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• Auction House:
  Mossgreen
• Sale Name:
  Fine Australian Art
• Sale Date:
  28 Oct 2014 ~ 6.30pm
• Lot #:
  10
• Lot Description:
  Bernard Fleetwood-Walker
  (British, 1893-1965)
  The Toilet circa 1936
  oil on canvas
  125 x 91 cm
  signed 'B. FLEETWOOD WALKER' lower left
• Provenance:
  Private Collection, Melbourne
• Exhibited:
  B. Fleetwood-Walker Memorial Exhibition, Royal Birmingham Society of Artists Exhibition, cat. no. 87
• References:
  The Royal Academy 1936, Water Judd Publishers, London p.106 (illustrated)
• Notes:
  Bernard Fleetwood-Walker was a British artist and art teacher, born in Birmingham, England and related on his maternal side to founding members of the Royal Watercolour Society. He initially trained as a silversmith and goldsmith before studying at the Birmingham School of Art and Crafts, among other institutions. The artist exhibited at the Royal Academy from 1925 and was known predominantly as a portrait painter and for his figurative paintings from the 1930s. Most of Fleetwood-Walker's paintings are in private collections, although a number of 1930s figurative works are in public collections, mostly in the United Kingdom. Although Fleetwood-Walker held a solo exhibition at the Ruskin Gallery, Birmingham in 1927, he generally showed at the art societies, where he was lauded. He was elected as an Associate of the Royal Academy and to the Royal Watercolour Society in 1946, as President of the Royal Birmingham Society of Artists in 1950 and as a Royal Academician in 1956 (Fleetwood-Walker had shown 147 works there over his career). In addition to the illustrious positions aforementioned, he was also a member of the Royal Society of Portrait Painters, the Royal Institute of Oil Painters and the New English Art Club. Over the Channel, the artist won bronze and silver medals at the Paris Salon.Ê Richard Seddon, in the catalogue for the Memorial Exhibition held at the Royal Birmingham Society of ArtistsÊin 1966, reminisced ÒHe allowed his style to develop to the full and kept moving throughout his active life as an artist; and from the drawing and painting of a conceptual clarity based on his disciplined skill with line, he progressed to a visual intensity that synthesised light, space and tactile qualities as unified images laid on the canvas with a spontaneity and breadth unsurpassed by many of his British contemporaries.Ó1 The Toilet is an early work by Fleetwood-Walker and it is typical of his neo-classical oeuvre from this period. It is particularly reminiscent of the Susannah and the Elders leitmotif prevalent throughout art history. An oil painting (Study for The Maidens, 1932) and a drawing (Study for Maidens, 1933) are related to this work. The former was exhibited at the Royal Birmingham Society of Artists Memorial Exhibition in 1966 (cat. no. 84), where it was erroneously catalogued as Study - TheÊToiletÊ1934. The latter was inscribed by the artist as Study for Maidens and dated 1933. However, Maidens actually pre-dates this study (it was painted in 1932) and the figure and composition more closely resemble a study for TheÊToilet, 1935. A version of The Toilet is also thought to have been exhibited at the Royal Academy Summer Exhibition in 1930 (cat. no. 265).2 Dr Shireen Huda 1 Richard Seddon quoted by Nicola Walker, http://www.fleetwood-walker.co.uk/biography.php , last accessed 9 September 2014 2 See ibid.
• 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.