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• Auction House:
  Mossgreen
• Sale Name:
  Fine Australian & International Art
• Sale Date:
  29 Aug 2016 ~ 6.30pm - Part 1 (Lots 1 - 78)
  30 Aug 2016 ~ 2.30pm - Part 2 (Lots 79 - 328)
• Lot #:
  6
• Lot Description:
  Rupert Bunny
  (1864-1947)
  Offrande aux Nymphes (Offering to the Nymphs), (1991-1921)
  oil on canvas
  81.5 x 65.5 cm
  signed with monogram lower left: RCWB
• Provenance:
  The Estate of Rupert Bunny, Melbourne; By descent; Private collection, New South Wales; Important Australian & International Art, Sotheby's Australia, Melbourne, 26 November 2013, lot no. 34; Private collection, Melbourne
• Exhibited:
  Exposition Rupert Bunny, Tableaux, Galeries Georges Petit, Paris, 2-15 May 1922, cat. no. 12, (as Offrande aux nymphes); Salon d'Automne, Paris, 5 November-18 December 1927, cat. no. 305, (as L'Offrande); Exhibition of Paintings by Rupert C. W. Bunny, Hogan's Art Gallery, Melbourne, 23 September-10 October 1936, cat. no. 19, (as Offering to the Nymphs), 40 gns
• References:
  Gustave Kahn, 'La Revue de la Quinzaine - Arts - Le Salon d'Automne. La Peinture', Mercure de France, Paris, vol. 200, no. 707, 1 December 1927, p 442; David Thomas, Rupert Bunny, Lansdowne Press, Melbourne, 1970, cat. no. O317; Included in David Thomas, The Life and Art of Rupert Bunny: A Catalogue Raisonn , to be published by Thames & Hudson in 2017
• Notes:
  Connoisseurs have long regarded Rupert Bunny's late mythological decorations as among his most original works. A. J. L. McDonnell, one-time London advisor to the National Gallery of Victoria's Felton Bequest was a keen collector of them, as likewise in Sydney Dr Ewan Murray-Will. As once remarked to me by his Sydney dealer Lucy Swanton, Bunny regarded his allegorical works as his best.1 Schooled by his father in the ancient myths of classical Greece and Rome, his familiarity with them was such that, as Swanton recalled, he '.. would speak of the Olympian gods and goddesses, the Greek heroes and their women as casually and familiarly as of next door neighbours with a smile for the charmers and that look of distaste for the vengeful and meddling ladies'.2 They peopled his paintings throughout his long creative life, the later ones taking on a new life inspired by the audacity, colour and vitality of Sergei Diaghilev's Ballets Russes which captivated Parisienne sensibilities from 1909 onwards. Outstanding paintings include The Rape of Persephone c.1913 in the collection of the National Gallery of Australia, Canberra, Circe and Ulysses c.1917 in the Geelong Art Gallery, and Courtisanes ˆ la Campagne c.1920 in the National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne. Rhythmic movement and ravishing colour combined to captivate the eye and delight the senses. In Paris his decorations met with considerable acclaim. Gustave Kahn enthused about those shown in 1918 at the Galerie Brunner: 'Five decorative panels bear witness here to the great talent of M. Rupert Bunny.... he has done nothing as truly elegant and attractive as the Danse d'Amour or the Cour du Harem with their luminous and festive atmosphere'.3 Offrande aux Nymphes c.1919 was prominent among the twenty-four exhibited at the prestigious Galeries Georges Petit, Paris, in 1922. They caused quite a sensation,Thi bault-Sisson in Le Temps describing the paintings as 'shimmering compositions, rich as tapestries enlivened with attractive and frankly seductive nudes'.4 The crowning success was the purchase by the French State of Nausicaa, now in the Mus e D partemental de l'Oise, Beauvais. In Offrande aux Nymphes, while the actual offering made by the mere mortals from their full jars eludes detection, (Bunny's references are sometimes quite opaque), the nymphs below are quite clearly associated with springs and streams of water. Water flows throughout Bunny's art as a favourite theme. His first work to enter the collection of the National Gallery of Victoria, Sea Idyll c.1891, had a family of Tritons on the seashore.5 Later, ladies of la belle...poque rested by still waters, and the twenties saw seas and rivers abound in landscapes of the south of France. For Bunny the symbolic associations for water seem endless - the source of life, rebirth and cleansing, as for our painting. In others there are associations with danger, destruction and the unconscious. In a related painting, Les Danaïdes c.1918, (private collection), the eternal punishment of the murderous daughters of Danaus was to pour water into a leaking vessel that never filled. Unlike many of his Australian contemporaries who ran dry in their later years, Bunny's art grew richer in colour and invention. Although wedded to the figurative, his later mythologies responded to the colour brilliance and rhythmic verve of Matisse, figured with images drawn from classical Greek vase painting. David Thomas 1 Lucy Swanton, verbal information to the author, 6 May 1968. Swanton was co-director of the Macquarie Galleries where Bunny held many successful exhibitions during the early 1940s. Reddin, Colette, Rupert Bunny Himself: His Final Years in Melbourne, self-published, Melbourne, 1987, pp 175-76. 2 Lucy Swanton, 'Some personal recollections of Rupert Bunny in the forties', typed manuscript, 24 October 1967, collection David Thomas. 3 Gustave Kahn, 'Revue de la Quinzaine - Art - Exposition de l'American Art Association', Mercure de France, Paris, 16 March 1918, pp 321-22. 4 Thi bault-Sisson, 'Art & Curiosit - L'Exposition Bunny', Le Temps, Paris, 4 May 1922, p 5. 5 Sea Idyll was given to the National Gallery of Victoria by Bunny's early patron, Alfred Felton. It was the first and only gift to the Gallery made during his lifetime.
• Estimate:
  A$50,000 - 70,000
• 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.