Ian Fairweather Paintings & Artwork for Sale | Ian Fairweather Art Value Price Guide

May. 07, 2025
IAN FAIRWEATHER, TOMBS IN PEKING, 1936
Est: $400,000 - $500,000
IAN FAIRWEATHER (1891 - 1974) TOMBS IN PEKING, 1936 oil on thick paper on compressed card 51.0 x 54.0 cm PROVENANCE Redfern Gallery, London Lady Strathcona, London, acquired from the above 1936 Thence by descent Private collection, Sydney Deutscher and Hackett, Melbourne, 17 November 2010, lot 8 Private collection, Melbourne EXHIBITED Recent Paintings by Ian Fairweather, Redfern Gallery, London, 7 – 30 January 1937, cat. 15 (label attached verso) ESSAY We are grateful to Brenda Martin Thomas, wife of the late David Thomas AM, for kindly allowing us to reproduce David's writing in this catalogue entry. Ian Fairweather has long been admired for the fusion he achieved between Chinese and Western ideas and techniques, with his early Chinese works being rightly regarded as among the great achievements in Australian art. This is seen as much in the philosophical and universal within his art, as in his brilliant use of line drawn on the delicacy and power of Chinese calligraphy. Artist and critic James Gleeson once described his paintings as being ‘infused with the living spirit of Chinese art.’1 Fairweather himself remarked, ‘I took on, unconsciously I believe, many Chinese attitudes...’2 It was also commented on when this painting was shown in Fairweather's exhibition of Chinese paintings at the Redfern Gallery, London in January 1937. It was his second exhibition at this prestigious gallery, following on from that, also held in January, of 1936. The critic for The Times wrote with warmth and admiration: ‘There seems to be more than a chance connection between the subject matter and the general effect of the paintings because, though he is completely Western and, in the broader sense, Impressionistic, in his methods it is evident that he has temperamental affinities with Eastern artists. His colour schemes remind one of Chinese frescoes, in which every tint is subdued and away from its name. With this taste in colour he combines a free style of drawing, avoiding sharp definition, and inclining to the calligraphic in character...’3 Fairweather made two visits to China, the first from 1929 to 1933, when he studied Mandarin and travelled widely. After spending some time in Bali, Australia and the Philippines, he returned early in 1935, staying until April of the following year. Painting fulltime, he lived in Peking (modern day Beijing) away from European people and influences. Here he made a special study of the work of the master calligraphers, their presence being as much felt in Tombs in Peking, 1936 as in such accompanying works as Temple Yard, Peking, 1936 and Tethered Horses Outside Gate, Peking, 1936 – both painted the same year. Fairweather followed the Chinese masters who, ‘with a few strokes of the brush, dramatic, delicate’ were able to achieve ‘tremendous power of suggestion and imagination.’4 The ancient city of Peking surrounded by its great walls provided Fairweather with endless opportunities to capture the exotic passing scene in its various moods and moments. Back in his studio, he translated about twelve into paintings, the remaining sketches being used over the years for Chinese subjects painted while in the Philippines, India and Australia. Tombs in Peking is one of the precious few painted in China, seen in the freshness of the imagery and the immediacy of its realisation. The shallow depth of field adds to the tapestry-like effect of the painting. He was also inclined to reduce some of his paintings, as in Temple Yard, Peking, almost to pure colour, full of lively movement and visual engagement. The most striking features of Tombs in Peking are certainly colour and harmony. Applied with swift touches of the brush, colours dance across the picture plane, definition sometimes aided by the line drawn in the pigment with the other end of the brush. Overall, the images are effectively generalised as form echoes form distinguished by colour. Unity of technique is similarly achieved in figuration, with humans, animals, trees and temples all as one. In this masterpiece of felt observation, the past is in living harmony with the present, both in its subject and in Fairweather's realisation of it. 1. Gleeson, J., ‘Fusing art forms’, Sun-Herald, Sydney, 16 May 1965, p. 82 2. Ian Fairweather, cited in Bail, M., Ian Fairweather, Murdoch Books, Sydney, 2009, p. 19 3. ‘Paintings Of China: Exhibition in London’, The Times, 22 January 1937, p. 17 4. Ian Fairweather, cited in Bail, op. cit., p. 46 DAVID THOMAS © Ian Fairweather/DACS. Copyright Agency 2025
Deutscher and Hackett
May. 07, 2025
IAN FAIRWEATHER, MARKET SCENE, PEKING, c.1945
Est: $90,000 - $120,000
IAN FAIRWEATHER (1891 - 1974) MARKET SCENE, PEKING, c.1945 gouache and pencil on paper 38.0 x 39.5 cm (image) 48.0 x 50.0 cm (sheet) signed lower right: I. Fairweather PROVENANCE Isabella Griffiths, London Thence by descent Private collection Christie’s, Melbourne, 3 May 2004, lot 85 Private collection, Melbourne EXHIBITED Probably: Paintings by Ian Fairweather, The Redfern Gallery, London, 28 October – 20 November 1948, cat. 23 (as ‘Market Foochow’) LITERATURE Bail, M., Ian Fairweather, Bay Books, Sydney, 1981, cat. 63, fig. 29, pp. 75, 76, (illus.), 235 – 236; revised edition, Murdoch Books, Sydney, 2009, cat. 57, pl. 44, pp. 70, 71 (illus.), 249 (as ‘(Market Scene, China)’) Smith, R., ‘Ian Fairweather: artist of cosmological figuration’, Art and Australia, Sydney, vol. 21, no. 3, Autumn 1984, pp. 337 (illus.), 341 ESSAY In October 1947 Fairweather sent 130 gouaches to the Redfern Gallery in London, the second such consignment.1 They were painted while he was living at Lina Bryans’ house in Darebin which was a stable and productive time for the artist. The works were ‘ghosts’, Fairweather wrote to Jim Ede in the December, painted ‘in ten different ways’; he knew he could not move on with other subjects until they were put to rest. They were memories of the past, and Chinese market and street scenes of differing sizes – some according to Bail, ‘mixed with clag [and] very thickly painted.’2 Market Scene, Peking, 1945 – 47 depicts a crowded jumble of terracotta pots and bowls in stark browns and blacks over a background of creamy whites and greys. It hums with the chatter of stall holders and street sellers and is a work of such vividness and immediacy that it is hard to believe it was painted from memory. The gouaches, which were packed by Fairweather, subsequently arrived at the Redfern Gallery ‘in one solid congealed mass’, not one being able to be saved, according to Redfern director, Rex Nan Kivell.3 They were bundled up and sent to Isabella Griffiths, Fairweather’s cousin whom he called Ella. She had married the distinguished gynaecologist and musician Walter Spencer Anderson (1854 – 1946) as his second wife, was close to Fairweather’s sister Ethel and lived at 19 Cheyne Walk, Chelsea. It was here that Fairweather stayed after being shipped back to London by the British Government following his disastrous raft voyage to Timor in 1952. He was destitute and accused Ella of storing the paintings so inadequately that they were riddled with mould and eaten by silverfish. In spite of this, Fairweather had little hesitation in accepting Ella’s hospitality. Nor did it stop him from criticising her food and lifestyle, or dropping cigarettes and mud throughout the house.4 They argued furiously, Fairweather burning all the gouaches kept at Cheyne Walk save for this painting which escaped the same fate, it has been suggested, after slipping down the back of the incinerator.5 More credibly, Ella probably salvaged the work when the bundle arrived from the Redfern Gallery as it shows no sign of significant damage. It could be one of the two works mentioned by Fairweather in a letter to his niece Pippa.6 Writing to Pippa in 1953, he said that ‘there were just two that for sentimental reasons I couldn’t bring myself to destroy’. He begged her to rescue them from Ella – and specifically, work that was ‘5ft by 3 ft’ on thick cardboard (clearly not the present Market Scene, Peking). The second painting is not detailed by Fairweather, but we know from the provenance that this work was owned by Isabella around this date.7 Ella accused Fairweather of being a ‘sponger…a hanger-on…a ne’er-do-well’.8 He was outraged. She was, he wrote, ‘a very [nasty] and poisonous old woman’ who had ‘forced him’ to burn the paintings as a way of humiliating him.9 Their relationship never recovered. Fairweather fled Cheyne Walk on 22 June 1953. He spent the day in the British Museum sitting in front of the Elgin marbles, writing plaintively to Pippa and waiting for the midnight train to Liverpool and the ship back to Australia.10 1. The first shipment of gouaches was sent in June 1946 and packed with the help of Lina Bryans; they were all stamped with an Australian customs stamp. 2. Bail, M., Ian Fairweather, Bay Books, Sydney, 1981, p. 75 3. Letter from Nan Kivell to Murray Bail, 22 July 1976. See Bail, ibid., p. 225, chapter 7, endnote 14. An earlier bundle sent in June 1946 were stamped by Australian customs to allow re-entry into Australia, see Bail, ibid., p. 74 4. Abbott-Smith, N., Ian Fairweather: A Profile of an Artist, University of Queensland Press, Brisbane, 1978, pp. 123 – 4 5. Bail, op. cit., p. 75 6. Letter 77, Ian Fairweather to Helga Macnamara (Pippa), 22 June 1953, cited in Roberts C., & Thompson, J., Ian Fairweather: A Life in Letters, Text Publishing, Melbourne, 2019, p. 139. As other letters by the artist show, he was quite paranoid at this time. 7. Letter 77, cited ibid. 8. Abbott-Smith, op. cit., p. 124 9. His complaints about Ella reveal that at the age of 66, she was newly widowed (Walter died in 1946) and she was dealing with a very large house without the help of any servants. In February 1974, she was stabbed to death by an intruder. 10. His passage was paid by his siblings after Fairweather ‘passed the hat around’, see Abbott-Smith, op. cit., p. 125 DR CANDICE BRUCE © Ian Fairweather/DACS. Copyright Agency 2025
