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• Auction House:
  Deutscher and Hackett
• Sale Name:
  Important Australian and International Art
• Sale Date:
  29 Aug 2012 ~ 7pm
• Lot #:
  26
• Lot Description:
  Sali Herman
  (1898 – 1993)
  The Women Of Paddington, 1950
  oil on canvas
  45.5 x 61.0 cm
  signed and dated lower left: S. Herman, 50
• Provenance:
  Barry Stern Gallery, Sydney; Private collection, Sydney
• Notes:
  The rich vein of humanitarianism that runs throughout Sali Herman’s art finds ideal expression in The Women of Paddington 1950. The older parts of inner Sydney, of Paddington and Woolloomooloo and their Victorian terraces attracted Herman during the forties as much as the people and street life around them. He was so fascinated by their character, both architectural and human, that he produced a series of paintings which today are not only full of the social history of a time now past, but are also fascinating as works of art. It began with McElhone Stairs (National Gallery of Australia, Canberra), which was awarded the 1944 Wynne Prize, accompanied by the howls of outrage that then plagued art prizes. Sydney Scene 1946 was acquired by Yehudi Menhuhin, The Law Courts 1946 went to the National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne, via the Felton Bequest, and the Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney added Near the Docks 1949 to its collections. Other prominent private and public collectors gained similar works. Mr and Mrs Kenneth Myer chose the engaging Feeding the Cats 1952, and the state galleries in Adelaide and Perth acquired Reconstruction 1950 and Woolloomooloo 1952 respectively. Herman painted old Sydney, then slums, with sympathy, a fresh eye and a lively mind. ‘To anybody used to pictures of gum trees and the harbour,’ he said, ‘my slum pictures were startling. But I painted houses, because houses are part of people and people are part of houses.’1 These pictures are peopled with anecdote – a woman sweeps the front footpath, or stands in the doorway watching the passing parade, a child chases a dog, and others play in a vacant lot. The relaxed and casual continue in The Women of Paddington where two young mothers chatting, hold babies in their arms, a small girl holds her mother’s skirt, a baby in a pram, and the eldest of the children sits wide-legged on the footpath. For those who lived in these small, often cramped terrace houses, the street offered the place to socialize. In our painting the narrative continues in the detail of a black dog, a black cat peers inquisitively from a balcony, there are hanging baskets of flowers, and patterned tiles on the verandahs. Herman also involves the personalities of the houses themselves, as in the peeling paint. As Barry Pearce observed, ‘With a palette knife he plastered and scraped his pigments across the canvas so that the textures took on the very character of the buildings he was portraying.’2 The golden further glow enriches our painting. Through paintings such as these, where ideas, technique, and humanism harmonize, Sali Herman has long endeared himself to collectors. 1. Herman, quoted in Hetherington, J., Australian Painters: Forty Profiles, F.W. Cheshire, Melbourne, 1963, p. 77 2. Pearce, B., Swiss Artists in Australia, 1777–1991, Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney, 1991, p. 68 DAVID THOMAS
• 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.