William Dobell

Controversial Art!



This painting is called “Mr Joshua Smith” and was the cause of a famous court case in 1944. The Archibald Prize is an Australian portraiture art prize for painting, and “Mr Joshua Smith” by William Dobell was the award winner in 1943. Two members of the Royal Art Society, a society that author of this monograph James Gleeson called “reactionary”, had taken action in the NSW Supreme Court that it was not a true portrait under the terms and conditions of the award. The judge rightfully threw the case out.

Initially published in 1964, with this copy I have just finished reading being updated and published in 1969, a year prior to the painter's death, this was at the time one of only 2 monographs on Dobell. Dobell's work back in the late 1960's was “eagerly sought after” more so than “any of his contemporaries,” according to Gleeson. I doubt him not, as “The Dead Landlord' was sold for a cool million bucks as recently as 2019. See this item here.

https://www.aasd.com.au/index.cfm/news/819-dobells-resurrected-dead-landlord-gives-rise-to-the-years-best-r/


I have had the pleasure of seeing Dobell's “The Cypriot” in the flesh at the Queensland art gallery, see this link https://learning.qagoma.qld.gov.au/artworks/the-cypriot/


I have to say that on first viewing it was certainly striking and could imagine this selling for 7 figures with consummate ease if it was ever to come onto the open market.



Dobell was initially a draughtsman who came to the attention of the art world when he won a scholarship worth 500 pounds in 1929 and with that spent several years in London studying at the Slade School and taking lesson under various noted teachers of the time. The nice part of this book is to actually see the development of his style from those early days through to the last years of his life in the late 60's. We are presented with 133 illustrations, with only 26 in colour. I have had to keep looking up on the www to see them in all their coloured glory to get the depth and at times brilliance of some of his art.

I can hardly complain about this book, it is a battered copy I picked up at a school fair for a dollar. It was originally in the library of the Brisbane Girls Grammar and has the school's stamp on various pages, it still has the library card pasted in the back and has pencil and pen marks occasionally marking passages. One very nice female nude has had a pen draw in pubic hair. Kids!

As much as I have enjoyed this read it is a bit dated, the language is a little archaic at times, and the author is a little hypocritical in his defence of Dobell but then in his criticism of other artists. After what his good friend Dobell went through in a court case it seems odd to me to call Cezanne, Van Gough and Gauguin excessive and even that of “cranks” and in the case of Picasso and Matisse “charlatans” when calling an art society reactionary because they thought a painting was a caricature as opposed to a portrait.

Be that as it may, I think this is a useful read to anyone that admires the art of Dobell and is recommended to them.