Deutscher and Hackett
May. 04, 2025
Ian Fairweather: Three Volumes
Est: $80 - $120
Ian Fairweather: Three Volumes, Bail, Murray. Ian Fairweather, published by Craftsman House (1994), hardcover, dust jacket Bail, Murray. Ian Fairweather, published by Bay Books (1981), hardcover, dust jacket Abbott-Smith, Nourma. Ian Fairweather Profile of a Painter, University of Queensland Press (1978), hardcover, dust jacket
Theodore Bruce Auctioneers & Valuers
Apr. 08, 2025
IAN FAIRWEATHER 1891-1974 Mulberries, Hangchow (1936) oil and pencil on paper on cardboard 49.2 x 54.7 cm
Est: $150,000 - $250,000
IAN FAIRWEATHER 1891-1974 Mulberries, Hangchow (1936) oil and pencil on paper on cardboard 49.2 x 54.7 cm PROVENANCE Ian Fairweather, Zamboanga The Redfern Gallery, London Mervyn Horton, Sydney The Estate of the Late Mervyn Horton, Sydney Joseph Brown Gallery, Melbourne (stock 9000) Private Collection, Melbourne, acquired from the above on 23 November 1983 EXHIBITED Recent Paintings by Ian Fairweather, The Redfern Gallery, London, 7-30 January 1937, no. 7 Summer Salon, The Redfern Gallery, London, 1938, no. 120 Summer Salon, The Redfern Gallery, London, 1940, no. 120 Ian Fairweather: Paintings of China and the Philippines, The Redfern Gallery, London, 15 October – 7 November 1942, no. 42, ‘Mulberry Trees, Hangchow' On long-term loan to Bendigo Art Gallery, Bendigo, December 2005 – February 2025 LITERATURE Murray Bail, Fairweather, Bay Books, Sydney, 1981, cat. no. 41, figure 19, pp. 53, 54 (illustrated), 233 Daniel Thomas, ‘The Mervyn Horton Collection', Art and Australia, The Fine Arts Press, Sydney, Vol. 21, No. 1, Spring 1983, p. 81 (illustrated) Murray Bail, Fairweather, Murdoch Books, Sydney, 2009, cat. no. 34, plate 27, pp. 48 (illustrated), 247
Smith & Singer
Apr. 08, 2025
IAN FAIRWEATHER 1891-1974 Seated Women 1949 gouache on paper on hardboard 54 x 49 cm
Est: $120,000 - $160,000
IAN FAIRWEATHER 1891-1974 Seated Women 1949 gouache on paper on hardboard dated ‘1949 [in Chinese]' lower left; signed ‘IF' lower right 54 x 49 cm PROVENANCE Ian Fairweather, Cairns The Macquarie Galleries, Sydney Mr J. Kemelfield, acquired from the above in April 1949 Joseph Brown Gallery, Melbourne (stock 6492) Private Collection, Melbourne, acquired from the above on 13 April 1978 EXHIBITED Easter 1949, The Macquarie Galleries, Sydney, 6-23 April 1949, no. 11, 25 gns Autumn Exhibition 1978: Recent Acquisitions 1978, Joseph Brown Gallery, Melbourne, 7-20 April 1978, no. 96, ‘Three Figures', illustrated On long-term loan to Bendigo Art Gallery, Bendigo, December 2005 – February 2025 LITERATURE Murray Bail, Fairweather, Bay Books, Sydney, 1981, cat. no. 81, plate 41, pp. 90, 92 (illustrated), 237 Murray Bail, Fairweather, Murdoch Books, Sydney, 2009, cat. no. 83, plate 64, pp. 87, 88 (illustrated), 250
Smith & Singer
Nov. 27, 2024
IAN FAIRWEATHER 1891-1974 Banjo (1964) synthetic polymer paint and gouache on cardboard on composition board 91 x 71 cm frame: original
Est: $220,000 - $280,000
IAN FAIRWEATHER 1891-1974 Banjo (1964) synthetic polymer paint and gouache on cardboard on composition board 91 x 71 cm frame: original, maker unknown, Sydney PROVENANCE Ian Fairweather, Bribie Island Macquarie Galleries, Sydney Private Collection, Sydney, acquired from the above on 22 July 1964 EXHIBITED Exhibition of Paintings: Ian Fairweather, Macquarie Galleries, Sydney, 5-17 August 1964, no. 2 LITERATURE Daniel Thomas, ‘Best One Man Show', The Sunday Telegraph, Sydney, 9 August 1964, (illustrated)
Smith & Singer
Nov. 26, 2024
IAN FAIRWEATHER, PEKING MARKET PLACE, C.1940
Est: $60,000 - $90,000
IAN FAIRWEATHER (1891 - 1974) PEKING MARKET PLACE, c.1940 gouache and pencil on paper 36.0 x 43.0 cm signed lower right: I Fairweather PROVENANCE Lina Bryans, Melbourne Christie's, Melbourne, 6 March 1970, lot 64 (as ‘Market Place’) Joseph Brown Gallery, Melbourne Joan Clemenger AO and Peter Clemenger AO, Melbourne, acquired from the above 6 December 1982 EXHIBITED Fairweather: A Retrospective Exhibition, Queensland Art Gallery, Brisbane, 3 June – 4 July 1965, then touring to: Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney, 21 July – 22 August 1965; National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne, 9 September – 10 October 1965; National Gallery of South Australia, Adelaide, 26 October – 21 November 1965; Art Gallery of Western Australia, Perth, 9 December 1965 – 16 January 1966; and Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery, Hobart, 10 February – 13 March 1966, cat. 79 (as ‘Market Place’) Joseph Brown Gallery, Melbourne, 10 – 24 September 1981, cat. 139 (illus. in exhibition catalogue, p. 120, as ‘Market Place, 1940 – 41’) ESSAY In 1938, Fairweather was living in an abandoned theatre in Sandgate, a seaside suburb of Brisbane. Spooked by inexplicable noises and lights throughout the night, he began both sleeping and working in the old projection room where he could at least close the door to feel more secure. In spite of this he was productive and, as he recounted to his friend Jock Frater, in a few months had completed at least ten works which he intended to send to London for sale.1 Before Fairweather could execute his plan however, Frater managed to sell a large lot to his friend and fellow artist Lina Bryans – ‘the mysterious lady benefactress’2 as Fairweather would call her. Always able to make a simple situation more complicated and fraught, Fairweather – although grateful for Frater’s support – felt humiliated by the process, and it would be some years before he would meet up with Bryans in person. The works in this group were memories of Peking which he had visited for the first time in 1933 after living in Shanghai for two years. Although only a brief visit, his first impressions were positive, and he was keen to return. For the next year however he circled Southeast Asia, restlessly travelling to Bali, Australia, Colombo and Davao in the Philippines, and finally arriving back in Peking in March 1935. He found the city much changed, he wrote in a letter to Jim Ede, and ‘full of refugee Russians’ who competed for the sort of unskilled work he depended upon while waiting for money from the sale of his paintings in London.3 All that was left to do was to walk the city, drawing and sketching the temples and bridges, the walls and canals, the crowded markets and busy street stalls. Peking was messy and noisy and, though preferable to the monotony of Melbourne and the irritations of Davao, drove him to distraction. As he found in most instances, places and people were much better after the fact. Such depictions of China are now considered amongst Fairweather’s finest works, and indeed the present, Peking Market Place, c.1940, has all the immediacy and vividness of a photograph snapped in the street. The dark brown and cream figures form a long serpentine line set against a vivid background of indigo blue, a colour used frequently in Chinese ink paintings, with other details picked out in a deep russet. It offers a fleeting impression quickly and perfectly sketched. 1. Roberts, C. and Thompson, J., Ian Fairweather: A Life in Letters, Text Publishing, Melbourne, 2019, p. 123 2. ibid. 3. ibid. DR CANDICE BRUCE © Ian Fairweather/DACS. Copyright Agency, 2024
Deutscher and Hackett
Nov. 20, 2024
IAN FAIRWEATHER (1891-1974), (Mother and Child) 1958
Est: $70,000 - $90,000
PROPERTY FORMERLY FROM THE COLLECTION OF RUTH PROWSE, CANBERRA IAN FAIRWEATHER (1891-1974) (Mother and Child) 1958 gouache on cardboard 52.5 x 37.0 cm; 85.5 x 68.0 cm (framed)
Menzies
Aug. 27, 2024
Ian Fairweather (1891-1974) Kulu, 1949
Est: $12,000 - $18,000
Ian Fairweather (1891-1974) Kulu, 1949 initialled and titled lower right: 'Kulu F' ink and gouache on paper 16.0 x 20.0cm (6 5/16 x 7 7/8in).
