FRED WILLIAMS

The artist's estate
Private collection, Melbourne
Australian & International Fine Art Auction, Deutscher-Menzies, Melbourne, 28 August 2002, lot 34
Lawson-Menzies, Sydney, 15 April 2003, lot 37
Private collection, Melbourne

Fred Williams, Marlborough Galleries, London, 1995, cat. 1
Fred Williams, Rex Irwin Art dealer, Sydney, October 1998, cat. 1, illus. front cover

When Fred Williams returned to Australia in 1956, he looked at the landscape with fresh eyes and was obsessed with the particularity of what he wanted to say. Opportunities to paint out of doors came in 1957 and again in 1958 at Mittagong in New South Wales where he stayed with friends of John Brack, John and Joan Stephens. 'It was at Mittagong that I… formulated my ideas', Williams told James Gleeson, developing his unique vision of the Australian landscape.¹ A key work of this time is the oil painting Landscape with Rocks, 1957-58, in the collection of the National Gallery of Australia, Canberra. In subject and artistic invention, especially in the interpretation of the rocks and trees, it is the predecessor of Gum Trees at Colo Vale, 1967. Williams often repeated successful subjects, as in this instance, a comparison of the two works providing insight into the development of his personal style. The locale is the southern highlands of New South Wales near Mittagong, drawn from visits a decade before and worked through paintings, gouaches and etchings. The passage in between was full of discovery and achievement, the rising planes of the You Yangs and the new horizons of the Upwey landscapes. Their marriage in Gum Trees at Colo Vale was an achievement of classical proportions.

The individuality of Williams's description of the Australian landscape was the result of inspired creativity matched by considerable technical gifts and a deep understanding of the nature and history of art. While we came to see our country through his eyes, what we saw was as varied as the Australian landscape itself. Above all, he was a maker of great pictures, of an unrivalled art of the landscape based on the multitude of topographies and climates encompassed by the continent of Australia. His vision was new. His painted representations are as enthralling in their persuasive handling of paint, as they are superbly independent objects of art. Gum Trees at Colo Vale offers numerous pleasures – fascination with visual discovery, enjoyment of rich, textured pigment, and the illusions of the picture plane. Intellectually intriguing, it shows the mature artist in full flight, working with a palette of earthy chocolate richness.

1. Fred Williams to James Gleeson, quoted in Mollison, J., A Singular Vision: The Art of Fred Williams, Australian National Gallery, Canberra, 1989, p. 36.