Title

Flowers in sunlight

1940

Artist

Adrian Feint

Australia

29 Jun 1894 – 25 Apr 1971

Details

Other Title

Flower piece

Date

1940

Media category

Painting

Materials used

oil on canvas

Dimensions

50.5 x 45.5 cm stretcher; 70.6 x 65.5 x 6.0 cm frame

Signature & date

Signed and dated l.r. corner, dark red (oil?) "Adrian Feint/ 1940".

Credit

Purchased 1940

Location

South Building, ground level, 20th-century galleries

Accession number

7001

Copyright

© Estate of Adrian Feint
Reproduction requests

Artist information

Adrian Feint
Works in the collection

45

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About

His was an exquisite art that mirrored the tranquillity of his life and the refinement of his tastes … in his flower pieces, his imagination found an outlet in combining man-made objects from other lands with flowers and growths of the sandstone belt of our eastern seaboard. These are not flower pieces in the common-place and finite sense; they are flower arrangements meticulously designed, superbly painted, and set in a related environment of time and space.

Douglas Dundas, 1971

Adrian Feint was a student at the Sydney Art School under Julian Ashton and Elioth Gruner, his painting practice extending from his work as a modern designer. As his subject in 'Flowers in sunlight' suggests, Feint’s still lifes have also been noted for their surreal quality, achieved through a synthesis of an almost analytical realism and the subdued mood of expansive backdrops, creating worlds of pure aesthetic illusion.
Exhibition history
Shown in 8 exhibitions
- Society of Artists Annual Exhibition (1940), Education Department Gallery [Loftus Street], Sydney, 06 Sep 1940–25 Sep 1940
- Art of Australia 1788-1941, National Gallery of Art, Washington D.C., 01 Oct 1941–26 Oct 1941
  
  Art of Australia 1788-1941, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, 17 Nov 1941–31 Dec 1941
  
  Art of Australia 1788-1941, National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa, Ottawa, 15 Jan 1942–15 Feb 1942
  
  Art of Australia 1788-1941, Yale University Art Gallery, United States of America, 02 Mar 1942–23 Mar 1942
  
  Art of Australia 1788-1941, Carnegie Institute, Pittsburgh, 03 Apr 1942–15 May 1942
  
  Art of Australia 1788-1941, Wilmington Society of Fine Arts, Wilmington, 01 Jun 1942–27 Jun 1942
  
  Art of Australia 1788-1941, Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Los Angeles, 10 Jul 1942–27 Aug 1942
  
  Art of Australia 1788-1941, Toledo Museum of Art, United States of America, 06 Sep 1942–27 Sep 1942
  
  Art of Australia 1788-1941, Rochester Memorial Art Gallery, Rochester, 05 Oct 1942–02 Nov 1942
  
  Art of Australia 1788-1941, Cleveland Museum of Art, United States of America, 09 Nov 1942–07 Dec 1942
  
  Art of Australia 1788-1941, Detroit Institiute of Arts, Detroit, 01 Jan 1943–29 Jan 1943
  
  Art of Australia 1788-1941, The Art Gallery of Toronto, Toronto, 05 Feb 1943–28 Feb 1943
  
  Art of Australia 1788-1941, Art Association of Montreal, Montreal, 07 Mar 1943–28 Mar 1943
  
  Art of Australia 1788-1941, Herron Museum of Art, Indianapolis, Indianapolis, 08 Apr 1943–05 May 1943
  
  Art of Australia 1788-1941, Fort Wayne Art School and Museum, Fort Wayne, 12 May 1943–31 May 1943
  
  Art of Australia 1788-1941, Rockhill Nelson Gallery, Kansas City, 07 Sep 1943–08 Oct 1943
  
  Art of Australia 1788-1941, Philbrook Art Museum, Tulsa, 20 Oct 1943–17 Nov 1943
  
  Art of Australia 1788-1941, Museum of Fine Arts, Dallas, Dallas, 28 Nov 1943–26 Dec 1943
  
  Art of Australia 1788-1941, Abilene Museum of Fine Arts, Abilene, 10 Jan 1944–07 Feb 1944
  
  Art of Australia 1788-1941, Heard Museum, Phoenix Fine Arts Association, Phoenix, 21 Feb 1944–20 Mar 1944
  
  Art of Australia 1788-1941, San Francisco Museum of Art, San Francisco, 04 Apr 1944–07 May 1944
  
  Art of Australia 1788-1941, Rosicrucian Egyptian Oriental Museum, San Jose, 19 May 1944–16 Jun 1944
  
  Art of Australia 1788-1941, Hamline University, St Paul, 01 Dec 1944–17 Dec 1944
  
  Art of Australia 1788-1941, Society Liberal Arts, Joslyn Memorial, Omaha, 06 Jan 1945–27 Jan 1945
  
