Lot 18

Cracking is evident across the artwork, however only minor losses to paint seen in the right hand edge. Overall frame measuring 63 x 52cm.


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Deutscher~Menzies, Melbourne, 4 June 2003, lot 309
Private collection, Sydney

The Melbourne Modernists, Victorian Artists Society, Melbourne, 15-28 October 1990, cat. no. 35

In the 1930s, Malcolm Pratt was a tenant, along with Ada Plante, Lina Bryans and William Frater, of Darebin Bridge House in Melbourne. In 1942 Bryans bought the building and shortly after Ian Fairweather joined the residents, living and working there.
Malcolm Pratt was a close friend of Ada's, who painted Malcolm at least twice including this portrait likely from the late 1930s or early 40s. Malcolm was thought to be a free thinker in support of the avant garde artistic circles prevalent, although marginal, at the time.