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Collection

Eric Wilson

(Australia 05 Jan 1911–23 Nov 1946)

Title
recto: Studies of old men verso: (studies of old men)
Place of origin
Sydney → New South Wales → Australia
Year
(1943-1945)
Media category
Drawing
Materials used
pencil on ivory wove paper
Dimensions

10.4 x 12.6cm sheet (irreg.)

Signature & date
Not signed. Not dated.
Credit
Purchased 1958
Accession number
9796.a-b
Location
Not on display
Further information

Eric Wilson was in London on the NSW Travelling Art Scholarship when the outbreak of the Second World War forced his return to Australia. His studies in Europe led his work in two directions - cubist-inspired abstract still lifes and portraits and landscapes based on drawings made in Europe.

Wilson was a conscientious objector during the war and worked as a ward attendant at Lidcombe Hospital in Sydney between 1942 and 1944. He made a number of emotionally expressive studies of the residents in Wards 27 and 28, which housed approximately ninety patients each, most suffering either advanced senility or terminal illness. The drawings led to a painting in the Gallery's collection, 'The inmates' 1944.

Australian Art Department, AGNSW, 2001

Bibliography (1)

Andrew Sayers, Eric Wilson 1983, Newcastle, 1983, 54 (illus.). cat no. 54

Exhibition history (2)

Purchases and Acquisitions for 1958, Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney, 11 Feb 1959–08 Mar 1959

Eric Wilson: