black chalk with touches of white chalk or gouache for highlights, for lace bonnets and shirt fronts. Occasionally there are touches of pastel, pink on the cheeks and lips and colour in the irises of the eyes. Often the hair is strengthened with a wash of black ink. The paper bock used was characteristically coloured, with the colour varying from cream to tan or grey. This paper was particularly manufactured for chalk or crayon drawing. The colour of the paper formed a mid-tone around which the artist disposed the darker and lighter tones, although in many cases the original delicacy of this tonal balance has been lost as a result of the darkening of the paper over time.'1 1. Andrew Sayers, Thomas Bock: Convict Engraver, Society Portraitist, Queen Victoria Museum and Art Gallery, Launceston and Australian National Gallery, Canberra, 1991, p. 19
• Estimate:
  A$8,000 - 12,000
• 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.