Title
Head study of a bearded man
(circa 1895)
Artist
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Details
- Other Title
- Head study, bearded man
- Date
- (circa 1895)
- Media category
- Drawing
- Materials used
- pencil, pen and sepia ink
- Dimensions
- 25.2 x 19.5 cm sheet (irreg.)
- Signature & date
Signed l.r., pencil "G Coates". Not dated.
- Credit
- Purchased 1962
- Location
- Not on display
- Accession number
- DA84.1962
- Copyright
- Artist information
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George James Coates
Works in the collection
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About
George Coates was a fine painter of portraits and figure compositions who studied in Melbourne at the National Gallery School and was awarded the school's travelling art scholarship. He left for Paris in 1897 with the painter David Davies (1864-1939). Coates was an official war artist in London in World War I and remained in England for much of his working life. He returned to Melbourne for a joint exhibition with his wife, the painter Dora Meeson (1869-1955), in 1921. The Australian War Memorial has an important collection of Coates’ work. He exhibited with the Victorian Artists Society in Melbourne, where he met J B Kilgour, a member of the Victorian Art Society and Cannibal Club in the 1890s and father of the artist J Noel Kilgour (1900-87), both whom owned this drawing.
The model is believed to have been a Russian musician in Melbourne in the 1890s. Lionel Lindsay also drew him, full length and in a cavalier's costume in Coate's studio in 1895.
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Exhibition history
Shown in 4 exhibitions
Acquisitions 1962, Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney, 10 Apr 1963–12 May 1963
The portrait and the nude: Australian drawings from the collection, Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney, 18 Aug 1990–28 Oct 1990
19th century Australian watercolours, drawings & pastels, Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney, 06 Apr 2005–24 Jul 2005
Themes and Variations: Australian drawings from the collection of the Art Gallery of New South Wales, Bathurst Regional Art Gallery, Bathurst, 17 Oct 2008–30 Nov 2008
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Bibliography
Referenced in 5 publications
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Art Gallery of New South Wales, 1962 Acquisitions, Sydney, 1963, 33. cat.no. 44
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Hendrik Kolenberg, Look, 'Australian images from the past: whether rarely seen or familiar, these works move and delight us', pg. 24-27, Sydney, Apr 2005, 27.
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Hendrik Kolenberg, Anne Ryan and Patricia James, 19th century Australian watercolours, drawing and pastels from the Gallery's collection, Sydney, 2005, 85 (colour illus.).
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Hendrik Kolenberg, The portrait and the nude: Australian drawings from the collection, Sydney, 1990. cat.no. 11
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Jill Sykes (Editor), Look, Sydney, Apr 2012, 41 (colour illus.).
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