Lot 35

In good condition with no visible signs of repair or damage, verso unexamined


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Savill Galleries, Sydney
Private collection, Sydney

"I find a strange island sometimes where ghosts of ancient glories linger, where the winds and flowers are sweet and the people are still gentle and smiling, where man is conscious of his grandeur and is content to live simply in harmony with the forces around and within him. Yet if we found this island we would destroy it in a month. So we must be content to write symphonies and paint pictures about it, always yearning for the vague dream world that sees so real…" (1)

When contemplating The Conversation, we are captured first by the still life on the table and figure in the foreground - a moment of introspection, meditation, and perfect stillness. We are then slowly brought-to almost like waking from a dream by whispers of a conversation floating in through the entrance on a warm breeze.

Ray Crooke enlisted in the Australian Army as an 18-year-old in 1940, shortly after the outbreak of World War II. Throughout the war his unit was posted to Western Australia, Cape York, Thursday Island, Papua New Guinea and Borneo - these travels would instil in him an enduring love of the tropics. After being discharged he returned to Melbourne to complete his studies at the Swinburne Technical College from 1946 to 1948 but upon graduation promptly returned to the tropics. Living between Cairns and Thursday Island he worked as a cook, labourer and trochus shell diver. This time however, he armed himself with a notebook in which he would record reference material for some of his most important paintings. Finding infinite inspiration in tropical life he went on to visit Fiji, Tahiti and Hawaii, writing notes, descriptions, and sketching impressions of the life and people there. Crooke's writings demonstrate his appreciation for the history of the Pacific and respect for the indigenous people's traditional way of life.

The vibrant colours and complex composition of The Conversation make it a commanding example of Ray Crooke's favoured composition across his island theme; that of gazing out a window or entranceway to the people and landscapes of the tropics. Crooke's immediately recognisable visual language is decorative and anti-illusionistic, composed of broad planes of bold and sometimes even unmediated colour assembled in simplified forms. Such a language is universally comprehensible, communicating the immense peace and harmony present in the scenes and interactions he recollects.

Marcella Fox | Sydney Manager

(1) Ray Crooke cited in P Denham, Island Journal Ray Crooke, Brisbane, 2000, pp. 28-29.

© Ray Crooke/Copyright Agency, 2022