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An image of The fig tree, McMahons Point by Lloyd Rees

Lloyd Rees

(Australia 17 Mar 1895–02 Dec 1988)

Title
The fig tree, McMahons Point
Other titles:
Fig tree - McMahon's Point
Fig tree, McMahon's Point
Place of origin
Sydney → New South Wales → Australia
Year
1931
Media category
Drawing
Materials used
pencil on ivory wove paper
Dimensions

18.8 x 20.8cm image; 22.2 x 22.1cm sheet (irreg.)

Signature & date
Signed and dated l.l., pencil "L REES/ 1931".
Credit
Purchased 1955
Accession number
9144
Copyright
© AGNSW
Location
20th & 21st c Australian art
Further information

Lloyd Rees valued drawing highly and it was an integral part of his oeuvre. Indeed, through the 1930s it was almost his exclusive focus. In 1931 he moved to McMahon's Point, on the north shore of the harbour, where he made many drawings of views towards Circular Quay, Balmain, Goat Island and Ball's Head.

"The full measure of my highly detailed drawings of Sydney Harbour were done at McMahon's Point. It was drawing purely for the sake of drawing, for by now, I was well out of the swim of the art world ... Drawing was simply an obsession and I was completely absorbed in the discovery of form and composition. The drawings were by no means naturalistic in the sense of simply selecting a subject and drawing it, for there were things brought in and things left out. They were highly worked and I had an intense interest in the manipulation of them. I drew in the morning and then took the work home and looked at it in the afternoon and if I saw anything superfluous, I rubbed it out."
- Lloyd Rees 1985

Australian Art Department, AGNSW, 2000

Bibliography (9)

Lou Klepac (Australia; Croatia, b.1936) (Author), Affinities: Brett Whiteley & Lloyd Rees, Domain, 2001, 7 (illus.), 8.

Barry Pearce (Australia) (Author), Australian art: in the Art Gallery of New South Wales, Domain, 2000, 196 (colour illus.), 301.

Hendrik Kolenberg (Netherlands; Australia) (Author), Edmund Capon (England; Australia, b.1940) (Author), Lloyd Rees Drawings - Centenary Retrospective, Sydney, 1995, 43, 44 (illus.). cat.no. 33

Renée Free (Australia) (Author), Lloyd Rees, Melbourne, 1972, 45 (illus.). cat.no. D114

'The artistic development of Lloyd Rees' by Roland Wakelin, pg. 490-492., Art Gallery of New South Wales Quarterly Oct 1969, Oct 1969, 495 (illus.).

Dennis Colsey (Australia) (Author), Hand and eye - a survey of artists materials and techniques: Art Gallery of New South Wales Travelling Art Exhibition 1970, Sydney, 1969, (illus.). cat.no. 16

1955 Acquisitions 1955, 1955, 12. cat.no. 35

Art Gallery of New South Wales (Australia, estab. 1874) (Author), (Lloyd Rees), Sydney, 1942.

Art in Australia [vol. 3, no. 42] Feb 1932, Feb 1932. plate no. 1

Exhibition history (11)

Lloyd Rees (1942), Art Gallery of New South Wales, 01 Aug 1942–30 Aug 1942.

The B.J. Waterhouse private collection at the Grosvenor Galleries, Grosvenor Gallery, 14 Sep 1955–23 Sep 1955.

Purchases and Acquisitions for 1955, Art Gallery of New South Wales, 09 Feb 1956–29 Feb 1956.

Hand and eye - a survey of artists' materials and techniques: Art Gallery of New South Wales Travelling Art Exhibition 1970, Various venues, 1970–1970.

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 icons: twenty artists from the collection, Art Gallery of New South Wales, 04 Aug 2000–03 Dec 2000.

Affinities: Brett Whiteley & Lloyd Rees (2001), The Brett Whiteley Studio, 10 Feb 2001–08 Jul 2001.