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Lot Essay
In the early 1880s Bunny studied at the National Gallery School in Melbourne where his fellow students included Julian Ashton, Arthur Streeton, Frederick McCubbin and Emanuel Phillips Fox. In 1886 he emigrated to Paris, where he was to maintain a base for the next forty years, as he travelled on working expeditions throughout the south of France, occasionally returning to Australia for exhibitions. In 1902 Bunny married Frenchwoman Jeanne Morel who was to become both his muse and model.
In a period dating approximately from 1906 to 1916, Bunny painted numerous scenes of beautifully dressed women at leisure in the enclosed, private spaces of domesticity, which were notable for their romantic, dream-like quality. These paintings may be loosely grouped into three distinct settings: women in interiors, on balconies, and in gardens. It has been suggested that: "Though the balcony probably led off Bunny's atelier at 24 boulevard des Invalides - where he painted and taught from 1905 up to and into 1909 - the idea of a summery balcony, could stem from a holiday at Villa Lili, St Georges de Didonne, in 1908 or a summer at Etaples in 1907." (M Eagle, The Art of Rupert Bunny, Canberra, 1991, p.64.)
Accompaniments such as the book, the flower and the fan visible in On the Balcony, are motifs that the artist often employed to convey a sense of cultured femininity. While many of Bunny's scenes of women on balconies are nocturnal, On the Balcony, which gives the impression of a late afternoon, is most closely related to Who Comes?, which is now in the collection of the National Gallery of Australia.
While elements such as the emphasis on the effects of light and the loose brushwork are undoubtedly Impressionistic, the scene itself is too theatrically staged to be true to the Impressionist desire to capture a transitory moment in paint. Although on one level On the Balcony could be interpreted as a portrait of modern life, the inherent idealism of the work locates it somewhere between portraiture and allegory.
In a period dating approximately from 1906 to 1916, Bunny painted numerous scenes of beautifully dressed women at leisure in the enclosed, private spaces of domesticity, which were notable for their romantic, dream-like quality. These paintings may be loosely grouped into three distinct settings: women in interiors, on balconies, and in gardens. It has been suggested that: "Though the balcony probably led off Bunny's atelier at 24 boulevard des Invalides - where he painted and taught from 1905 up to and into 1909 - the idea of a summery balcony, could stem from a holiday at Villa Lili, St Georges de Didonne, in 1908 or a summer at Etaples in 1907." (M Eagle, The Art of Rupert Bunny, Canberra, 1991, p.64.)
Accompaniments such as the book, the flower and the fan visible in On the Balcony, are motifs that the artist often employed to convey a sense of cultured femininity. While many of Bunny's scenes of women on balconies are nocturnal, On the Balcony, which gives the impression of a late afternoon, is most closely related to Who Comes?, which is now in the collection of the National Gallery of Australia.
While elements such as the emphasis on the effects of light and the loose brushwork are undoubtedly Impressionistic, the scene itself is too theatrically staged to be true to the Impressionist desire to capture a transitory moment in paint. Although on one level On the Balcony could be interpreted as a portrait of modern life, the inherent idealism of the work locates it somewhere between portraiture and allegory.