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Lot #77 - Clarice Beckett

  • Auction House:
    Deutscher and Hackett
  • Sale Name:
    Important Australian + International Fine Art including works from the collections of Joan Clemenger AO + Peter Clemenger AO Reg Grundy AC OBE + Joy
  • Sale Date:
    14 Sep 2022 ~ 7pm (AEST)
  • Lot #:
    77
  • Lot Description:
    Clarice Beckett
    (1887 - 1935)
    Trees Beside The Yarra River, c.1925
    oil on pulpboard
    25.0 x 35.5 cm
    signed lower left: C. Beckett
  • Provenance:
    Estate of Max Meldrum, Melbourne; Thence by descent; Private collection, Melbourne
  • Exhibited:
    Max Meldrum & Associates, Sotheby’s, Melbourne, 19 – 26 March 1997, cat. 75
  • Notes:
    Clarice Beckett painted several works featuring the Yarra River during the middle of the 1920s. By selecting a simple subject of the trees and river, she was able to transform the subject through tone into one of light and shade. Writing about Beckett in a feature article in The Age at this time, art critic Alexander Colquhoun states, ‘when Miss Clarice Beckett held her first show at the Athenaeum gallery in 1923, her work certainly found admirers, but the admiration was by no means general, and there was a good deal of confusion in the public mind as to whether she was a futurist, or only a new and dangerous variety of Meldrumite.’1 Neither her work, nor her way of working are, however, in any respect uncertain; rather merely the results of a sincere and reverent observation of Nature. As her teacher and mentor Max Meldrum observed following Beckett’s memorial exhibition in 1936 ‘the late Miss Beckett had done work of which any nation could be proud. No European critic would say that Miss Beckett belonged to any particular school, and that would be the highest compliment one could bestow. She ranked as a great artist.’2 1. Colquhoun, A., ‘Australian Artists of To-Day: Miss Clarice Beckett’, The Age, Melbourne, 18 July 1931, p. 7 ; 2. Meldrum, M., ‘Work of Clarice Beckett’, The Age, Melbourne, 5 May 1936, p. 9
  • Estimate:
    A$10,000 - 15,000
  • 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.



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