Important Australian Art Including Selected International Works

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Lot 41
  • 41

JEFFREY SMART

Estimate
70,000 - 90,000 AUD
bidding is closed

Description

  • Jeffrey Smart
  • STUDY FOR THE CONSTRUCTION FENCE
  • Signed lower left; bears artist's name, title and date 1978 on label on the reverse  

  • Oil on canvas on board

  • 51 by 30 cm

Provenance

Australian Galleries, Sydney (label on the reverse)
Private collection, Sydney

Exhibited

Jeffrey Smart, Redfern Gallery, London, 7 June - 4 July 1979, cat. 4

Literature

Peter Quatermaine, Jeffrey Smart, Gryphon Books Pty. Ltd., Melbourne, 1983, p. 116, cat. 726 (publication accompanies this lot)
John McDonald, J., Jeffrey Smart, Paintings of the '70s and '80s, Craftsman House, Sydney, 1990, cat. 176

Condition

Gold gilt frame with beige linen mat. Good condition
"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."

Catalogue Note

This is a study for what Smart's biographer, Peter Quartermaine, has called the 'lovingly realised running girl' for Construction Fence of 1978.1 However, as always, the smaller painting is also resolved in itself. Where in the larger work the girl is just one part, a moving figure set against hard-edge green shuttering (which also somehow seems to move behind her), here she fills the composition.

This was an Australian subject, inspired by the site of the Victorian Arts Centre under construction in St Kilda Road (ibid). How appropriate, then, that the young girl in her pink dress and slippers, seems almost to dance as much as run as she leaps and lifts her arms.

1.Quatermaine, P., Jeffrey Smart, Gryphon, Books Pty. Ltd., Melbourne, 1983, p. 88