JOHN PETER RUSSELL

Gift from the artist to Dr John Russell-Jones, Sydney;
thence bequeathed to a private collector, New South Wales
Private collection, Perth

Watercolours were a visual diary for John Peter Russell, being ideally suited to the quick record of changing scene and season. He used them throughout his life, at Belle-Ile, when travelling in France, Italy and Switzerland, on his return to Australia, and in New Zealand. The natural spontaneity of the technique allied with Russell's preferred breadth of handling led to simplification of forms in which the chief interest lies in the inspired colour combinations as in Bay of Roses. An engaging characteristic of Russell's impressionism is the retention of a realist base within the brilliance of colours found in such watercolours as Belle Ile, 1905 in the collection of the Art Gallery of New South Wales, and Paraggio, 1912 in the National Gallery of Victoria.

Russell returned to Australia in 1921, after many years in France, first living at Rose Bay on Sydney Harbour, followed by a period in New Zealand, before finally settling in Sydney, beside Watson's Bay. His life-long love of the sea in all its moods continued throughout his work and, in Australia, was reflected not only in his choice of place of living, but also in the numerous watercolours of Rose Bay and Sydney Harbour. With his other abiding interest in yachting, they usually included lively and breezy sailing moments, as in the National Gallery of Australia's Regatta in Sydney Harbour. By contrast, in Bay of Roses an enclosing mood of calm pervades, a  tall-masted ship at anchor within a field of sparkling light and colours, adroitly captured in broad layers of wash and deft strokes of the brush.