TOMMY McRAE

Roderick Kilborn, Wahgunyah; thence by descent
Sotheby's, Aboriginal Art, 26-27 June, 2000, lot 6
Private collection

There is no apparent repair or restoration with the work being housed behind glass in a litght timber frame with an archival mount. The paper has discoloured with age and there are very minor tears to some areas of the margins and possible signs of minor foxing.
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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."

Cf. Ryan, J., et al., Land Marks, Melbourne, 2006, National Gallery of Victoria, p.12, illus. for the remaining 12 drawings from this suite executed circa 1891 that once made up a sketchbook and are now in the collection of the National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne.

This fine drawing is one of the very few works by Tommy McRae still held outside public collections. McRae is one of the most important Aboriginal artists of the nineteenth century, and this work is a superb illustration of his unique style. Paradoxically, the austerity of his drawings belies their sophistication. His drawings are described by Andrew Sayers as 'distinctive in their delicate use of the silhouette... It is an art of extreme economy, but for all its reductiveness ..is highly expressive' (in Aboriginal Artists of the Nineteenth Century, 1994, Oxford University Press, Melbourne, 1994, p.29).

McRae was born around 1830, at precisely the time the colonization of the upper Murray region of Victoria was beginning. According to Sayers, his drawing was largely about reminiscences of traditional Aboriginal life as he had known it. He drew only with pen and ink, usually on the pages of sketchbooks. This example is unusual in that it is executed in blue rather than black ink.

This drawing depicts goanna hunting and employs what Sayers has said to be McRae's favourite motif – the moment just before the capture of the prey. The hunters stand ready to strike the reptiles, which are depicted in their habitat. McRae often took hunting as a subject, and a similar drawing of a goanna hunt is held by the National Museum of Australia.

Even by the time McRae died over a century ago, the way of life he depicted had largely passed. Nevertheless, his drawings maintain a liveliness and exuberance. As Andrew Sayers has noted: "(a) keen sense of observation and a characteristic storytelling quality, often showing a wry amusement, combine in his drawings to produce an evocative art, full of vitality" (ibid., p.49).