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• Auction House:
  Bonhams Australia
• Sale Name:
  Important Australian Art
• Sale Date:
  22 Apr 2021 ~ 6.30pm (AEST)
• Lot #:
  40
• Lot Description:
  Eric Wilson
  (1911-1946)
  Paris, 1940s
  oil on composition board
  50.0 x 40.0cm (19 11/16 x 15 3/4in).
  signed lower left: 'Eric Wilson'
• Provenance:
  Private collection, Sydney
• Notes:
  'There were two distinct strands to Wilson's art - the formal abstraction, and the drawings and paintings which were the fruits of his travels in vacation periods. Travelling light, using only pocket sketchbooks to record his responses to the Old World, he amassed a collection of drawings which were not only valuable in themselves but which also provided the bases for a large number of impressive paintings later. These drawings are now widely dispersed in both public galleries and private collections throughout Australia. We have seen few of his drawings of London or, indeed, of England but there is much evidence that Paris stimulated him more and moved him to greater creative activity. It was not the large-scale vistas of the master-planned metropolis that mattered most to him, but the more intimate curves and corners of narrow streets, and the bridges and tree-lined quays of the Seine. In the final count, I believe Eric Wilson will be best remembered by his European urban landscapes. Because these works were developed from drawings made on the spot, the artist was at liberty to treat them schematically, imprinting on them a very definite and personal style which gained in subtlety as the series progressed. They are distinguished by an underlying sense of construction, lively textures and enveloping atmosphere. Early gallery purchases in this genre were Rue de Norvius (Art Gallery of South Australia, 1941), Rue de la Bonne Montmartre (Art Gallery of New South Wales, 1942), and Scott Street, Glasgow (National Gallery of Victoria, 1942). Examples are now found in all the State galleries as well as in major regional galleries such as the Ballarat Art Gallery in Victoria and the Newcastle City Art Gallery in New South Wales. Fine works, too, passed into the possession of such discerning collectors as Sir Warwick Fairfax, Sir Keith Murdoch, Roland Instone, Norman Schureck and Dr Lloyd Rees whose Doorway in Venice is a small painting of singular quality. Hotel les Provences in the collection of Wood Hall Art Foundation, North Sydney, embodying as it does so many of the artist's best qualities, is Eric Wilson's last painting' Douglas Dundas, 'Eric Wilson', Art and Australia, Sydney, Volume 12, Number 1, July - September 1974, pp. 48-57
• Estimate:
  A$18,000 - 25,000
• 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.