Bonhams
Aug. 27, 2024
Ian Fairweather (1891-1974) Boys Playing, 1955
Est: $100,000 - $150,000
Ian Fairweather (1891-1974) Boys Playing, 1955 initialled lower right: 'IF' gouache on card 36.5 x 49.5cm (14 3/8 x 19 1/2in).
Bonhams
Aug. 27, 2024
Ian Fairweather (1891-1974) Outside the Walls of Peking, 1935
Est: $250,000 - $350,000
Ian Fairweather (1891-1974) Outside the Walls of Peking, 1935 initialled lower left: 'IF' oil and pencil on heavy card 49.0 x 57.0cm (19 5/16 x 22 7/16in).
Bonhams
Aug. 25, 2024
Ian Fairweather
Est: $100 - $120
Ian Fairweather. Text by Murray Bail. Bay Books, Sydney 1981. Blue cloth binding with gilt details and dustwrapper. Wrapper faded, else in very good condition.
Sydney Rare Book Auctions
Jul. 07, 2024
Ian Fairweather
Est: $100 - $150
Ian Fairweather by Murray Bail. Bay Books 1981. First Edition. Hardcover in dust wrapper in very good condition.33cm x 26cm
Sydney Rare Book Auctions
May. 09, 2024
Ian Fairweather by Murray Bail
Est: $30 - $50
Ian Fairweather by Murray Bail
Lawsons
Mar. 19, 2024
IAN FAIRWEATHER (1891-1974) Figure Group c.1950 gouache on paper, double-sided 52 x 75cm
Est: $25,000 - $35,000
IAN FAIRWEATHER (1891-1974) Figure Group c.1950 gouache on paper, double-sided signed and inscribed lower right in Chinese characters and likely dated: 50 52 x 75cm PROVENANCE: Macquarie Galleries, Sydney 1984 (original label retained, accompanied by a copy of purchase receipt) Private collection, Sydney OTHER NOTES: © Ian Fairweather/Copyright Agency, 2024 "Painting to me is something of a tightrope act; it is between representation and the other thing - whatever that is. It is difficult to keep one's balance."(1) - Ian Fairweather In 1929 Ian Fairweather visited China for the first time and its culture, philosophy and imagery continued to inform his artistic practice for the rest of his career. In 1934 he spent two years living in China in poverty and took lessons in calligraphy and Mandarin and studied the teachings of Taoism and Buddhism. By 1938 Fairweather returned to Australia but took many of these teachings with him. He turned his artistic practice from oil paintings to gouache, often painting on fragile surfaces using a delicate watercolour and gouache on thin cream tissue paper. Drawing with economy and speed, these works on paper often have a fleeting sense of movement and ephemerality to them. In the present lot this feeling of movement is conveyed by repetitive sweeping curved lines which coalesce into a busy overall graphic. If it weren't for the literal title, the composition may be difficult for a viewer to make sense of. However, with the aid of the title we see these lines coming together to form several figures interwoven in a variety of positions. The image recalls that of Fairweather's work on paper, Pied-à-terre, c.1950, in the Art Gallery of New South Wales. According to the Art Gallery of New South Wales, during the summer of 1950-51, when Fairweather was living in an abandoned patrol boat on the shores of Darwin Harbour, he was at a crossroads both artistically and personally. His art from this period demonstrates that he was wrestling with his identity as an Englishman abroad and an artist whose work was rooted firmly in the Australian landscape. (2) The compositional elements within Figure Group are characteristic of Fairweather's distinctive style and are present throughout his oeuvre from the mid-century onwards. In these lines we see the influence of Chinese calligraphy, and his appreciation of Chinese language in the signature and inscription in Chinese characters in the lower right corner. In an interview with Craig McGregor in 1968 Fairweather said: The Chinese have quite a different idea of painting from us. The movement, the stroke of the hand counts so much for them. They never draw a straight line. And it's the same for me. It's given me a sensitiveness towards line that I didn't have. (3) Upon reframing this artwork, it was found to have another previously unknown work on the reverse. This work is unsigned but appears to be a preparatory work for the final piece on the other side. Although the composition appears somewhat complete it seems Fairweather has "crossed out" the image, with several sweeping brush strokes of black ink across the width of the page indicating he was unhappy with its result. It was a surprising discovery which offers a rare insight into the artistic process of one of Australia's most interesting and unique modern painters. Madeleine Norton Head of Decorative Arts & Art, Sydney (1) Ian Fairweather in an interview with Hazel de Berg, National Library of Australia (2) Australian Art Department, Art Gallery of New South Wales, 2004, Ian Fairweather: Pied-à-terre, https://www.artgallery.nsw.gov.au/collection/works/485.1996/#bibliography (3) Fairweather, I., 1968, Interview with Craig McGregor, quoted in: Bail, M., Fairweather, Murdoch Books, Sydney, 2009 (revised edition), pp. 269-270
Leonard Joel
Feb. 29, 2024
Ian Fairweather, by Murray Bail
Est: $50 - $80
Ian Fairweather, by Murray Bail
Lawsons
Feb. 11, 2024
Ian Fairweather
Est: $50 - $80
Two Ian Fairweather exhibition catalogues. 1) Fairweather: A Retrospective Exhibition. Introduction by Robert Smith. Published by Queensland Art Gallery, 1965. In good condition. 2) Ian Fairweather May 18-June 14 1984. A limited edition. Held in Brisbane at the Philip Bacon Galleries. This copy has been signed by the Gallery owner Philip Bacon on the first page. Bumped corners.
Sydney Rare Book Auctions
Jan. 04, 2024
[AUSTRALIAN ART] Ian Fairweather Deluxe Edition
Est: $400 - $600
Murray Bail Ian Fairweather Sydney: Bay Books, 1981. Deluxe Edition. Signed by the Author. 32cm x 26cn. 264 pages, colour illustrations. Blue cloth, gilt lettering, slipcase. The deluxe edition limited to 100 numbered copies signed by Bail, of which this is number 60. Fine Condition.