  Art of Australia 1788-1941, Munson-Williams-Proctor Institute, United States of America, 06 Feb 1945–27 Feb 1945
  
  Art of Australia 1788-1941, Quincy Art Club, Quincy, 09 Mar 1945–30 Mar 1945
  
  Art of Australia 1788-1941, Oklahoma Art Center, Oklahoma City, 13 Apr 1945–04 May 1945
  
  Art of Australia 1788-1941, University of Oklahoma, Norman, 14 May 1945–04 Jun 1945
  
  Art of Australia 1788-1941, North Texas State Teachers' College, Denton, 14 Jun 1945–05 Jul 1945
- 100 years of Australian painting (1948), Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney, 19 Apr 1948–17 May 1948
- Travelling Art Exhibition 1953. Still life and flower paintings by Australian artists, Church of England Parish Hall, Grenfell, 16 Mar 1953–30 Mar 1953
  
  Travelling Art Exhibition 1953. Still life and flower paintings by Australian artists, Young Public Library, Young, 14 Apr 1953–28 Apr 1953
  
  Travelling Art Exhibition 1953. Still life and flower paintings by Australian artists, Bega County Council Exhibition Hall, Bega, 19 May 1953–02 Jun 1953
  
  Travelling Art Exhibition 1953. Still life and flower paintings by Australian artists, Wollongong High School Assembly Hall, Fairy Meadow, 03 Aug 1953–15 Aug 1953
  
  Travelling Art Exhibition 1953. Still life and flower paintings by Australian artists, Taree Council Chambers, Taree, 15 Sep 1953–29 Sep 1953
  
  Travelling Art Exhibition 1953. Still life and flower paintings by Australian artists, Dubbo Mechanics' Institute, Dubbo, 13 Oct 1953–27 Oct 1953
- Seeing is believing - the art in photography, Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney, 13 Dec 1985–19 Jan 1986
- Favourites: Margaret Olley and Barry Humphries choose from Australian collections (2000), S.H. Ervin Gallery, The Rocks, 15 Jan 2000–27 Feb 2000
- The art of the picture frame, Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney, 26 May 2003–12 Sep 2003
- 20th-Century galleries, ground level (rehang), Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney, 20 Aug 2022–2023
Bibliography
Referenced in 12 publications
- Herbert Badham, A gallery of Australian art, 'Introduction', pg. v-vii., Sydney, 1954, xii, (illus.). plate no. 72
- Herbert Badham, A study of Australian art, Sydney, 1949, (illus.). plate no. 80; titled 'Flower piece'
- Paula Dredge, Margaret Sawicki, Steven Miller and Lindsay Parker, S.A. Parker Framing Works, 'Works in the collection with known Parker frames', pg. 27-68, Sydney, 2004, 54 (illus.).
- Richard Heathcote, Adrian Feint: Cornucopia, 'Chapter 1: Feint connections flourish: The Haywards, Adelaide and Adrian Feint', pg. 13-16, Kent Town, 2009, 13 (colour illus.).
- Craig Judd, Sydney moderns: art for a new world, 'Adrian Feint: a safer modernism?', pg. 110-113, Sydney, 2013, 110, 111 (colour illus.), 313, 321.
- Craig Judd, Art and Australia (vol. 32, no. 1), 'The art of Adrian Feint', pg. 78-83, Sydney, Spring 1994, 80 (colour illus.), 81.
- Margaret Olley and Barry Humphries, Favourites: Margaret Olley and Barry Humphries choose from public and private collections, Sydney, 2000. Catalogue entry appears in inserted list to printed catalogue: Selections by Barry Humphries
- Ursula Prunster, Seeing is believing: the art in photography, 'Art Deco & Modernism', Sydney, 1985, (colour illus.). cat.no. 18; not paginated
- Bernard Smith, 100 years of Australian painting, 'Foreword', pg. 2-4, Sydney, 1948, 9. cat.no. 45; titled 'Flowers in sunlight'
- Sotheby's Australia, Sotheby's Sydney: Important Australian Art (31 August 2010), Melbourne, 2010, 160, 161 (colour illus.). RELATED WORK: 'Mixed flowers in the ram's head cornucopia vase' 1970, 42.5 x 37.5cm, private collection. This work is illustrated on page 160. It features the same ram head cornucopia featured in the Gallery's work.
- Sydney Ure Smith (Editor), Art of Australia 1788-1941, New York, 1941, 42, 86 (illus.). cat.no. 97; asterix indicates work exhibited only in Canada
- Editor Unknown (Editor), The Sydney morning herald, 'Lively picture exhibition: Society of Artists. Three bought for Gallery', pg. 9, Sydney, 05 Sep 1940, 9.