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• Auction House:
  Bonhams Australia
• Sale Name:
  Important Australian Art
• Sale Date:
  24 Aug 2021 ~ 6pm (AEST)
• Lot #:
  12
• Lot Description:
  Justin O'Brien
  (1917-1996)
  Study for 'The Visitation', c.1968
  oil on paper
  29.0 x 39.5cm (11 7/16 x 15 9/16in).
  label attached verso with title: 'STUDY FOR VISITATION'
  RELATED WORK: The Visitation, 1968, oil on board, 45.5 x 33.0cm, in Christine France, Justin O'Brien: Image and Icon Chraftsman House, Sydney, 1987, p.112, fig. 14 (illus.)
• Provenance:
  Private collection, Sydney
• Notes:
  Most likely painted during the artist's second extended visit to the Greek island of Skyros, Christine France in her 1987 monograph noted, 'During the many months O'Brien spent in Skyros his work became increasingly naturalistic whilst at the same time expressing a deep spiritual feeling for the place. In Skyros Evening I, 1968, there is a celebration of light and form, however the religious connotation of the small figure on a donkey in the foreground relates human endeavour and thinking to the whole. This treatment of a diminutive figure dominated by landscape is also used in other works to express the timelessness of spiritual feeling. In Visitation, 1968, the whole meaning of what is essentially a study of landscape forms in the early evening light is changed by the introduction of two small figures dressed in long robes, whilst knowledge of the title immediately locates the work in Christian iconology. It is this bond between the physical and the spiritual which is most strongly expressed in O'Brien's works from this period.'
• Estimate:
  A$4,000 - 6,000
• 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.