The Book Merchant Jenkins
Dec. 04, 2023
IAN FAIRWEATHER (1891-1974) Figure Group c.1950 gouache on paper 52 x 75cm (74.5 x 97cm framed)
Est: $45,000 - $65,000
IAN FAIRWEATHER (1891-1974) Figure Group c.1950 gouache on paper signed and inscribed lower right in Chinese characters and likely dated: 50 52 x 75cm (74.5 x 97cm framed) PROVENANCE: Macquarie Galleries, Sydney, 1984 (original label retained, accompanied by a copy of purchase receipt) Private collection, Sydney OTHER NOTES: © Ian Fairweather/Copyright Agency, 2023 "Painting to me is something of a tightrope act; it is between representation and the other thing – whatever that is. It is difficult to keep one's balance." - Ian Fairweather In 1929 Ian Fairweather visited China for the first time and its culture, philosophy and imagery continued to inform his artistic practice for the rest of his career. In 1934 he spent two years living in China in poverty and took lessons in calligraphy and Mandarin and studied the teachings of Taoism and Buddhism. By 1938 Fairweather returned to Australia but took many of these teachings with him. He turned his artistic practice from oil paintings to gouache, often painting on fragile surfaces using a delicate watercolour and gouache on thin cream tissue paper. Drawing with economy and speed, these works on paper often have a fleeting sense of movement and ephemerality to them. In the present lot this feeling of movement is conveyed by repetitive sweeping curved lines which coalesce into a busy overall graphic. If it weren't for the literal title, the composition may be difficult for a viewer to make sense of. However, with the aid of the title we see these lines coming together to form several figures interwoven in a variety of positions. The image recalls that of Fairweather's work on paper, Pied-à-terre, c.1950, in the Art Gallery of New South Wales. According to the Art Gallery of New South Wales, during the summer of 1950-51, when Fairweather was living in an abandoned patrol boat on the shores of Darwin Harbour, he was at a crossroads both artistically and personally. His art from this period demonstrates that he was wrestling with his identity as an Englishman abroad and an artist whose work was rooted firmly in the Australian landscape.2 The compositional elements within Figure Group are characteristic of Fairweather's distinctive style and are present throughout his oeuvre from the mid-century onwards. In these lines we see the influence of Chinese calligraphy, and his appreciation of Chinese language in the signature and inscription in Chinese characters in the lower right corner. In an interview with Craig McGregor in 1968 Fairweather said: The Chinese have quite a different idea of painting from us. The movement, the stroke of the hand counts so much for them. They never draw a straight line. And it's the same for me. It's given me a sensitiveness towards line that I didn't have.3 Upon reframing this artwork it was found to have another previously unknown work on the reverse. This work is unsigned but appears to be a preparatory work for the final piece on the other side. Although the composition appears somewhat complete it seems Fairweather has "crossed out" the image, with several sweeping brush strokes of black ink across the width of the page indicating he was unhappy with its result. It was a surprising discovery which offers a rare insight into the artistic process of one of Australia's most interesting and unique modern painters. Madeleine Norton Head of Decorative Arts & Art, Sydney (1) Ian Fairweather in an interview with Hazel de Berg, National Library of Australia (2) Australian Art Department, Art Gallery of New South Wales, 2004, Ian Fairweather: Pied-à-terre, (3) Fairweather, I., 1968, Interview with Craig McGregor, quoted in: Bail, M., Fairweather, Murdoch Books, Sydney, 2009 (revised edition), pp. 269-270
Leonard Joel
Nov. 22, 2023
IAN FAIRWEATHER, FILIPINO GIRL CARRYING FRUIT, 1945 - 47
Est: $15,000 - $20,000
IAN FAIRWEATHER (1891 - 1974) FILIPINO GIRL CARRYING FRUIT, 1945 - 47 gouache on paper 28.5 x 25.0 cm bears inscription verso: 2 PROVENANCE Redfern Gallery, London (label attached verso, as 'Phil Girl Carrying Fruit, 1945 - 47') The Skinner Collection, Perth, acquired from the above in 19 December 1953 Thence by descent Private collection, Perth © Ian Fairweather/DACS. Copyright Agency 2023
Deutscher and Hackett
Nov. 22, 2023
IAN FAIRWEATHER, (LANDSCAPE, SOOCHOW), 1945 - 47
Est: $15,000 - $20,000
IAN FAIRWEATHER (1891 - 1974) (LANDSCAPE, SOOCHOW), 1945 - 47 gouache on paper 20.5 x 21.0 cm PROVENANCE Redfern Gallery, London The Skinner Collection, Perth, acquired from the above 19 December 1953 Thence by descent Private collection, Perth EXHIBITED Ian Fairweather, Redfern Gallery, London, 28 October – 20 November 1948, cat. 32 ORIENTing: Ian Fairweather in Western Australian Collections, Lawrence Wilson Art Gallery, University of Western Australia, Perth, 4 May - 13 July 2013 LITERATURE Bail, M., Fairweather, Murdoch Books, Sydney, 2009, cat. 65, pl. 55, pp. 52, 71, 80 (illus.), 120, 249 Snell, T. et al., ORIENTing: Ian Fairweather in Western Australian Collections, Lawrence Wilson Art Gallery, University of Western Australia, Perth, 2013, fig. 15, pp. 12, 73 (illus.), 100 © Ian Fairweather/DACS. Copyright Agency 2023
Deutscher and Hackett
Nov. 22, 2023
IAN FAIRWEATHER, HEAD, C.1934
Est: $60,000 - $80,000
IAN FAIRWEATHER (1891 - 1974) HEAD, c.1934 oil and pencil on cardboard 45.5 x 37.5 cm bears inscription verso: Noa's Woman PROVENANCE Redfern Gallery, London (label attached verso, as 'Head, c.1936') The Skinner Collection, Perth, acquired from the above in 19 December 1953 Thence by descent Private collection, Perth EXHIBITED Recent Paintings by Ian Fairweather, Redfern Gallery, London, 7 – 30 January 1937, cat. 11 Ian Fairweather: Paintings of China and the Philippines, Redfern Gallery, London, 15 October - 7 November 1942, cat. 46 (as 'Head of a Woman') Summer Exhibition, Redfern Gallery, London, 1945, cat. 130 (as 'Balinese Dancer') Collectors' Pride, The Western Australian Art Gallery, Perth, 3 - 26 June 1977, cat. 64 (label attached verso, as 'Noa's Woman') ORIENTing: Ian Fairweather in Western Australian Collections, Lawrence Wilson Art Gallery, University of Western Australia, Perth, 4 May - 13 July 2013 LITERATURE Hutchings, P., 'The Art Collectors 13: The Rose Skinner Collection', Art and Australia, vol. 12, no. 2, October - December 1974, pp. 142, 144 (illus., as 'Torso of a Girl') Bail, M., Fairweather, Murdoch Books, Sydney, 2009, cat. 24, pl. 18, pp. 35, 37 (illus.), 51, 237, 246 Snell, T. et al., ORIENTing: Ian Fairweather in Western Australian Collections, Lawrence Wilson Art Gallery, University of Western Australia, Perth, 2013, fig. 4, pp. 62 (illus.), 100 © Ian Fairweather/DACS. Copyright Agency 2023
Deutscher and Hackett
Nov. 22, 2023
IAN FAIRWEATHER, WALLS OF FOOCHOW, 1945 - 47
Est: $80,000 - $120,000
IAN FAIRWEATHER (1891 - 1974) WALLS OF FOOCHOW, 1945 - 47 gouache on paper 38.0 x 47.0 cm bears inscription verso: 4 PROVENANCE Redfern Gallery, London Private collection Redfern Gallery, London The Skinner Collection, Perth, acquired from the above 3 December 1970 Thence by descent Private collection, Perth EXHIBITED ORIENTing: Ian Fairweather in Western Australian Collections, Lawrence Wilson Art Gallery, University of Western Australia, Perth, 4 May - 13 July 2013 LITERATURE Snell, T. et al., ORIENTing: Ian Fairweather in Western Australian Collections ,Lawrence Wilson Art Gallery, University of Western Australia, Perth, 2013, fig. 13, pp. 12, 71 (illus.), 100 © Ian Fairweather/DACS. Copyright Agency 2023
