We acknowledge the Gadigal of the Eora Nation, the traditional custodians of the Country on which the Art Gallery of NSW stands.

Title

The summit, Mt Wellington II

1973

Artist

Lloyd Rees

Australia

17 Mar 1895 – 02 Dec 1988

Artist profile

  • Details

    Other Titles
    The Pinnacle, Mt Wellington
    The summit, Mt Wellington
    The summit, Mount Wellington II
    The Summit of Mount Wellington II
    Place where the work was made
    Mount Wellington → Tasmania → Australia
    Date
    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 62.4 cm image; 48.0 x 62.8 cm sheet
    Signature & date

    Signed and dated l.l., pen and black ink 'L. REES 1973'.

    Credit
    Edward Stinson Bequest Fund 2009
    Location
    Not on display
    Accession number
    341.2009
    Copyright
    © A&J Rees/Copyright Agency

    Reproduction requests

    Artist information
    Lloyd Rees

    Artist profile

    Works in the collection

    801

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  • About

    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 New South Wales 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.’

  • Exhibition history

    Shown in 7 exhibitions

  • Bibliography

    Referenced in 14 publications

    • Clary Akon, Limelight Magazine, 'Nature by design: the art of Lloyd Rees', pg. 96-97, Sydney, Jun 2013, 96 (colour illus.).

    • Christopher Allen, The Weekend Australian, 'Tangible Life Forms', pg. 12-13, Sydney, 01 Jun 2013-02 Jun 2013, 12 (colour illus.), 13.

    • Art Gallery of Western Australia, Contemporary Australian Drawing - 1978 Perth Survey of Drawing, ‘Catalogue’, pp 10-15, Perth, 1978, 91 (illus.). titled 'The Summit of Mount Wellington II’; plate no.76; image also reproduced on exhibition poster

    • Renée Free, Lloyd Rees: the later works, ‘Part two: Australia’, pg. 61-155, Sydney, 1983, 72, 73 (colour illus.), 166. plate no. 16

    • Renée Free, Lloyd Rees: the last twenty years, ‘Part two: Australia’, pg. 61-155, Sydney, 1990, 72, 73 (colour illus.). plate no. 16

    • Lou Klepac (Editor), Rees - Whiteley, On the Road to Berry, ‘The catalogue’, pp 14-20, Melbourne, 1993, 16, 17 (colour illus.). cat.no. 36

    • Hendrik Kolenberg, Lloyd Rees Drawings - Centenary Retrospective, ‘The Seventies’, pp 84-105, Sydney, 1995, 95 (colour illus.). cat.no. 105

    • Hendrik Kolenberg, Look, ‘Celebrating Lloyd Rees: a book and show on the Gallery’s collection of his work’, pg. 21-23, Sydney, Mar 2013, 21, 22 (colour illus.).

    • Hendrik Kolenberg, Look, 'Monumental brooding power: another Rees masterpiece for the collection', pp 22-23, Sydney, Apr 2010, 22, 23 (colour illus.).

    • Hendrik Kolenberg, Lloyd Rees: paintings, drawings and prints, ‘Introduction’, pp 11-26, Sydney, 2013, front cover (colour illus.), 16-17 (colour illus.), 19, 158. cat.no. 1

    • David Levell, Qantas the Australian Way, 'Diary; the best of what's on in Australia, state by state.', pg. 170-171, Sydney, Jun 2013, 170, 171 (colour illus.).

    • Elwyn Lynn, The Australian, 'Honest gazing into the void', Sydney, 09 Oct 1993, n.pag..

    • New Grafton Gallery, London, Lloyd Rees, London, 1973. cat.no. 5

    • Lloyd Rees, Lloyd Rees survey drawings and paintings 1918-1980, ‘Catalogue’, pp 18-50, Melbourne, 1981, 41 (illus.). titled 'The Pinnacle, Mt Wellington'; cat.no. 29

Other works by Lloyd Rees

See all 801 works