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• Auction House:
  Mossgreen
• Sale Name:
  The Australian Art Collection of Sandra Powell & Andrew King
• Sale Date:
  19 Mar 2014 ~ 6.30pm
• Lot #:
  1
• Lot Description:
  Clarice Marjoribanks Beckett
  (1887-1935)
  The Red Bus
  oil on board
  36.5 x 44cm
  bears certificate of authenticity to verso signed by H.R Mangan (sister of the artist)
• Provenance:
  Rosalind Humphries Galleries; Private collection; Peter R. Walker Dealers in Fine Art, NSW
• Exhibited:
  Homage to Clarice Beckett: Idylls of Melbourne and Beaumaris, Rosalind Humphries Galleries, 30 October-20 November 1971, Melbourne, cat. 51 ('The Bus Stop')
• References:
  William Dargie, Homage to Clarice Beckett: Idylls of Melbourne and Beaumaris, 1971, Melbourne, p. 3 ('The Bus Stop')
• Notes:
  The Red Bus is an excellent example of one of Clarice Beckett's outer Melbourne suburban street scenes. It expresses her characteristic ability to catch the spontaneity of a lived moment, in an intensely lyrical and poetic manner. She found a distinctive beauty in the ordinary objects such as telegraph poles, strips of road, trams, cars, buses and the daily activity taking place in the street. In this painting the everyday scene is made extraordinary by an atmospheric dreamlike slice of landscape which in turn is contrasted with the subtle feeling of action. This comes from the sensation of the motion of the bus travelling uphill in opposition to the gently felt abstract figures moving away downhill. Beckett's use of the enveloping haze does not detract from the effect of the fresh atmosphere of a bright sunny morning in this painting, but serves to unify the scene and evoke a sense of quiet calm. Beckett achieves this with her famed use of soft dissolving edges, a difficult technical feat employed to create an atmospheric reality of emotional content, a characteristic of her modernist style. The lumbering red bus moves towards the viewer and alerts our attention with its bright colour and dark windows which eerily suggest no visible driver. This creates an eerie feeling of uncertainty and mystery which is reminiscent of the paintings of Edward Hopper who worked at a similar time to Beckett although half a world away. Beckett's modernism lies in her minimalist aesthetic and her ability to arouse an emotional response with her images. She was hailed for making the tarred road artistically acceptable and as the critic Mervyn Skipper wrote in The Bulletin 29 October 1930: She has become the most original painter ÉShe has merely abandoned conventions which earlier artists brought from Europe Éhas in fact done quite quietly and as if by accident what Australian poets and writers are only just beginning to do. Beckett was an innovative and extremely important figure in Australia's art history during the 1920's and early 30's. Her work is seldom found in auction rooms or galleries, and the Red Bus is a part of the first private collection to have ever come up for sale. Her influence and inspiration has been wide in contemporary Australian art beginning fifty years after her death. Her original label of artist's artist continues to be vindicated, although a more receptive public now are beginning to appreciate the beauty and allure of her ability to capture transient moments of life and the calming effect of her beautiful meditative images.
• Estimate:
  A$25,000 - 35,000
• 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.