Deutscher and Hackett
Nov. 22, 2023
IAN FAIRWEATHER, STREET IN SOOCHOW, 1948
Est: $30,000 - $40,000
IAN FAIRWEATHER (1891 - 1974) STREET IN SOOCHOW, 1948 gouache and pencil on paper 21.0 x 21.0 cm PROVENANCE Redfern Gallery, London The Skinner Collection, Perth, acquired from the above Thence by descent Private collection, Perth EXHIBITED ORIENTing: Ian Fairweather in Western Australian Collections, Lawrence Wilson Art Gallery, University of Western Australia, Perth, 4 May - 13 July 2013 LITERATURE Snell, T. et al., ORIENTing: Ian Fairweather in Western Australian Collections, Lawrence Wilson Art Gallery, University of Western Australia, Perth, 2013, fig. 19, pp. 77 (illus.), 100 © Ian Fairweather/DACS. Copyright Agency 2023
Deutscher and Hackett
Nov. 22, 2023
IAN FAIRWEATHER, LANDSCAPE WITH HORSES, C.1936
Est: $90,000 - $120,000
IAN FAIRWEATHER (1891 - 1974) LANDSCAPE WITH HORSES, c.1936 gouache on paper 40.5 x 39.5 cm signed lower right: I. Fairweather bears inscription verso: 3 / 25 PROVENANCE Redfern Gallery, London The Skinner Collection, Perth, acquired from the above Thence by descent Private collection, Perth EXHIBITED Collectors' Pride, The Western Australian Art Gallery, Perth, 3 - 26 June 1977, cat. 66 (label attached verso) ORIENTing: Ian Fairweather in Western Australian Collections, Lawrence Wilson Art Gallery, University of Western Australia, Perth, 4 May – 13 July 2013 (as ‘(Tombs at Peking), c.1936’) LITERATURE Snell, T. et al., ORIENTing: Ian Fairweather in Western Australian Collections, Lawrence Wilson Art Gallery, University of Western Australia, Perth, 2013, fig. 11, pp. 12, 69 (illus.), 100 (as ‘(Tombs at Peking), c.1936’) © Ian Fairweather/DACS. Copyright Agency 2023
Deutscher and Hackett
Nov. 22, 2023
IAN FAIRWEATHER, CANAL, FOOCHOW, 1945 - 47
Est: $90,000 - $120,000
IAN FAIRWEATHER (1891 - 1974) CANAL, FOOCHOW, 1945 - 47 gouache on paper 37.0 x 39.5 cm signed lower right: I Fairweather PROVENANCE Redfern Gallery, London (label attached verso) The Skinner Collection, Perth, acquired from the above 19 December 1953 Thence by descent Private collection, Perth EXHIBITED Ian Fairweather, Redfern Gallery, London, 28 October – 20 November 1948, cat. 19 ORIENTing: Ian Fairweather in Western Australian Collections, Lawrence Wilson Art Gallery, University of Western Australia, Perth, 4 May - 13 July 2013 LITERATURE Bail, M., Ian Fairweather, Bay Books, Sydney, 1981, fig. 36, cat. 75, pp. 88 (illus.), 236 Snell, T. et al., ORIENTing: Ian Fairweather in Western Australian Collections, Lawrence Wilson Art Gallery, University of Western Australia, Perth, 2013, fig. 14, pp. 12, 72 (illus.), 100 © Ian Fairweather/DACS. Copyright Agency 2023
Deutscher and Hackett
Nov. 22, 2023
IAN FAIRWEATHER, CORNSIFTING, SOOCHOW, 1945 - 47
Est: $80,000 - $120,000
IAN FAIRWEATHER (1891 - 1974) CORNSIFTING, SOOCHOW, 1945 - 47 gouache and pencil on paper 36.0 x 31.0 cm signed lower right: I Fairweather bears inscription verso: 27 PROVENANCE Redfern Gallery, London The Skinner Collection, Perth, acquired from the above Thence by descent Private collection, Perth EXHIBITED Ian Fairweather, Redfern Gallery, London, 28 October – 20 November 1948, cat. 27 Fairweather, Queensland Art Gallery, Brisbane, 1 October – 27 November 1994; National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne, 17 December 1994 – 19 February 1995; Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney, 22 March – 7 May 1995, cat. 14 (label attached verso, as 'Corn sifting, Soochow (Shanghai)') ORIENTing: Ian Fairweather in Western Australian Collections, Lawrence Wilson Art Gallery, University of Western Australia, Perth, 4 May - 13 July 2013 LITERATURE Bail, M., Hemisphere: An Asian Australian Magazine, vol. 27, no. 1, July/August 1982, p. 54 (illus.) Bail, M., Fairweather, Murdoch Books, Sydney, 2009, cat. 62, pl. 54, pp. 71, 79 (illus.), 89, 237, 249 Snell, T. et al., ORIENTing: Ian Fairweather in Western Australian Collections, Lawrence Wilson Art Gallery, University of Western Australia, Perth, 2013, fig. 12, pp. 12, 70 (illus.), 100 © Ian Fairweather/DACS. Copyright Agency 2023
Deutscher and Hackett
Oct. 08, 2023
FAIRWEATHER Ian (1891-1974), Rooster, c.1915., Ink on Paper, 18.5x15cm
Est: $1,500 - $3,000
FAIRWEATHER, Ian (1891-1974) Rooster, c.1915. No signature apparent. Ink on Paper 18.5x15cm EXHIBITIONS: Philip Bacon Galleries, Ian Fairweather 1891-1974 Tenth Anniversary Exhibition, 19th May-14th June 1984, cat #6 (label verso)
Davidson Auctions
Oct. 06, 2023
Ian Fairweather
Est: $80 - $120
The Drunken Buddha by Ian Fairweather. Published by University of Queensland Press in 1965. Original cloth in dustwrapper. Dustwrapper chipped and price clipped else a very good copy
Sydney Rare Book Auctions
Sep. 15, 2023
Ian Fairweather
Est: $100 - $150
Ian Fairweather by Murray Bail. Bay Books 1981. First Edition. Hardcover in dust wrapper in very good condition, dust wrapper is a little bit faded. 33cm x 26cm
Sydney Rare Book Auctions
Sep. 15, 2023
Ian Fairweather
Est: $80 - $120
The Drunken Buddha by Ian Fairweather. Published by University of Queensland Press in 1965. Original cloth in dustwrapper, Very good copy
Sydney Rare Book Auctions
Aug. 25, 2023
Ian Fairweather Signed
Est: $130 - $150
The Drunken Buddha by Ian Fairweather. Published by University of Queensland Press in 1965. Original cloth in dustwrapper, Very good copy inscribed ' To Mr Carl Plats with thanks and best wishes from Ian Fairweather'
Sydney Rare Book Auctions
Aug. 04, 2023
Ian Fairweather
Est: $100 - $200
Ian Fairweather by Murray Bail. Bay Books 1981. First Edition. Hardcover in dust wrapper in very good condition. 33cm x 26cm
Sydney Rare Book Auctions
May. 02, 2023
§ IAN FAIRWEATHER 1891-1974 Summer (1964) synthetic polymer paint and gouache on cardboard on hardboard
Est: $250,000 - $350,000
§ IAN FAIRWEATHER 1891-1974 Summer (1964) synthetic polymer paint and gouache on cardboard on hardboard signed 'Ian Fairweather' lower right; inscribed 'Summer' verso 72.1 x 101.5 cm frame: original, maker unknown, Sydney PROVENANCE Ian Fairweather, Bribie Island Macquarie Galleries, Sydney Hazel Hughes, Sydney, acquired from the above in May 1965 for £210.0.0. Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney, gift from the above in memory of Norman Schureck in 1965 Fine Art Auction, Deutscher and Hackett, Sydney, 17 November 2010, lot 6, illustrated Selwyn and Renata Litton, Sydney, acquired from the above EXHIBITED Other Recent Works by Ian Fairweather exhibited with The Drunken Buddha Series, Macquarie Galleries, Sydney, 12-24 May 1965, no. 20 LITERATURE Murray Bail, Ian Fairweather (rev. ed.), Murdoch Books, Sydney, 2009, cat. no. 206, plate 180, pp. 208 (illustrated), 210, 259
Smith & Singer
Mar. 22, 2023
IAN FAIRWEATHER (1891-1974) Café in Rice Field oil and pencil on paper laid
Est: £80,000 - £120,000
IAN FAIRWEATHER (1891-1974) Café in Rice Field oil and pencil on paper laid on board 19 3/4 x 21 1/2 in. (50.2 x 54.6 cm.)
