and gemstones Fine Art: Facing the Unknown: The Modern Female

FINE ART

Facing the Unknown: The Modern Female Portrait

Fine Art Auction Tues 16 Mar 2021 MELBOURNE

LEFT: TOM ROBERTS (1856-1931) Portrait of a Lady c.1880s oil on canvas signed lower centre: T. Roberts 60 x 50cm

PROVENANCE: Private collection Colonna: 2 St. Ninian’s Road Brighton, Leonard Joel, Melbourne, 26 September 1960, lot 141 (as ‘Portrait’, 35 gns) Private collection, Melbourne Thence by descent

LITERATURE: Topliss, H., Tom Roberts 18561931: A Catalogue Raisonne, Oxford University Press, Melbourne, vol.1, cat. no. 55, (illus. vol. 2, pl. 17) $60,000-80,000

ABOVE: TOM ROBERTS (1856-1931) A Spanish Beauty Throughout shifting cultures, societies, and tastes, portraiture has remained one of the most popular, prosperous, and personal choices of artistic subject matter. Britain’s obsession with portraiture infiltrated Australian art from its colonisation in the 1780s. Our first artist professionally trained as a portrait painter was Richard Read Senior, who arrived in Sydney as a convict in 1813. He painted small watercolour portraits and miniatures of settlers. However, by the late 19th Century, portrait painting was no longer so forcefully intertwined within art practice as the advent of photography steered many artists to other subject matter. With this shift in focus came a newfound freedom for artists. No longer constrained to the requirements of commissioned portrait painting, artists could explore and renew the creativity of portraiture. They painted their friends and lovers in whatever way they pleased and by the 1880s we began to see the beginnings of the modern portrait.

In their creative exploration of modern portraiture, artists of the time introduced new methods of identifying and individualising their subjects, especially female subjects. One of Australia’s most recognised and revered artists of this time was Tom Roberts. The artist’s portraiture of women in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries was considerable, keeping quantity with those of males. The majority dated between 1885 and 1900 when Roberts had returned from the Royal Academy and his European travels. Most of these portraits adopted a freer approach, with subjects largely recorded as unnamed women who were willing to allow him to paint their profile in exchange for a glass of wine or food rather than by commission. Tom Roberts’ first significant portrait, A Spanish Beauty, was painted either during his trip to Spain in 1883 or immediately upon his return to London, and is indicative of the many complexities of portraiture of women that Roberts encountered throughout his artistic career. For example, costume could highlight social identity but also those subtleties of beauty and desire attributed to the gaze. The black lace frames her soft and sensual face while the dappled light illuminates her delicate complexion. The black clothing was a sign of mourning for her husband, and her gaze remains to the side as though contemplating the gravity of her loss. The background, dark in colour, is simple – reduced to a backdrop to permit the subject complete focus. This simplification of setting Roberts learned from the Spanish painters.

In the 1880s Tom Roberts also produced Portrait of a Lady, another powerful yet intimate portrait of an unknown female. Through the realist brushstrokes, oval bordering, and close perspective, the viewer is captivated by the sitter. Similarly to A Spanish Beauty, her gaze is aside in contemplative thought. This redirected gaze was utilised thoroughly by Roberts in these portraits of the modern woman. No longer is she there to acknowledge our presence as the viewer, but rather we are driven by intrigue to identify and acknowledge her. Whilst many of Tom Roberts’ portraits remain recorded with unnamed subjects, this seems somewhat inconsequential to their powerful presence. His portraits exemplify his compassionate eye and define the intensity of the interaction between painter and subject.

We are pleased to present Tom Roberts Portrait of a Lady c.1880s in our forthcoming March Fine Art Auction and invite you to experience its powerful presence at our viewings in both Sydney and Melbourne.

OLIVIA FULLER / Head of Art

FINE JEWELS & TIMEPIECES

The Hope Diamond: Centuries of Intrigue

Fine Jewels & Timepieces Auction Mon 15 Mar 2021 MELBOURNE

OPPOSITE: Mrs Evalyn Walsh McLean wearing the Hope diamond, 1915

RIGHT: The Hope diamond on display at the Smithsonian Museum of Natural History in Washington D.C., U.S. With a dazzling natural blue hue and weighing an impressive 45.52cts, the Hope diamond is unrivalled as a rare natural wonder. With impressive provenance and owners including Louis XVI, Pierre Cartier and Harry Winston, stories surrounding the stone have associated it with tragedy and misfortune – a supposed ‘curse’ of the blue diamond.

Originally known as the ‘Tavernier Blue’, the diamond was mined in the Kollur mine in India and was subsequently acquired by French gem merchant Jean-Baptiste Tavernier in the 17th Century. Originally faceted in a rough triangular shape and weighing a staggering 112.23cts, Tavernier sold the diamond to Sun King Louis XIV of France. After acquiring the diamond, the King had the diamond recut to 67.12cts and was said to have worn it on blue ribbon as a necklace.

After inheriting the diamond from his great-grandfather, Louis XV had the stone set into an elaborate pendant in 1749. Court jeweler Andre Jacquemin designed a magnificent piece featuring the diamond along with a carved red spinel and 112 diamonds. By the time ownership of the diamond passed to Louis XVI, it was commonly referred to as the ‘French Blue’.

Following the turmoil of the French revolution, the diamond disappeared, reappearing decades later in London. In 1839, wealthy British banker Henry Philip Hope referred to the impressive blue stone of 45cts in his gem catalogue and the diamond acquired its current name. After Hope’s death, the stone traded hands several times amongst dealers in Europe, eventually appearing at auction in Paris in 1909. Later that year, Pierre Cartier purchased the diamond from French trader Simon Rosenau for 500,000 francs, equating to an estimated $2.2 million USD today. After acquiring the diamond, Cartier had it set into an impressive pendant within a surround of sixteen pear and cushion cut white diamonds and set about finding a wealthy buyer.

Cartier approached American heiress and socialite Evalyn Walsh McLean as she was a well-known collector of significant jewellery pieces. To encourage a sale to McLean, Cartier embellished the 19th Century whispers of misfortune associated with the stone, increasing its mystery and intrigue. The stories included previous owners Princess de Lambale who was beaten to death, and Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette who were beheaded in the revolution. Other holders of the diamond were said to have committed suicide, been murdered or left penniless. The rumours suggested that the misfortune associated with the stone was due to the original owner Tavernier stealing the piece from a Hindu statue of the goddess Sita. The myth perpetuated the notion that Tavernier was killed by wild dogs in Turkey, when in fact he died in Moscow at the age of 84.

This claim of a diamond curse was discussed by historian Richard Kurin at the Smithsonian Institute in the 2010 documentary “Mystery of the Hope diamond.” He said: “The curse was an invention. The brain child of Pierre Cartier who fabricated the tallest of tales to whet Evalyn Walsh McLean’s appetite for the diamond. Cartier’s brilliant sales pitch had created for the Hope Diamond a legendary mystique that elevated it into one of the world’s most valuable artefacts’’

McLean purchased the piece in 1911 for $180,000USD (an equivalent of an estimated $5 million USD today) and wore it often. She is quoted as saying “I like to pretend the thing brings good luck.” Following her death in 1947, American jeweler Harry Winston purchased McLean’s jewellery estate and eventually donated the Hope diamond to the Smithsonian Institute in Washington DC. Currently on view at the National Museum of Natural History, the museum has reported the diamond has brought them "nothing but good luck’’, due to the stream of seven million visitors that come to marvel at the piece each year.

BETHANY MCGOUGAN / Head of Fine Jewels

& Timepieces