THE BLUFF, WALKERVILLE, 1971
FRED WILLIAMS
gouache on paper
34.0 x 77.0 cm
signed lower right: Fred Williams
The Estate of Fred Williams, Melbourne
Lyn Williams, Melbourne
Rex Irwin Art Dealer, Sydney
Mrs Barry O'Keefe, Sydney
Gould Galleries, Melbourne (label attached verso)
Company collection, Melbourne
Deutscher and Hackett, Melbourne, 9 May 2007, lot 6
Private collection, Melbourne
Some Aspects of the Work of Fred Williams, Rex Irwin Art Dealer, Sydney, 15 August – 2 September 1989, cat. 13 (label attached verso)
‘The strip format was well established as a formal device in Williams’ work by 1970, and reached its culmination in 1973 with the Adelaide Festival Theatre mural which was based in part upon sketches of the Murray River.
The strip format is ideal for depicting river and marine scapes, and in January 1971 Williams worked extensively on this theme in gouache at four main locations: Westernport Bay, Queenscliff, Walkerville and Sorrento, of which the largest group is from Walkerville.
Not only did these gouaches provide Williams with the formal innovation of the strip landscape, but they also helped changed his colour palette. In concentrating on marine scapes, such as the Walkerville gouaches, Williams needed blue and green rather than the earth colours of his earlier landscapes. In the Tibooburra and Mornington series he had introduced a brighter high-key palette and the marine gouaches introduced a new range of colours.’1
1. Lindsay, R., and Zdanowicz, I., Fred Williams: Works in the National Gallery of Victoria/Paintings-Gouaches-Prints, National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne, 1980, p. 54