- 15
Sir William Dobell (1899-1970)
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Description
Sir William Dobell (1899-1970)
WANGI BOY
Oil on composition board
Signed lower left
54 by 43cm
Painted in 1948-49
Provenance:
Isaac Norman Schureck until 1961; his Estate sale, Lawson's, 1962
James Fairfax
Private collection
Sotheby's, 26 July 1987, lot 409A
Exhibited:
William Dobell Retrospective, Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney,
15 July - 30 August 1964, cat. 137
Dobell in Lake Macquarie, Lake Macquarie City Art Gallery, 19 August -
17 September 1995, cat. 17
Reference:
Gleeson, J., William Dobell, Thames & Hudson, London, 1964, cat.186,
p.198 and Angus & Robertson, Sydney, rev.edn 1981, p.182
Adams, B., William Dobell, Portrait of an Artist, Vintage, Sydney, rev.edn 1992, pp.289, 319
Dobell in Lake Macquarie, Lake Macquarie City Art Gallery, 1995, cat. 17, illus.
After the personal and professional trauma of the court case over his Archibald Prize portrait of Joshua Smith, Dobell retreated to Wangi Wangi on the central coast of New South Wales. There he was nursed by his sister Alice at the family's weekender on the foreshore of Lake Macquarie.
Landscape painting was a solace and restorative and in 1948 Dobell won the Art Gallery of New South Wales's Wynne Prize for Landscape. Then, that same year, his portrait of Margaret Olley won him a second Archibald Prize and his confidence in figure painting returned.
'I prefer', he later said, 'to be doing character work' (quoted by Peter Raissis in Pearce, B. (ed.), William Dobell, The Painter's Progress, Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney, 1997, p.90). Wangi Boy is both 'character work' and landscape. In fact it is also a portrait - of his great-nephew Harry Stephenson (who later became his regular chauffeur to Sydney). But this is not the painting's chief importance: Stephenson himself recalled that Dobell simply 'took a liking to the shirt, jeans and beanie' and asked the child to sit for him on his mother's knee. The landscape came from Dobell's 'imagination' (undated press clipping, c.1987).
The result, with its rich translucent glazes, evokes the mood rather than the specific topography of Wangi - where Dobell was to paint for the rest of his life. The setting is almost surreal: equally bisected into land and sky by a line of lake-horizon. The small boat on the left is boldly abstracted; the tree to the right almost zoomorphic in its skeletal curves.
The 'Wangi Boy' himself is an archetypal country lad in his turned-up trousers, far-too-long sleeves and knitted beanie. Yet there is a thoughtfulness to him, as he looks out at the viewer, that seems composed and wise beyond his years.
When this painting was auctioned by Lawson's in 1962 for 4000 guineas Robert Hughes called its sale a 'turning point' for the Australian art market. In 1987, at Sotheby's, it fetched the then record auction price of $264000. A larger but later variant was sold at auction in 1998 for $497500.
AU$ 250,000-350,000
WANGI BOY
Oil on composition board
Signed lower left
54 by 43cm
Painted in 1948-49
Provenance:
Isaac Norman Schureck until 1961; his Estate sale, Lawson's, 1962
James Fairfax
Private collection
Sotheby's, 26 July 1987, lot 409A
Exhibited:
William Dobell Retrospective, Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney,
15 July - 30 August 1964, cat. 137
Dobell in Lake Macquarie, Lake Macquarie City Art Gallery, 19 August -
17 September 1995, cat. 17
Reference:
Gleeson, J., William Dobell, Thames & Hudson, London, 1964, cat.186,
p.198 and Angus & Robertson, Sydney, rev.edn 1981, p.182
Adams, B., William Dobell, Portrait of an Artist, Vintage, Sydney, rev.edn 1992, pp.289, 319
Dobell in Lake Macquarie, Lake Macquarie City Art Gallery, 1995, cat. 17, illus.
After the personal and professional trauma of the court case over his Archibald Prize portrait of Joshua Smith, Dobell retreated to Wangi Wangi on the central coast of New South Wales. There he was nursed by his sister Alice at the family's weekender on the foreshore of Lake Macquarie.
Landscape painting was a solace and restorative and in 1948 Dobell won the Art Gallery of New South Wales's Wynne Prize for Landscape. Then, that same year, his portrait of Margaret Olley won him a second Archibald Prize and his confidence in figure painting returned.
'I prefer', he later said, 'to be doing character work' (quoted by Peter Raissis in Pearce, B. (ed.), William Dobell, The Painter's Progress, Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney, 1997, p.90). Wangi Boy is both 'character work' and landscape. In fact it is also a portrait - of his great-nephew Harry Stephenson (who later became his regular chauffeur to Sydney). But this is not the painting's chief importance: Stephenson himself recalled that Dobell simply 'took a liking to the shirt, jeans and beanie' and asked the child to sit for him on his mother's knee. The landscape came from Dobell's 'imagination' (undated press clipping, c.1987).
The result, with its rich translucent glazes, evokes the mood rather than the specific topography of Wangi - where Dobell was to paint for the rest of his life. The setting is almost surreal: equally bisected into land and sky by a line of lake-horizon. The small boat on the left is boldly abstracted; the tree to the right almost zoomorphic in its skeletal curves.
The 'Wangi Boy' himself is an archetypal country lad in his turned-up trousers, far-too-long sleeves and knitted beanie. Yet there is a thoughtfulness to him, as he looks out at the viewer, that seems composed and wise beyond his years.
When this painting was auctioned by Lawson's in 1962 for 4000 guineas Robert Hughes called its sale a 'turning point' for the Australian art market. In 1987, at Sotheby's, it fetched the then record auction price of $264000. A larger but later variant was sold at auction in 1998 for $497500.
AU$ 250,000-350,000