Lloyd Rees
(Australia 17 Mar 1895–02 Dec 1988)
- Title
- The summit, Mt Wellington II
- Other titles:
- The Pinnacle, Mt Wellington
The summit, Mt Wellington
The summit, Mount Wellington II - Year
- 1973
- Media categories
- Watercolour, Drawing
- Materials used
- pen and black ink, wash, oil pastel, scraping-out, watercolour on ivory laid paper
- Dimensions
-
46.8 x 62.4cm image; 48.0 x 62.8cm sheet
- Signature & date
- Signed and dated l.l., pen and black ink 'L REES 1973'.
- Credit
- Edward Stinson Bequest Fund 2009
- Accession number
- 341.2009
- Copyright
- © A&J Rees. Licensed by Viscopy, Sydney
- Location
- 20th & 21st c Australian art
- Further information
Lloyd Rees was a consummate draughtsman of landscape. Many of his finest drawings are in small sketchbooks, of which 19 are extant, all in the Art Gallery of NSW collection. The Gallery has the most extensive collection of Rees’s work – paintings, drawings and prints spanning 70 years of his working life.
‘The summit Mount Wellington II’ 1973 is arguably his finest drawing. He certainly valued it highly, as did the artist Kenneth Jack, its only owner before it was purchased by the Gallery in 2009.
It was first exhibited at Artarmon Galleries, Sydney and the New Grafton Galleries in London in 1973, and was the poster image for a major survey of contemporary Australian drawings organised by the Art Gallery of Western Australia in 1978 and also shown here and at the Queensland Art Gallery.
Mount Wellington dominates Hobart and the Derwent Valley, seemingly changing in mood according to weather conditions and occasionally disappearing from view when shrouded in clouds. There are many images of it by early 19th-century artists and many since, including countless snapshots by tourists to Tasmania who climb or drive to the top, on a road first built by convicts, to experience the view.
After Rees’s son and family first moved to Tasmania to live in 1967, Rees began making his first drawings of Mount Wellington. None, however, are as expressive as this one. Close inspection reveals a rich texture of pen and brush in ink and watercolour, as well as oil pastel (to which Kenneth Jack had introduced him). The bold shapes of the rocks also suggest human form. Rocks held particular significance for Rees, suggesting permanence and acting as symbols for the composition of the earth and its part in the universe.
Rees spoke of landscape as allowing him ‘to glory in all creation as one great unified miracle … in which our lives are set between mundane details … and endless space.’
- Bibliography (9)
-
'Monumental brooding power: Another Rees masterpiece for the collection' by Hendrik Kolenberg, pg. 22-23., Look Apr 2010, Apr 2010, 22, 23 (colour illus.).
Hendrik Kolenberg (Netherlands; Australia) (Author), Edmund Capon (England; Australia, b.1940) (Author), Lloyd Rees Drawings - Centenary Retrospective, Sydney, 1995, 95 (colour illus.). cat.no. 105
'Honest gazing into the void' by Elwyn Lynn., The Australian 09 Oct 1993, 09 Oct 1993.
Lou Klepac (Australia; Croatia, b.1936) (Editor), Rees - Whiteley, On the Road to Berry, Melbourne, 1993. cat.no. 36
Renée Free (Australia) (Author), Lloyd Rees (Australia, b.1895, d.1988), Lloyd Rees: the last twenty years, Sydney, 1990, 72 (illus.). cat.no. 16
Renée Free (Australia) (Author), Lloyd Rees: the later works, Sydney, 1983, 73 (illus.). cat.no. 16
Lloyd Rees (Australia, b.1895, d.1988), Lloyd Rees survey drawings and paintings 1918-1980, Melbourne, 1981, 41 (illus.). cat.no. 29; titled 'The Pinnacle, Mt Wellington'
Art Gallery of Western Australia (Australia) (Author), Contemporary Australian Drawing - 1978 Perth Survey of Drawing, Perth, 1978, 91 (illus.). cat.no.76; image reproduced on exhibition poster
New Grafton Gallery, London (England) (Author), Lloyd Rees, London, 1973. cat.no. 5
- Exhibition history (17)
-
Lloyd Rees (1973), New Grafton Gallery, London, 1973–10 Oct 1973.
Recent paintings and drawings by Lloyd Rees (1973), Artarmon Galleries, 17 May 1973 -.
Contemporary Australian Drawing - 1978 Perth Survey of Drawing, Art Gallery of Western Australia, 02 Feb 1978–05 Mar 1978.
Contemporary Australian Drawing - 1978 Perth Survey of Drawing, Queensland Art Gallery, 05 Apr 1978–30 Apr 1978.
Contemporary Australian Drawing - 1978 Perth Survey of Drawing, Art Gallery of New South Wales, 03 Jun 1978–02 Jul 1978.
Lloyd Rees survey drawings and paintings 1918-1980 (1981), University Gallery, The University of Melbourne, 01 Mar 1981–01 Apr 1981.
Lloyd Rees survey drawings and paintings 1918-1980 (1981), City of Ballarat Fine Art Gallery, 01 May 1981–01 Jun 1981.
Lloyd Rees survey drawings and paintings 1918-1980 (1981), S.H. Ervin Gallery, 30 Jun 1981–01 Jul 1981.
Lloyd Rees survey drawings and paintings 1918-1980 (1981), Wollongong City Gallery, 01 Sep 1981–01 Oct 1981.
Rees - Whiteley, On the Road to Berry, Museum of Modern Art at Heide, 13 Jul 1993–05 Sep 1993.
Rees - Whiteley, On the Road to Berry, Art Gallery of New South Wales, 17 Sep 1993–14 Nov 1993.
Lloyd Rees Drawings (1995-96), Art Gallery of New South Wales, 09 Mar 1995–14 May 1995.
Lloyd Rees Drawings (1995-96), Bathurst Regional Art Gallery, 09 Jun 1995–16 Jul 1995.
Lloyd Rees Drawings (1995-96), City of Ballarat Fine Art Gallery, 01 Sep 1995–15 Oct 1995.
Lloyd Rees Drawings (1995-96), Queensland Art Gallery, 04 Nov 1995–01 Jan 1996.
Lloyd Rees Drawings (1995-96), Queen Victoria Museum and Art Gallery, Launceston, 24 Jan 1996–11 Mar 1996.
Australian Collection Focus: some recent acquisitions: - Nolan, Boyd, Fairweather, Rees (2010), Art Gallery of New South Wales, 16 Oct 2010–09 Jan 2011.
