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Lot Essay
Related work: Beta circa 1951, Private Collection, Melbourne; gouache on cardboard, 73 x 50.7 cm
'The Cairns period of 1948-49 shows Fairweather developing his instinct for line in what must have seemed the most natural subject for it, the figure. This important laying of foundations lasted through to late 1951 in Darwin. He produced mostly small gouaches, heavily overpainted....Fairweather's drawings are relatively scarce and are mostly from this Cairns/Darwin period. Dating the paintings and even the drawings is not difficult, since most of between 1948 and 1951 are signed or dated in Chinese.' M Bail, Ian Fairweather, Sydney, 1981, p. 90
'The Cairns period of 1948-49 shows Fairweather developing his instinct for line in what must have seemed the most natural subject for it, the figure. This important laying of foundations lasted through to late 1951 in Darwin. He produced mostly small gouaches, heavily overpainted....Fairweather's drawings are relatively scarce and are mostly from this Cairns/Darwin period. Dating the paintings and even the drawings is not difficult, since most of between 1948 and 1951 are signed or dated in Chinese.' M Bail, Ian Fairweather, Sydney, 1981, p. 90