Lot 13

John Simpkin, Melbourne
Private collection, Melbourne
Thence by descent inscribed verso: MIRKA MORA/9 Collins St/ISABELLE 18.5 x 31cm "Mirka Mora was born in Paris in 1928 but made Melbourne her home in 1951. Over the years she fed many artists at her Exhibition Street cafe, held wild parties at 9 Collins Street and escaped to the Windsor Hotel when things got too much at home.

Mirka Mora: Number 9 Collins Street is my favourite building because of its artistic history. There is the same building in London, called Grosvenor Chambers. No. 9 Collins Street was modelled on that so it had an enormous charm. I still dream of it. When I went into the studio for the first time I had goose pimples from the atmosphere. I still didn't know the history of the building. I didn't know the painters who lived in it, but that is how the atmosphere of that place was, you could feel it. I said to Georges, ''We have to have that studio, that's mine.'' It took six months to get it but we got it. I was so lucky and I lived there for 16 years." Mary O'Brien, My Secret Melbourne: artist Mirka Mora, The Sydney Morning Herald, 17 May 2014