Beschreibung:

Ian Fairweather (1891-1974) Spring, 1964 titled on painted artist's label verso: 'Spring' synthetic polymer paint and gouache on cardboard on hardboard 96.0 x 67.0cm (37 13/16 x 26 3/8in). Fußnoten PROVENANCE Macquarie Galleries, Sydney Private collection, Sydney EXHIBITED Easter Exhibition, Macquarie Galleries, Sydney, 3 - 22 April 1974, cat. 7 LITERATURE Murray Bail, Fairweather, Murdoch Books, Sydney, pp. 209-10, 259, pl. 181, cat. 208 (illus.) Treania Smith interviewed in 1965 by Hazel de Berg in the Hazel de Berg collection [sound recording], National Library of Australia, 279650 Macquarie Galleries Papers, 1981, Edmund and Joanna Capon Research Library, Art Gallery of New South Wales RELATED WORKS Winter, 1964, synthetic polymer paint and gouache on cardboard on hardboard, 100.0 x 71.0cm, private collection, Melbourne Summer, 1964, synthetic polymer paint and gouache on cardboard on hardboard, 71.7 x 101.6cm, Private collection Autumn, 1964, synthetic polymer paint and gouache on cardboard on hardboard, 93.0 x 64.5cm, private collection, Melbourne Conversation with Edit Daws and the author When Treania Smith, the co-owner with Lucy Swanton of the Sydney art gallery, Macquarie Galleries, visited Lina Bryans' house in Melbourne in 1946, she expressed interest in the work of Ian Fairweather who at the time was renting a room in the house. It would be a very difficult thing, Jock Frater and Bryans told her, but a few days later he said, with some surprise, that Fairweather had 'consented' to put some of his work in a room where she could view it. As she walked down the corridor towards the room, she heard footsteps behind her and sensed it was the reclusive artist but knew that 'like Lot's wife' she had better not look around. In the room she nervously viewed the works, while Fairweather watched her through a chink in the door. She was, she later said, terrified that she might say the wrong thing and lose him. Fairweather refused anyway and soon after left for North Queensland. Then in about 1949, he wrote to Smith out of the blue. 'The wolf is at the door', he wrote and asked if she could sell some paintings for him. She did, very quickly, Hal Missingham buying two for the Art Gallery of New South Wales. Smith sent Fairweather a 'fiver' (£5 note), 'a lot of money in those days,' and from that time on forged a professional and personal relationship with the artist that would last until his death in 1974. Every month she wrote to him, and every month he wrote back. Then the letters stopped and Fairweather suddenly disappeared. 'We thought he was dead', Smith said. Soon after news came that he had been thrown into gaol in Java, having been arrested following his disastrous voyage across the Timor Sea on a home-made raft. After his rescue (by Maie Casey) and subsequent extradition to England, Fairweather returned to Australia in 1953, his family chipping in to pay his fare. He arrived in Sydney but went immediately north, back to Bribie Island in Queensland which he had briefly visited in 1949. This time, he built himself a hut in the middle of ten acres of pine trees, a studio in which he could both live and work, a permanent home. He was 62. Before going to Bribie, Fairweather had sent Smith a telegram, instructing her to send the rest of his money to a bank account in Brisbane. She wrote back to him, telling him to write her a letter, for she had still not managed to set eyes on the artist and could only verify his identity through his handwriting. He did so and the relationship resumed. It was a mutually successful relationship during which time Fairweather painted the works that are generally considered to be his masterpieces. For the first time in his life he had a studio sufficiently isolated to provide him with the solitude necessary to his work, while also maintaining a professional relationship that for once provided financial security. The three Macquarie Galleries women – Smith, Swanton and a junior partner Mary Tur