- 69
JOHN PETER RUSSELL
Estimate
150,000 - 200,000 AUD
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Description
- John Peter Russell
- STORMY SKY AND SEA, BELLE-ILE, OFF BRITTANY
- Signed lower left
- Oil on canvas
- 32 by 40.2cm
- Painted circa 1890
Provenance
Nevill Keating Galleries, London, 1975
Private collection, Melbourne
Artarmon Galleries, Sydney (label on reverse), February 1985
Private collection, Melbourne; purchased from the above
Condition
Good condition. Abrasion of impasto area upper left. Crack, loss and infile upper right are original.
"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."
"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
Temptuous, colour-saturated Belle-Ile seascapes such as this rank as Russell's most important paintings; undoubtedly the point at which he came closest to the French Impressionism of Claude Monet.
Russell first met Monet in September 1886 when both artists were staying here at the remote island of Belle-Ile off the Brittany coast in north-west France. Monet assumed that the young Australian Russell was American but found him 'tres amiable', and the two worked together side by side for a time on the rocky Atlantic shore. It seems likely that seeing Monet's Belle-Ile series exhibited in Paris the following year was a factor in Russell's decision to settle on the island with his family in 1888. He would remain there for twenty years - the happiest, both professionally and personally, of his life.
Russell at first did not approve of Monet's revolutionary technique, with its deliberate lack of distinction between form and colour. But by the 1890s his own style increasingly came closer to Monet's. The present work, entitled Stormy Sky and Sea, Belle-Ile, off Brittany and epitomising all Russell's passion for the place, is clearly heir to paintings by Monet such as Tempest on the Coast of Belle-Ile. The excitement and vigour of the brushwork, the warm pinks in the sky and icy blues of the seaspray, are also seen in Russell's larger Rough Sea, 1900, in the collection of Dr Joseph Brown at the National Gallery of Victoria.
Russell first met Monet in September 1886 when both artists were staying here at the remote island of Belle-Ile off the Brittany coast in north-west France. Monet assumed that the young Australian Russell was American but found him 'tres amiable', and the two worked together side by side for a time on the rocky Atlantic shore. It seems likely that seeing Monet's Belle-Ile series exhibited in Paris the following year was a factor in Russell's decision to settle on the island with his family in 1888. He would remain there for twenty years - the happiest, both professionally and personally, of his life.
Russell at first did not approve of Monet's revolutionary technique, with its deliberate lack of distinction between form and colour. But by the 1890s his own style increasingly came closer to Monet's. The present work, entitled Stormy Sky and Sea, Belle-Ile, off Brittany and epitomising all Russell's passion for the place, is clearly heir to paintings by Monet such as Tempest on the Coast of Belle-Ile. The excitement and vigour of the brushwork, the warm pinks in the sky and icy blues of the seaspray, are also seen in Russell's larger Rough Sea, 1900, in the collection of Dr Joseph Brown at the National Gallery of Victoria.