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Details
- Date
- 1925
- Media category
- Materials used
- colour linocut on cream wove paper
- Edition
- 10/50
- Dimensions
- 30.6 x 17.6 cm blockmark; 37.2 x 23.8 cm sheet
- Signature & date
Signed l.r., pencil "M. Napier Waller". Signed with monogram in block to print l.r., black ink "MNW". Not dated.
- Credit
- Purchased 1971
- Location
- Not on display
- Accession number
- 67.1971
- Copyright
- © Courtesy Trustees of the Waller Estate
- Artist information
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Napier Waller
Works in the collection
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About
Mervyn Napier Waller was born at Penshurst, in rural Victoria. He studied drawing under Frederick McCubbin and painting under Bernard Hall at the National Gallery School, Melbourne. In August 1915 he enlisted in the army. The following year he married artist Christian Yandell (Waller), and by the end of the year was engaged in active combat in France. He was badly injured in 1917, necessitating the amputation of his right arm; he had to learn to use his left hand for writing and drawing while convalescing in France and England; it is possible that he learnt linocutting at the same time. He returned to Australia in November 1917 and exhibited works he made while in service, both before and after his accident.
It was in 1923 that he first exhibited linocuts which he began making after his return to Australia, most of them completed before 1930; he was one of the first Australian artists to make and exhibit them. 'The man in black' is a self portrait (showing both arms intact); Waller is standing in front of the mural he made for the Melbourne Public Library (completed in 1928).
Hendrik Kolenberg and Anne Ryan, Australian prints from the Gallery's collection, AGNSW, 1998
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Exhibition history
Shown in 1 exhibition
Australian prints from the Gallery's collection (1998-1999), Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney, 06 Nov 1998–07 Feb 1999
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Bibliography
Referenced in 5 publications
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Roger Butler., Melbourne woodcuts and linocuts of the 1920's and 1930's, 'Woodcuts and Linocuts of the 1920s and 1930's', Sydney, 1981, (colour illus.), (illus.). Collection of Ballarat Fine Art Gallery; not paginated; no catalogue numbers
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Roger Arthur Butler, Printed images by Australian artists 1885-1955, Canberra, 2007, 184 (colour illus.). Collection of National Gallery of Australia
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Nicholas Draffin, Australian woodcuts and linocuts of the 1920s and 1930s, South Melbourne, 1976, 11, 33 (colour illus.). Collection of National Gallery of Victoria; dated circa 1928
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Anna Gray, Face: Australian portraits 1880-1960, Canberra, 2010, 100 (colour illus.). Collection of National Gallery of Australia
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Hendrik Kolenberg and Anne Ryan, Australian prints from the Gallery's collection, Sydney, 1998, 56 (colour illus.). cat.no. 44
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