ROY DE MAISTRE

Possibly Adams Gallery, New Bond Street, London, May 1950
Iris Conlay Collection, United Kingdom
Private collection, United Kingdom

Gold timber frame with ivory wooded mount -under glass. Canvas resonably loose in the stretcher, would possibly benefit from being re-stretched. Paint loss to upper right corner against the frame rebate.
"In response to your inquiry, we are pleased to provide you with a general report of the condition of the property described above. Since we are not professional conservators or restorers, we urge you to consult with a restorer or conservator of your choice who will be better able to provide a detailed, professional report. Prospective buyers should inspect each lot to satisfy themselves as to condition and must understand that any statement made by Sotheby's is merely a subjective, qualified opinion. Prospective buyers should also refer to any Important Notices regarding this sale, which are printed in the Sale Catalogue.
NOTWITHSTANDING THIS REPORT OR ANY DISCUSSIONS CONCERNING A LOT, ALL LOTS ARE OFFERED AND SOLD AS IS" IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE CONDITIONS OF BUSINESS PRINTED IN THE SALE CATALOGUE."

One of the acknowledged pioneers and masters of Australian Post-Impressionism, Roy de Maistre spent the second half of his life in England, where the present work was painted. Only recently discovered, it is a reversed version of the well known Studio Still Life with Lamp, and is also related in period and subject to The Green Shade, 1946-49 (Arts Council of Great Britain).¹ It is typical of the artist's high-key, richly-patterned modernist figuration, a mannered cubist style which connects Wyndham Lewis and Francis Bacon.

It is also typical in its subject. Other than religious pictures and occasional portraits, the interior or still life was de Maistre's favoured m¿tier. His friend John Rothenstein, Director of the Tate Gallery, described how (in contrast to Australia and the south of France) '...in London he stays mostly indoors. The result is that he looks with fascinated intensity about the...studio...and this scrutiny, searching yet affectionate, has made him a kind of intimiste. Carafe, fruit-dish, lampshade, electric fan and potted hyacinth, each the object of contemplation, have been combined in lucid, close-knit arrangements expressive of the painters relation to his surroundings...' ²

The present work is proof of Rothenstein's description. Painted in the artist's Eccleston Street studio-apartment, the desk, the jug (here used as a vase), the pen holder pot and the scatter of books and folders are all recognizable from contemporary photographs. From this familiar clutter de Maistre has constructed a complex and dynamic architecture of line and plane, tone and colour.

The work was formerly in the collection of Iris Conlay, who knew the artist from at least 1946, when they were both founder members of the committee of the London branch of the International Society of Sacred Art. Miss Conlay also ran the Ashley Gallery, London, a centre for contemporary religious art, where de Maistre exhibited work in 1949 and 1950. As art critic for the Catholic Herald, she was one of de Maistre's warmest supporters, once describing him as 'the most interesting cubist this side of the channel' ³, and her advocacy may have had some influence in securing for him the important 1954 commission for the Stations of the Cross in the Great Corridor of Westminster Cathedral. An inscription on the reverse suggests that the painting may in fact have been a personal gift to the friend who so admired his 'precisely planned, but lively still life studies' ⁴

We are most grateful to Heather Johnson for assistance in cataloguing this work.

1. Amiel, K., and Johnstone, I., (eds.), Arts Council Collection: A Concise Illustrated Catalogue of Paintings, Drawings, Photographs and Sculpture Purchased for the Arts Council of Great Britain between 1942 and 1978, Arts Coucil of Great Britain, London, 1979.
2. Rothenstein, J., Introduction to Roy de Maistre: A Retrospective Exhibition of Paintings from 1917-1960 held at the Whitechapel Art Gallery, London, May-June 1960, London, Whitechapel Art Gallery, 1960, p. 9
3. Catholic Herald, 1 May 1953, p. 6
4. Ibid.