Lot 32

Private collection, Melbourne
Leonard Joel, Melbourne, 8 November 1989, lot 200A
Private collection, Melbourne
Leonard Joel, Melbourne, 31 July 1990, lot 264
Private collection, Sydney
Sotheby's, Sydney, 29 November 1991, lot 371
Private collection, Melbourne
Leonard Joel, Melbourne, 15 November 2000, lot 86
Private collection, Western Australia

"Well, I am primarily a classic artist, that is to say, what people call an intellectual artist, an architectonic worker" (1) - Weaver Hawkins

Weaver Hawkins was a British born Australian modernist artist, whose practice spanned painting, printmaking, and mural work. Hawkins work reveals a lifelong commitment to innovation and adaptability, despite great personal adversity. After sustaining serious injuries to his right arm during World War I, Hawkins taught himself to paint with his left hand, developing a distinctive graphic style characterised by rhythmic line work and expressive distortion. In the 1920s, he travelled extensively through Europe and the Pacific, producing a body of work influenced by Cubism, Futurism and Symbolism.

This artwork 'Le Port' from 1924 is a luminous and harmoniously composed depiction of a sun drenched European harbour. Painted in soft, warm hues, the scene is animated by the gentle movement of moored sailing boats and the clustered buildings glowing in golden light that line the background. Hawkins masterfully captures the geometry of masts and rooftops, softened by atmospheric perspective and the dappled reflections dancing on the water's surface. The arrangement of barrels on the docked boats suggests commercial activity, yet the scene remains serene and timeless. A departure from his later modernist abstraction, this earlier work reflects Hawkins's time abroad and his command of light, colour, and classical balance.

(1) Weaver Hawkins in Geoffrey Dutton, Artists' Portraits, National Library of Australia, Canberra, 1992, p. 68