Fred Williams
(Australia, England 1927–1982)
- Title
- Standing nude
- Other titles:
- Standing female nude
- Place of origin
-
Melbourne →
Victoria →
Australia
- Year
- circa 1946
- Media category
- Painting
- Materials used
- oil on canvas on plywood
- Dimensions
-
98.4 x 38.0cm board
- Signature & date
- Not signed. Not dated.
- Credit
- Gift of the Margaret Hannah Olley Art Trust 2012
- Accession number
- 194.2012
- Copyright
- © Lyn Williams
- Location
- Not on display
- Further information
Although Fred Williams is best known as a landscape artist, his study and early work was grounded in figuration. In late 1943, at the age of sixteen Williams enrolled at the National Gallery School, Melbourne, where he studied drawing. Here he spent many hours laboriously sketching plaster casts, before advancing to life drawing. He subsequently undertook painting classes with William Dargie who advocated a subtle, tonal approach, and attended private classes held by modernist painter, George Bell.
This painting, produced while Williams was a student at that National Gallery School, indicates his capacity and respect for achieving both volume and mass in his figures. 'Standing nude' exemplifies a period of transition where Williams developed from a student to young artist.
- Bibliography (5)
-
Editor Unknown (Editor), Deutscher-Menzies: Australian & International fine art, Woollahra, Mar 2007, 150 (colour illus.). lot no. 211
Editor Unknown (Editor), Christie's Australia - Australian and European Paintings, South Yarra, Nov 1998, (colour illus.). lot no. 101
James Mollison (Australia, b.1932) (Curator), Fred Williams: a retrospective, Canberra, 1987, 3 (illus.). titled 'Standing female nude'; cat.no. 1
Patrick McCaughey (Northern Ireland; Australia, b.1943) (Author), Fred Williams 1927-1982, Kensington, 1980, 34 (colour illus.). fig.no. 23
Editor Unknown (Editor), Early works and others selected from the Harry Rosengrave collection, Melbourne, May 1979. cat.no. 242; not paginated
- Exhibition history (1)
-
Fred Williams: a retrospective, National Gallery of Australia, 07 Nov 1987–31 Jan 1988.
