Lot 10

The Collection of Dr Robert Black, former husband of the Artist
Thence by descent
Christies, Melbourne, 19 April 2005, lot 11
Private collection, Tasmania
Thence by descent

Nora Heysen stands among the most significant figures in Australian art, her career marked by pioneering achievements and a lifelong devotion to still life. She achieved historic firsts as the first woman to win the Archibald Prize in 1938 and the first female appointed as an Australian official war artist during the Second World War. Yet beyond these milestones, her practice reveals a consistent and deeply personal commitment to the still life, a genre she pursued with sincerity and mastery throughout her career.

From her earliest years at The Cedars, the Hahndorf family home of her father Sir Hans Heysen, flowers and interiors formed the foundation of her artistic vocabulary. Encouraged by Hans Heysen's circle, Sydney Ure Smith, and Lionel Lindsay, she pursued painting with determination, later honing her style during studies in London in the 1930s. Upon her return to Australia in 1938, she and her father agreed to keep distinct subjects, Hans to landscapes, Nora to still life's, allowing her to cultivate an independent reputation. By her early twenties, her work was represented in three state galleries and had already earned widespread acclaim.

Heysen's path altered dramatically during the war years. Appointed an official war artist in 1943, she was posted to New Guinea, Lae and Morotai, producing around 170 depictions of service personnel and local life. It was here that she met Dr Robert Black, a tropical disease specialist whose research with the Australian Army and later the World Health Organisation would prove internationally significant. Their meeting sparked a relationship that would shape the next decade of her life.

In 1947, Heysen travelled to England to be near Black while he pursued specialist study in London. Away from Australia, she returned wholeheartedly to her favoured subject of still life, absorbing the lessons of European traditions and collections she encountered abroad. 'Still Life, Spring Bunch' 1947 exemplifies this period. Painted in London and later brought back to Australia, it depicts a bouquet of spring flowers, anemones, daffodils, and freesias arranged in a silver jug. The luminous whites, yellows, and red of the blooms are heightened against a darkened backdrop, a treatment that enhances both the freshness of the flowers and the intimacy of the arrangement. The work was given as a personal gift to Black, its dedication underscoring the closeness of their bond.

Their relationship endured a decade of distance and complexity before getting married in Sydney in 1953, a union Heysen described as "a wish of ten years' standing finally fulfilled"(1). Yet the partnership was not lasting, they formally separated during the late 1970s. Seen in retrospect, the painting carries added poignancy, a reminder of both the optimism of their London years and Heysen's lifelong tendency to imbue personal meaning within her depictions of flowers.

The resonance of this painting situates it within one of the most significant periods of Heysen's life, reflecting both her post-war years abroad and her deepening attachment to Dr Robert Black. At the same time, the subject speaks to her enduring inspiration in flowers, recalling the gardens of her Hahndorf childhood and the intimate domestic arrangements she returned to throughout her career.

Hannah Ryan
Senior Art Specialist

(1) Klepac, L., Nora Heysen, The Beagle Press, Sydney, 1989, p. 19