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• Auction House:
  Mossgreen
• Sale Name:
  The Denis Joachim Collection
• Sale Date:
  19 Jun 2016 ~ 2pm - Session 1: Lots 1 - 321
  20 Jun 2016 ~ 10am - Session 2: Lots 322 - 480
  20 Jun 2016 ~ 2pm - Session 3: Lot 481 - 688
  20 Jun 2016 ~ 6pm - Session 4: Lots 689 - 818
• Lot #:
  717
• Lot Description:
  Rupert Charles Wulsten Bunny
  (1864–1947)
  Melbourne Botanical Gardens circa 1932-33; also known as Scene in Botanical Gardens; Lunch in the Gardens
  oil on canvas
  48 x 58 cm
  signed 'RB' in monogram lower left
  STUDIES: Sketch for ‘Melbourne Botanical Gardens’ c1932-33, oil on card,21 x 28 cm, signed I.r. monogram, Thomas catalogue raisonne (sold Mossgreen, 19 November 2013, lot 384, illus). Study for ‘Scene in Melbourne Botanic Gardens’, c1932-33, inscribed with colour notes, pencil on paper, 14.3 x 15.3 cm, State Library of Victoria, Marie Buesst Papers, MS9952, Thomas catalogue raisonne D566.
• Provenance:
  Mrs D. Thomas; Christie’s, 19 Jun 1978, lot 195, ‘Melbourne Botanical Gardens’, illus
• Exhibited:
  Exhibition of Paintings by Rupert C. W. Bunny. Scenes from the Botanical Gardens and other works, Athenaeum Art Gallery, Melbourne, 4-15 July 1933
• References:
  Turnbull, Clive and Buesst, Tristan, The Art of Rupert Bunny, Ure Smith, Sydney, [1948], p 72, ‘Lunch in the Gardens’, Mrs D. Thomas Studies: D566
• Notes:
  When Rupert Bunny returned to Melbourne in 1932, he was Australia’s most internationally acclaimed artist, having lived most of his life in Paris and exhibited successfully in Europe, the U.S.A. and Australia. On arrival, he was reported as saying, ‘The other day when I landed in Melbourne again after some years of absence in France, a question formed itself in my mind. There was the city, bathed in spring sunlight ... I asked myself, ‘Why cannot Melbourne become, as it were, a Paris of the Pacific?’1 With thoughts of settling permanently, he spent many sunny hours sketching in the Botanic Gardens. Quick pencil studies with colour notes were recorded in his sketchbooks or small compositional studies were made in oils for translation onto canvas back in his South Yarra studio. They were first exhibited as a group in his solo show at Melbourne’s Athenaeum Art Gallery in July 1933. Peopled with men and women watching children at play, relaxing under the trees, feeding the swans, or, as in our painting, picnicking on the grass, they would have recalled for Bunny the spring of 1909 when he painted similar engaging moments in the Luxembourg Gardens of Paris. Now, white swans were replaced by black. Today these paintings hang on some of the most celebrated walls in the country – Government House, Canberra; national and university collections; and the homes of perceptive admirers of Australian art, filling their rooms with the sparkling light of the Australian summer. David Thomas 1. Rupert Bunny, ‘What We Might Learn From Paris’, Herald, Melbourne, 22 October 1932, p 17.
• Estimate:
  A$30,000 - 50,000
• 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.