Christie's
Feb. 06, 2023
Ian Fairweather
Est: $100 - $150
Fairweather by Murray Bail. Sydney Murdoch Books 2009. Quarto. Mint copy in dustwrapper
Sydney Rare Book Auctions
Dec. 04, 2022
Manner of FAIRWEATHER Ian (1891-1974), Figure Composition, Gouache on Paper on Board, 27x39cm
Est: $100 - $300
Manner of FAIRWEATHER, Ian (1891-1974) Figure Composition No signature apparent. Gouache on Paper on Board 27x39cm
Davidson Auctions
Dec. 01, 2022
IAN FAIRWEATHER, PEKING WALLS, 1948
Est: $70,000 - $90,000
IAN FAIRWEATHER (1891 - 1974) PEKING WALLS, 1948 gouache and pencil on paper 41.5 x 46.0 cm (sheet) signed indistinctly lower left: Fairweather PROVENANCE The Redfern Gallery Ltd., London (label attached verso) Mrs Ruth Keating, London, acquired from the above in 1948 Thence by descent Private collection, USA EXHIBITED Ian Fairweather, Redfern Gallery, London, 28 October – 20 November 1948, cat. 40 ESSAY No Australian twentieth century artist understood Asia better than Ian Fairweather. It began in improbable circumstances as a prisoner of war. He enlisted in the British Army in June 1914 and, within two months of arriving in France, was captured by the Germans. He read works by E. F. Fenollosa and Lafcadio Hearn (two distinguished scholars on Japan), illustrated prisoner-of-war magazines and attempted unsuccessful escapes. Back in London he studied at the Slade School of Fine (1920 – 24) while attending evening classes in Japanese and Chinese at the School of Oriental and African Studies. By 1929, he was in Shanghai and remained in China until 1932. His peripatetic nature, restless curiosity and affection for China saw him return there in 1935 where he was ‘completely at home with (his) fellows.’1 Travel to other places followed, from South East Asia to Calcutta – and regardless of location, Chinese subjects continued. It was a necessary and essential part of his personality. Indeed, the idea for Monastery, 1961 (National Gallery of Australia) remained in his memory for more than two decades before it was realised.2 In Peking Walls, 1948 we find Fairweather’s synchronised approach to painting, one which would evolve into larger, grand paintings during the sixties. Both however have the same underpinning: Chinese thought and experience, and his unmistakable, idiosyncratic technical fluency. Drawing with paint is used extensively across mediums – from paper to card and wooden panels, calligraphic-like gestures over layered surfaces result in final irregular painting, a finished work. Fairweather’s observation is always one of creative approximation, forever avoiding the dullness of literalism.3 There is no suggestion of a clichéd, exotic Western unfamiliarity in Peking Walls where stereotypes might suffice. Fairweather was too immersed in Chinese culture, philosophy, language and art to fall into some kind of Asian Grand Tour romanticism. While certain subtle inflections suggest a nod to Matisse and the French Nabis – for example, painted lineal suggestions and blotchy shapes of colour – there are specific Chinese characteristics in works such as these as well. There are also similarities with Peking Tea Room, 1936 (Art Gallery New South Wales) – it clearly complements Peking Walls but is one of many later iterations of subjects that remained a perpetual echo. What might appear as Fairweather’s clumsiness of execution as an individual stylistic trait, is actually an aesthetic virtue shaped by his understanding of Chinese painting. As Pierre Ryckmans notes in his discussion of spiritual deficiency and finish in Chinese painting, ‘…technical virtuosity and seductiveness in a painting are considered vulgar, as they precisely suggest the slick fluency of a professional answering a client’s commission and betray a lack of inner compulsion on the part of the artist.’4 Peking Walls is the clear, continuing and evolving expression born from his visits to China in the 30s. Fairweather paints vastness and intimacy, figures in the foreground to a mid-ground market canopy. The painted lineal sweeps in halftones are interspersed with his familiar use of a rich ultramarine or, in Fairweather’s specific case, Reckitt’s blue.5 1. Abbott-Smith, N., Ian Fairweather: profile of a painter; University of Queensland Press, Brisbane, 1978, p. 27 2. Capon, J., ‘The China Years’ cited in Bail, M., et al., Fairweather, Queensland Art Gallery, Brisbane, 1994, p.63 3. For a specific analysis of Fairweather’s approach see, Fisher, T., The Drawings of Ian Fairweather, National Gallery of Australia, Canberra, 1997, pp. 4 – 7 4. Ryckmans, P., ‘The Amateur Artist’, in Bail, op. cit., pp. 15 – 23 5. Roberts, C. & Thompson, J., (eds.), Ian Fairweather: A Life in Letters, Text Publishing, Melbourne, 2019. This publication provides a rich, first-person account in letters from the artist, many of which are about China. DOUG HALL AM
Deutscher and Hackett
Nov. 16, 2022
IAN FAIRWEATHER 1891-1974 Two Figures synthetic polymer paint and gouache on cardboard on hardboard
Est: $140,000 - $180,000
IAN FAIRWEATHER 1891-1974 Two Figures synthetic polymer paint and gouache on cardboard on hardboard 93 x 68.5 cm PROVENANCE Ian Fairweather, Bribie Island The Estate of the Late Ian Fairweather, Queensland Australian Paintings, Christie's Australia, Melbourne, 28 April 1976, lot 110 Private Collection, Melbourne, acquired from the above
Smith & Singer
Sep. 14, 2022
IAN FAIRWEATHER, GAMELAN, 1958
Est: $700,000 - $900,000
IAN FAIRWEATHER (1891 - 1974) GAMELAN, 1958 synthetic polymer paint and gouache on four sheets of cardboard on hardboard 126.5 x 189.5 cm signed with artist’s monogram lower right: IF inscribed with title lower right: Gamelan bears inscriptions verso: GAMELAN – IAN FAIRWEATHER / FROM MACQUARIE GALLERIES / 19 BLIGH ST, SYDNEY RESERVED / MRS TURNER / 21/91 MANDALONG RD / MOSMAN bears inscription on partial label verso: A014 / - GAMELAN - / FAIRWEATHER PROVENANCE John and Jan Altman, Melbourne Bonython Galleries, Sydney, c.1967 Australian Galleries, Melbourne Geoff K Gray Auctions, Sydney, 13 February 1974, lot 33 Jack and Beryl Kohane, Melbourne Niagara Galleries, Melbourne The Reg Grundy AC OBE and Joy Chambers-Grundy Collection, acquired from the above in 1996 EXHIBITED Ian Fairweather, Macquarie Galleries, Sydney, 19 November – 11 December 1958, cat. 2 Festival Exhibition, Royal South Australian Society of Arts, Adelaide, March 1962, cat. 25 Australian Irresistibles 1930 – 1970, Bonython Gallery, Sydney, 11 August – 2 September 1970, cat. 47 LITERATURE Bail, M., Ian Fairweather, Bay Books, Sydney, 1981, pp. 149, 204 Bail, M., Fairweather, Art & Australia Books in association with the Queensland Art Gallery, Brisbane, 1994, ill. 15, pp. 57 (illus.), 58, 61 Bail, M., Fairweather, Murdoch Books, Sydney, 2009, cat. 155, pl. 129, pp. 146 - 47, 150, 151 (illus.), 158, 255 ESSAY Ian Fairweather has been described as ‘the least parochial of Australian painters, an artist of exceptional force and originality’1 and he is undoubtedly one of the most singular artists to have worked in Australia during the twentieth century. Although he is claimed as an Australian and spent many years living here, he had a restless spirit and the story of his life reads like the pages of an adventure book. Born in Scotland, Fairweather undertook his formal art education at London’s Slade School of Fine Art, studying under the formidable Henry Tonks and in 1922, being awarded second prize for figure drawing. As a prisoner of war in Germany during the First World War he had access to books about Japanese and Chinese art, and later, studied these languages at night. In 1929 he sailed to Shanghai where he lived for several years, the country’s unique art, culture and philosophy exerting a lasting influence on his art. Peripatetic by nature, or perhaps reluctant to establish roots and commit to ongoing relationships, Fairweather travelled extensively – from London, to Canada, China, Bali, Australia, the Philippines, India and beyond – ‘always the outsider, the nostalgic nomad with a dreamlike memory of distant places and experience.’2 Fairweather’s first encounter with Bali was in the early 1930s. Travelling to Australia from China, where he had lived for the past few years, his boat stopped at Buleleng on the northern coast of the island and, after going ashore, he changed his plans and stayed there for almost nine months. It was a happy and productive time during which he painted almost forty known works. Some were Chinese landscapes – painted from notes and recollections of his recent experiences – but the majority depicted Balinese figure subjects, studies of solitary figures or scenes describing local people going about their daily lives.3 In 1933 he painted two mural-sized works which are ambitious both in terms of scale – being among the largest works he ever made – and the complex, multi-figure scenes they depict. Bathing Scene, Bali, c.1933 – 34 was acquired by the Tate Gallery, London in 1935 (Presented by the Contemporary Art Society) and the following year, Leicester Museums and Art Gallery purchased Procession in Bali, 1933, a panoramic scene thought to depict an episode from a traditional marriage ceremony. In a letter to his friend, Jim Ede, Fairweather, who was typically self-critical, wrote, ‘Don’t think too badly of the paintings – they are terribly crude on the surface and were done under trying conditions’, adding, ‘oh hell – Bali was somewhere near to heaven.’4 It was a place that obviously had a profound