Lot 256

There is a network of shrinkage cracking across the work, with some cracks quite pronounced and a little open, some edges of the cracks lifted away from the old card support to which the work is laid down, and a few small losses at edges (all as visible in the catalogue photos). Examination of the work out of the frame indicates that work is stable in this state.


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Private collection, Melbourne, from which acquired by Terence Lane in August, 2017

Castlemaine Art Gallery and Historical Museum, The Art of the Dog, 31 March–27 May, 2007, cat. no. 4

Following their return from England in 1930, Napier and Christian Waller kept three Airedales, immortalised in his large portrait, Christian Waller with Baldur, Undine, and Siren at Fairy Hills, submitted for the 1931 Archibald Prize and now in the National Gallery of Australia (acc. no. 84.845).

As these three were the only Airedales the Wallers had, it seems likely the present lot is a study of Baldur, Undine, or Siren.