Title
Figures in a classical landscape
circa 1950
Artist
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Details
- Place where the work was made
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Sydney
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New South Wales
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Australia
- Date
- circa 1950
- Media category
- Painting
- Materials used
- oil on plywood
- Dimensions
- 40.0 x 50.0 cm board; 57.3 x 67.3 x 4.5 cm frame
- Signature & date
Signed l.r., red oil "JB". Not dated.
- Credit
- Bequest of Margaret Olley 2012
- Location
- Not on display
- Accession number
- 198.2012
- Copyright
- © Bathurst Regional Council
- Artist information
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Jean Bellette
Works in the collection
- Share
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About
'Group of figures in a landscape' c1950 was completed following the artist’s critical recognition of the 1940s which saw her win the Sir John Sulman Prize for genre painting in 1942 and 1944. Its procession of classical figures embedded within a distant, unspecified setting is not unlike the Gallery’s 'Electra' 1944. Operating outside of modernist, nationalist and socio-political narratives in Australian art, Bellette drew upon Europe’s reinterpretation of the 'essence' of antiquity two decades earlier. It has been suggested that mythology was her means of investigating societal values and psychological traits, even the Australian experience. Bellette stated in 1952:
'I have tried to paint groups of figures in landscape, using mythology as a pretext; my main preoccupation was to try and order space and colours in a certain way, so that they would suggest to me some atmosphere I recognise …'
Significantly, Bellette was a member of the Society of Artists and a co-founder of the Sydney Group.
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Places
Where the work was made
Sydney
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Exhibition history
Shown in 2 exhibitions
Jean Bellette retrospective (2004-2005), Bathurst Regional Art Gallery, Bathurst, 10 Dec 2004–16 Jan 2005
Jean Bellette retrospective (2004-2005), S.H. Ervin Gallery, The Rocks, 12 Mar 2005–15 Apr 2005
Jean Bellette retrospective (2004-2005), University of Queensland Art Museum, Brisbane, 06 May 2005–12 Jun 2005
Jean Bellette retrospective (2004-2005), Mornington Peninsula Regional Gallery, Mornington, 12 Jul 2005–28 Aug 2005
Jean Bellette retrospective (2004-2005), Drill Hall Gallery, Australian National University, Canberra, 10 Nov 2005–18 Dec 2005
Margaret's Gifts, S.H. Ervin Gallery, The Rocks, 04 Jan 2020–22 Mar 2020
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Bibliography
Referenced in 1 publication
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Christine France, Amanda Beresford and Barbara Hall, Jean Bellette retrospective, Sydney, 2004, 37 (colour illus.), 71.
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