Beschreibung:

William Dobell (1899-1970) Study for Portrait of an Artist (Joshua Smith), 1943 signed lower right: 'WDobell' oil on composition board 36.0 x 25.5cm (14 3/16 x 10 1/16in). Fußnoten PROVENANCE Collection of the late Sir Warwick and Lady Fairfax, Sydney EXHIBITED National Gallery Society of N.S.W. First Loan Exhibition, National Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney, 28 September - 19 October 1955, cat. 13 as 'lent by Mr and Mrs W.O. Fairfax' Contemporary Australian Painting, Pacific Loan Exhibition, on board Orient Line S.S. Orcades 1956, Sydney 2 October 1956; Auckland 8 October 1956; Honolulu 16 October 1956; Vancouver 22 October 1956; San Francisco 25 October 1956; National Art Gallery, Sydney, November 1956, cat. 16, as Sketch for Portrait of Joshua Smith, kindly lent by Mr and Mrs Warwick Fairfax William Dobell Paintings from 1926 - 1964, Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney, 15 July – 30 August 1964, cat. 96 (label attached verso) William Dobell The painter's progress, touring exhibition, Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney, 14 February – 27 April 1997; Newcastle Art Gallery, Newcastle, 7 May – 6 July 1997; Museum of Modern Art at Heide, Melbourne, 29 July – 21 September 1997; Queensland Art Gallery, Brisbane, 25 October – 7 December 1997; Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery, Hobart, 8 January – 1 March 1998 LITERATURE James Gleeson William Dobell Thames and Hudson, London, 1964, pl. 44, p. 52, 145 (illus.), 193 William Dobell paintings from 1926 to 1964, Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney, souvenir catalogue, 1964, cat. 96 (unpaginated) James Gleeson William Dobell A Biographical and Critical Study, Angus and Robertson, Sydney, 1981, p. 127, pl. 77 (illus.) Barry Pearce and Hendrik Kolenberg, William Dobell The Painter's Progress, Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney, 1997, fig. 28E, p. 87 (illus.) Christopher Allen, Art in Australia: From Colonization to Postmodernism, Thames and Hudson, London, 1997, fig. 110, p. 136 (illus.) Bernard Smith, Terry Smith and Christopher Heathcote, Australian Painting, 1788 – 2000, Oxford University Press, Melbourne, 2001, p. 257, pl. 149 (illus.) RELATED WORKS Portrait of an Artist (Joshua Smith), 1943, oil on canvas, 107.0 x 76.0cm, private collection Study of Joshua Smith, c.1943, pencil, pen and black ink on paper, 27.9 x 20.3cm, private collection Untitled [Two studies for portrait of Joshua Smith], 1943, pencil on paper, 32.8 x 24.8cm, collection of the National Gallery of Australia, Canberra (Studies of Joshua Smith), c.1943, pencil, pen and black ink on paper, 25.3 x 20.3cm, collection of the Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney Joshua Smith, 1943, silverpoint on paper, 22.4 x 17.3cm, collection of the Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney In 1943 the trustees of the Art Gallery of New South Wales (then known as the National Gallery of NSW) awarded the Archibald Prize to William Dobell for his portrait of fellow artist Joshua Smith. The decision was challenged by a group of artists and critics who, by the time it reached court the following year, had been whittled away to just two - Mary Edwards and Joseph Wolinski – the Bequest stating that any challenger had to have exhibited in the competition. Their chief argument was that the painting was not sufficiently naturalistic, that is was a caricature rather than a portrait, and thus did not meet the terms of the Bequest. Dobell and his team of lawyers advocated that a portrait need not be photographically exact in order to be considered a good likeness of the sitter. Dobell defended his motivations and methods, saying that he always attempted to catch the 'essence' of a subject, rather than simply a mere likeness, and that he felt he was painting in the tradition of the great artists, just 'like Rembrandt'. Dobell and Smith had met some years earlier when they shared a tent while performing war work and, while Dobell described Smith as 'far from good-looking', he thought him 'a nice, likeable person with great di