impact on Fairweather and remembering his experience of Bali decades later, he declared, ‘I was hypnotised and never recovered.’5 A second, much shorter and less pleasant visit to Bali, followed the infamous journey of 1952 when he left Darwin Harbour on a hand-built raft with the aim of sailing to Timor. By way of explanation, he subsequently told an interviewer that Timor ‘(was) the next best thing to Bali where I had done the best painting of my life’.6 Gamelan was painted in 1958, five years after Fairweather had settled on Bribie Island, off the coast of Queensland, and where, for the rest of his life, he famously lived in a pair of huts built with materials salvaged from the surrounding bush. Conditions were primitive – no running water, sewerage or electricity – and Fairweather’s handmade bed and chairs were reportedly upholstered with fern fronds.7 Despite the rudimentary nature of his surrounds however – or perhaps because of it – the next two decades witnessed the production of many of Fairweather’s finest paintings and the 1960s saw his art acknowledged in significant ways, with works being included in the landmark exhibition Recent Australian Painting at the Whitechapel Gallery, London (1961); the European tour of Australian Painting Today (1964 – 65); and in 1965, a major travelling retrospective of his work was mounted by the Queensland Art Gallery. While the title of the painting refers to the traditional Indonesian percussion orchestra which Fairweather presumably witnessed in Bali, Gamelan is not a representational depiction. Murray Bail sees it as a ‘remembrance of… happy times on Bali, which in turn traces more memories, or moods of memories’,8 while composer Martin Armiger identifies a connection between the sound of the gamelan and the construction of the picture. ‘As rhythm builds on rhythm… simple melodies take on subtle variations, the various strands interweave delicately. The relationships between these melodic strands shift… gradually, hypnotically’.9 He continues ‘…patterns emerge from gamelan, as form emerges from… this painting’10, subtly evoking the experience of its subject through gestural line, shape and layering which emphasise the process of art-making, more than the end result. Alongside Last Supper, 1958 (Art Gallery of New South Wales); Gethsemane, 1958; and Kite Flying, 1958 (both Queensland Art Gallery I Gallery of Modern Art), Gamelan is one of four important large-scale paintings which Fairweather completed in 1958. Variously composed of three or four cardboard sheets joined together, the increased scale of these works signalled a newfound confidence and authority in Fairweather’s approach, the expanded pictorial scope opening up his compositions so that they retain their distinctive linear complexity, but simultaneously assume a new sense of strength and monumentality. The significance of these works was recognised early on by distinguished collectors renowned for their sophisticated and discerning eyes – author Patrick White purchased Gethsemane from its second exhibition in 1961, and curator and art historian, Daniel Thomas AM, was the first owner of Last Supper, buying it in 1962. Sending the works to Treania Smith at Macquarie Galleries, Sydney in 1958, with detailed instructions for their preparation and mounting, Fairweather wrote, ‘I guess they are really murals – in feeling as well as size – and not at home in living rooms’. He added, ‘They have given me hell – They are an attempt to climb up to something out of something else.’11 The ‘something’ he was seeking was abstraction, and these works are especially significant in that they mark the beginning of a move towards pure abstract imagery which he likened to ‘the Buddhist idea of suspended judgement – The mind is cleared of thought but not of awareness – Always the purpose of art is to find its way through the forest of things to a larger unity containing all things’.12 1. Bail, M., Ian Fairweather, Bay Books, Sydney, 1981, p. 220 2. Bail, M., ‘The Nostalgic Nomad’, Hemisphere, Canberra, vol. 27, no. 1, 1982, p. 54 3. Bail, M., Ian Fairweather, Murdoch Books, Millers Point, 2009, p. 23 4. Ian Fairweather to Jim Ede, late 1933, quoted in quoted in Roberts, C. & Thompson, J. (eds.), Ian Fairweather: A Life in Letters, Text Publishing, Melbourne, 2019, p. 15 5. Ian Fairweather to Treania Bennett, 12 April 1956 in Roberts & Thompson, ibid., p. 387 6. Bail, 2000, op. cit., p. 103 7. Ibid., p. 119 8. Ibid., p. 146 9. Armiger, M., ‘Fairweather and Music’ in Bail, M., et. al., Fairweather, Art & Australia Books in association with Queensland Art Gallery, Brisbane, 1994, p. 58 10. Ibid. 11. Ian Fairweather to Treania Smith, early 1958, Roberts & Thompson, op. cit., p. 218 12. Ian Fairweather to Annette Waters, 23 – 25 October 1958 in Roberts & Thompson, op. cit., p. 226 KIRSTY GRANT © Ian Fairweather/DACS. Copyright Agency 2022
Deutscher and Hackett
Sep. 02, 2022
IAN FAIRWEATHER
Est: $50 - $80
1) The Drawings of Ian Fairweather, by Tim Fisher. National Gallery of Australia (1997). Hardcover, no dust wrapper in good condition. 30cm x 24cm. 2) The Drunken Buddha, by Ian Fairweather. University of Queensland Press (1965). Hardcover with dust wrapper. Tan edges, otherwise in good condition. 25cm x 24cm
Sydney Rare Book Auctions
Jul. 27, 2022
IAN FAIRWEATHER, THREE FACES, C.1965
Est: $80,000 - $120,000
IAN FAIRWEATHER (1891 - 1974) THREE FACES, c.1965 synthetic polymer paint and gouache on plywood on board 61.5 x 80.0 cm bears verso certificate of authenticity signed by Mary Turner, Director of Macquarie Galleries, dated 30 January 1976 PROVENANCE Macquarie Galleries, Sydney, 1965 (label attached verso) Dr Mary Beeston, New York, USA Sotheby’s, Melbourne, 30 April 2002, lot 64 (as ‘Untitled Abstract’) The Cbus Collection of Australian Art, Melbourne, acquired from the above EXHIBITED on long term loan to Wollongong City Gallery, New South Wales LITERATURE Nainby, B., Stanhope, Z., and Furlonger, K., The Cbus Collection of Australian Art, in association with Latrobe Regional Gallery, Melbourne, 2009, pp. 106 (illus.), 218 ESSAY From his emergence in the 1930s as a precocious modern painter, through to late career deference in the 60s, Fairweather’s interest in faces and figure groups holds an enduring presence. Individual faces, pairs and groups occur in works from each decade – mother and child is another recurring theme. One is usually unaware of the subjects’ individual identities, although Three Faces, c.1965 shares something of the loosely contained geometry of Portrait of the Artist, 1962 (National Gallery of Australia).1 A formative decade in Fairweather’s oeuvre, the thirties were strong in French Post-Impressionist mannerisms and soft chalky tones and surfaces. Yet if the present work bears the familiar dryness and painterly drawing, that is where stylistic similarities end. His interest in Asia – and China in particular – became an intellectual and expressive enchantment. Indeed, Three Faces is something akin to a bookend after decades of close, contained portraits consumed his interest. Faces at the Window, 1933 (Queensland Art Gallery ǀ Gallery of Modern Art) is an early indicator of this preoccupation.2 Other important moments flank 30 years of unwavering critical interest in his work. The Tate acquired his work in 1935, while in 1965, Fairweather’s retrospective exhibition toured nationally, and his book, was The Drunken Buddha, published.3 From 1953, he lived in his now legendary improvised and rough-hewn circumstances on Bribie Island, an hour north of Brisbane. Much too has been made of his boundless curiosity, travel in Asia and (mis)adventures. Periods of depression and paranoia didn’t diminish his capacity for productive work, producing paintings which were to define him as one of Australia’s greatest modernists. In the 1950s, Cubism as a compositional and pictorial underpinning was finally overtaken by his confidence to apply what he had learnt and absorbed from Chinese painting – an intense preoccupation which was no mere encounter and something expediently adapted, but rather a culture whose art and language he understood with scholarly nuance. In Three Faces, lines are single gestures, marks and flecks are ‘placed’ and never vigorously worked; Fairweather had observed Chinese calligraphers at work, ‘…calligraphy is at first a performance – it is a graphic dance, the dynamic trace of gesture, the translation into two-dimensional space of a fluid sequence of movements unfolding in time.’4 Similarly, the wooden panel support reminds us that Fairweather was untroubled by using whatever was on hand. The wood retains holes and exposed areas revealing it was un-primed and it serves as a halftone for a muted, austere palette. A label notation on the reverse suggests that this work, with the agreement of the artist, was used by the Art Gallery of New South Wales conservation department to further understand the artist’s techniques in the future restoration of his work. Three Faces not only emanates a surface personality and character which mark his paintings from the 50s onwards, but its painterliness and painted lineal forms encapsulate his late figuration with familiar distinction. 1. Self Portrait, 1962, synthetic polymer paint, gouache on cardboard mounted on composition board (National Gallery of Australia) reproduced in Bail, M., Fairweather, Murdoch Books, Sydney, 2009, illus. p.191 2. Faces at the Window, 1933, oil gouache and pencil on paper on cardboard on composition board, (Queensland Art Gallery ǀ Gallery of Modern Art) 3. Fairweather, I., The Drunken Buddha, University of Queensland Press, Brisbane, 1965 (the publication is a translation of an ancient Chinese novel, illustrated with Fairweather’s paintings). 4. Ryckmans, P., ‘An Amateur Artist’ in Bail, M., Fairweather, Art and Australia Books in association with the Queensland Art Gallery, Brisbane, 1995, p. 15 DOUG HALL AM © Ian Fairweather/DACS. Copyright Agency 2022
