LOT DETAILS

Materials:

oil on board

Measurements:

23.23 in. (59.00 cm.) (height) by 26.18 in. (66.50 cm.) (width)

Markings:

signed and dated lower right: 'R Balson / 56'

Exhibited:

Ralph Balson Second Memorial Exhibition, Gallery A, Sydney, 18 July 1968, cat. 32,Ralph Balson: A Retrospective, Heide Park and Art Gallery, Melbourne, 15 August - 24 September 1989; Newcastle Region Art Gallery, New South Wales, 6 October - 19 November 1989; Wollongong City Gallery, New South Wales, 1 December 1989 - 28 January 1990; Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney, 14 February - 1 April 1990; University Art Museum, Brisbane, 12 April - 24 May 1990, cat. 28In 1955 Balson turned 65 and was able to retire from his work as a house painter. He stayed on teaching part-time at the East Sydney Technical College in Darlinghurst, however, dividing his time between Sydney and Mittagong, where he had a studio in the garden of Grace Crowley's country house, High Hill. This final decade of his life was a more relaxed time for Balson. Apart from having the time to paint, he visited exhibitions, read copiously (from the latest international art trends to science and metaphysics) and in both local and international exhibitions, enjoying the recognition from his peers that now came his way (though it was still not without some controversy). In 1960 he visited his brother in New York - the first overseas trip he had made since arriving in Australia in 1913 at the age of 23 - and later joined Crowley in London

Literature:

Bruce Adams, Ralph Balson: A Retrospective, Heide Park and Art Gallery, Melbourne, 1989, cat. 28, p. 60 (illus.)

Provenance:

Gallery A, Sydney (label attached verso),The Collection of the Late Michael Hobbs OAM, Sydney, acquired from the above in 1968