Lot 18

Work in very good condition with full conservators report from Art Conservation Framers available upon request. Work has been subject to a surface clean, filled in, retouched and varnished. Please contact the Art Department for images of the verso of the painting. Work has been inspected outside of the frame. Housed in a modern frame, overall size is 39 x 53cm


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Gifted to the artist's niece
Thence by descent
Private collection, Melbourne

Lock-Weir, T., Dorrit Black: Unseen Forces, Art Gallery of South Australia, Adelaide, 2014, p. 180

Related Works:
Houses, Mirmande 1934, oil on canvas 35.2 x 53.3cm, Private collection
Study for painting 'Houses at Mirmande' 1934, pencil on paper, 18.4 x 26.7cm (sheet), Private collection

Dorrit Black and her mother ventured to London and Europe between 1934-1935, first heading to France in March. They arrived in Mirmande and stayed for more than a fortnight. The bitter cold prevented her from painting so instead she made a series of preliminary sketches which she later fininshed in England. Black completed at least two major oils of Mirmande based on these sketches. Dorrit's time overseas during these years reinvigorated her commitment to modern art.

This painting is quite likely painted after her second visit to Mirmande in 1934. The brushwork is quite impasto, in line with Dorrit's later works. The painting has a fragmented and Cubist feel, while the treatment of the trees refer back to the influence of Andre Lhote.