Deutscher and Hackett
Mar. 08, 2022
IAN FAIRWEATHER (1891 - 1974), Chinese Village Landscape, watercolour and gouache on paper, signed lower right, 38 x 41cm. Closely associated with "Hangchow Canal, 1945€“47" watercolour, gouache and crayon on paper, signed lower left, 37 x 41 cm,
Est: $80,000 - $120,000
IAN FAIRWEATHER (1891 - 1974), Chinese Village Landscape, watercolour and gouache on paper, signed lower right, 38 x 41cm. Closely associated with "Hangchow Canal, 1945–47" watercolour, gouache and crayon on paper, signed lower left, 37 x 41 cm, sold by Deutscher and Hackett, Melbourne, 28/11/2012, Lot No. 14, for $126,000 incl.BP. Ian Fairweather is one of the most significant twentieth-century artists to have worked in Australia. After a life of wandering, including time spent in China, Bali and the Philippines, Fairweather settled on Bribie Island, off the coast of Queensland, where he built his own house. In 1962 a leading art critic named him 'our greatest painter'. Fairweather is exceptional among modern artists for his experience of Chinese life and culture. He lived and worked in China for extended periods, learnt Chinese and published a book-length translation of the popular Chinese novel 'The Drunken Buddha' (1965). From an early age Fairweather sought alternatives to art based on verisimilitude and single-point perspective. This led to a lifelong engagement with the principles of Chinese art and thought that profoundly shaped his own creative process. [From a review of the book "Fairwaether and China" by Claire Roberts]. © Ian Fairweather/Copyright Agency, 2022
Leski Auctions Pty Ltd
Nov. 16, 2021
§ IAN FAIRWEATHER 1891-1974 Composition (1961) synthetic polymer paint and gouache on cardboard
Est: $45,000 - $65,000
§ IAN FAIRWEATHER 1891-1974 Composition (1961) synthetic polymer paint and gouache on cardboard signed 'I Fairweather' lower left 42 x 58 cm PROVENANCE Ian Fairweather, Bribie Island Macquarie Galleries, Sydney Alexander Slutzkin, Sydney, acquired from the above in 1961 The Estate of the Late Alexander Slutzkin, Sydney Private Collection, Sydney EXHIBITED Ian Fairweather, Macquarie Galleries, Sydney, 14-23 June 1961, no. 13, 25 gns
Smith & Singer
Nov. 10, 2021
IAN FAIRWEATHER, COMPOSITION, c.1960 – 61
Est: $100,000 - $140,000
IAN FAIRWEATHER (1891 - 1974) COMPOSITION, c.1960 – 61 synthetic polymer paint and gouache on paper on composition board 65.5 x 101.0 cm signed lower left: Ian Fairweather bears inscription verso: COMPOSITION BY IAN FAIRWEATHER / 95 GNS – FOR RAYMOND BURR PROVENANCE Macquarie Galleries, Sydney Raymond Burr, USA, acquired from the above, c. 1962 Macquarie Galleries, Sydney John Lane, acquired from the above in 1963 Sir Tristan Antico, Sydney Sotheby's, Melbourne, 19 April 1994, lot 82, (as 'Composition 200') Niagara Galleries, Melbourne Private collection Philip Bacon Galleries, Brisbane (label attached verso) Niagara Galleries, Melbourne Private collection, Sydney, acquired from the above in 1998 EXHIBITED Ian Fairweather and Emily Kngwarreye, Niagara Galleries, Melbourne, 31 January – 18 February 1995, cat. 4 (illus., in exhibition catalogue, as ‘Painting 6 (?)’) LITERATURE Roberts, C., Ian Fairweather and China, The Miegunyah Press, Melbourne, 2021, pp. 155 - 156 (illus., as ‘Painting VI’) ESSAY Being interviewed in 1965, Ian Fairweather described painting as ‘something of a tightrope act’, saying it was ’difficult to keep one’s balance.’ He went on to explain that for him, painting sat ‘between representation and the other thing – whatever it is.’1 The ‘other thing’ was abstraction and it was in the late 1950s that he made his first concentrated foray into purely non-representational art. In 1959, by which time he had settled on Bribie Island, Fairweather sent twenty works to his dealers in Sydney, writing ‘they are mostly done on newspaper – (as I ran out of other paper) … They are also (mostly) without titles – for they really refer (mostly) to nothing in particular – sort of soliloquies – I suppose will have to come under the heading of abstracts – Signed in pencil at bottom to indicate what side is up’.2 Another batch was received the following April, and in July that year a selection was exhibited at Macquarie Galleries. While the critical reception was muted – as it often is when an artist changes direction and critics scramble to catch up – there were positive sales. Among others, Mervyn Horton, the editor of Art and Australia, bought one of the large works and reproduced Painting X, 1960 (private collection, London) on the cover of the inaugural issue of the journal in 1963. The Art Gallery of South Australia purchased another from an Adelaide Festival exhibition the following month.3 Other abstracts from this time have since been acquired by major collecting institutions including Queensland Art Gallery/Gallery of Modern Art and the National Gallery of Australia. Like Composition, c.1960-61, many of these paintings incorporate a painted border which frames the central image on four sides as in this example – or suspends it between horizontal bands above and below – introducing space into otherwise complex compositions. In this work, a silvery-grey border surrounds a series of black painted lines and broad brown and tan brush strokes which intermingle with the paler, fleshy-coloured ground. Without a recognisable subject commanding our attention, it is the rhythmic action of Fairweather’s painting, the confidence of his gesture and line, as well as the delicate layering, which prevails. These works emphasise the act of painting, rather than the end result. Murray Bail sums it up well, writing ‘Fairweather …has consciously used abstraction to speak of experience beyond the experience of art itself… He is articulating mood.’4 Although Fairweather’s focus on abstract or ‘unrealistic’ art, as he preferred to term it,5 was relatively short-lived, these works are especially significant as precursors to the great large-scale masterpieces of his career, almost abstract paintings such as Monastery, 1960 (National Gallery of Australia) and Monsoon, 1961-62 (Art Gallery of Western Australia) which, over time, have come to symbolise his brilliant and singular contribution to Australian art. 1. The artist quoted in Bail, M., et. al., Fairweather, Art & Australia Books in association with Queensland Art Gallery, Brisbane, 1994, p. 139 2. Fairweather to Treania Smith, 11 November 1939, cited in Roberts, C. & Thompson, J. (eds.), Ian Fairweather: A Life in Letters, Text Publishing, Melbourne, 2019, p. 243 3. See Bail, M., Ian Fairweather, Murdoch Books, Sydney, revised edition 2009, p. 161 4. Ibid. 5. Ibid. p. 165 KIRSTY GRANT © Ian Fairweather/DACS. Copyright Agency 2021
Deutscher and Hackett
Apr. 20, 2021
IAN FAIRWEATHER 1891-1974 On the Lake (1964) synthetic polymer paint and gouache on cardboard on hardboard
Est: $200,000 - $300,000
IAN FAIRWEATHER 1891-1974 On the Lake (1964) synthetic polymer paint and gouache on cardboard on hardboard inscribed 'On the Lake' lower centre; signed 'Ian Fairweather' lower right 69 x 93 cm PROVENANCE Ian Fairweather, Bribie Island Macquarie Galleries, Sydney Mrs M.A. McGrath, Sydney, acquired from the above in May 1965, until Australian Historical and Contemporary Drawings and Paintings, Christie's Australia, Melbourne, 6 March 1970, lot 63, illustrated Joseph Brown Gallery, Melbourne (stock 2017), acquired from the above Private Collection, Melbourne, acquired from the above on 10 March 1970 EXHIBITED The Drunken Buddha: Ian Fairweather, Macquarie Galleries, Sydney, 12-24 May 1965, no. 6, 275 gns Ian Fairweather: The Drunken Buddha, TarraWarra Museum of Art, Healesville, 29 November 2014 - 15 March 2015 LITERATURE Ian Fairweather, The Drunken Buddha, University of Queensland Press, Brisbane, 1965, p. 155 (illustrated) Murray Bail, Fairweather (rev. ed.), Murdoch Books, Sydney, 2009, p. 204 Ian Fairweather, The Drunken Buddha (rev. ed.), University of Queensland Press, Brisbane, 2015, pp. 143 (illustrated), 165
Smith & Singer
Nov. 29, 2020
FAIRWEATHER Ian (1891-1974), 'Near Kvam, Norway,' c.1925., W/Clr, 20.5x29cm
Est: $1,000 - $2,000
FAIRWEATHER, Ian (1891-1974) 'Near Kvam, Norway,' c.1925. No signature apparent. Provenance: Geoff Brown, Brisbane; Philip Bacon Galleries, Brisbane (label attached verso); private collection, Queensland, purchased from the above in 1984; Estate of the above, Queensland. W/Clr 20.5x29cm OTHER NOTES: Exhibitions: Ian Fairweather (1891-1974) Tenth Anniversary Exhibition, Philip Bacon Galleries, Brisbane, 19 May-14 June 1984, cat. 25 (as 'Near Kvan, Norway?[sic.]'). Daws, L. and Bail, M., Ian Fairweather, exhibition catalogue, Philip Bacon Galleries, Brisbane, 1984, cat. 25, pp. 20 (illus.), 31 (as 'Near Kvan, Norway?[sic.]')
Davidson Auctions
Nov. 19, 2020
IAN FAIRWEATHER (1891-1974) Women and Children 1957
Est: $60,000 - $80,000
IAN FAIRWEATHER (1891-1974) Women and Children 1957 gouache on cardboard 51.0 x 36.0 cm signed with monogram lower left: IF
Menzies