Lot 13

The Artist
Private collection, Melbourne, acquired from the above in 1998

Grishin, S., Accounting for Taste: The Lowensteins Arts Management Collection, Macmillan Art Publishing, Melbourne, 2013, p. 190 (illus.)

Developing over more than 70 years, John Olsen's career remains one of Australia's most expansive and successful throughout which he has created an oeuvre with substantial breadth and vitality. Not content with merely being an observer, Olsen has repeatedly travelled across the far reaches of Australia, exploring regions few have had the opportunity to experience themselves. Through his artworks he is able to take us on a journey through these beautiful surroundings, whether it be a vast plain or a majestic body of water.

John Olsen has a unique understanding and appreciation of the Australian landscape. His appreciation of the natural world ever changing and growing transcends onto the canvas through his ability to portray life and movement within the landscape. In 1990, John Olsen and his wife moved to Chapel House Farm at Rydal, near Bathurst in the Central Tablelands of New South Wales. The residence and surrounding landscape were of significant influence to Olsen throughout the ensuing years. The town carried a modest population of no more than one hundred, but the landscape afforded Olsen all the luxuries of Australia's natural beauty. Often painting en plein air, Olsen captured the daily wonder of his new home in Rydal. In this work we see a glimpse of a rabbit at the base, beneath a bird perched on a nearby branch. The colour palette of predominantly deep reds and browns, to capture the rich ochres of the land, are offset with flickers of greens and blues to capture the movement of the inhabiting flora and fauna. During his time at Rydal, Olsen also produced the masterpiece Summer at Rydal 1997 which was a finalist in the Art Gallery of New South Wales' Wynne Prize as well as a diptych Spring at Rydal earlier in 1992.

For John Olsen, the landscape has always been more than a purely external phenomenon and he approaches his landscape paintings with a poetic sensibility and spiritual understanding of the natural world. In this regard, Olsen's works are timeless and universal.

Olivia Fuller
Head of Art
(written March 2023)

© John Olsen/Copyright Agency, 2023