.jpg?w=1)
Lot Essay
Blamire Young was born in Yorkshire and arrived in Australia at the age of twenty-three to take up the position of mathematics master at Katoomba College in the Blue Mountains. He later studied wood-cutting and lithography with Norman Lindsay.
Young was to divide his life between Australia and England, first returning to England in 1893 when the College closed. He remained there for two years and then spent the next seventeen years in Australia. In 1912 Young re-located once again to England, this time with his family, and he did not return to Australia until 1923.
Painted while Young was resident in London therefore, Gypsies Bathing is an outstanding example of the artist's sophisticated facility with the medium of watercolour and his talent as a colourist. Young painted many variations on the theme of gypsies and was clearly drawn to a perceived romanticism in their way of life. However his treatment of the subject matter is typically fantastic and reveals a decorative sense of design that he developed during his tenure as an illustrator of poster art.
The dense blue of the background and the frieze-like composition are echoed in another work from this period, Flight into Egypt, which is now in the collection of the Mildura Art Gallery. Young's work has always been distinctive for its synthesis of styles and influences which renders his work difficult to categorise under a single conventionally defining label. There is a strong classical influence in Gypsies Bathing, evident in the draperies and poses of the figures. Yet the flowing lines and the startling use of colour, in particular the deep rich red of the trees, indicate a more Modern sensibility. In a review of Young's work, Patrick McCaughey perceptively noted that: "What reaches us now... is Blamire Young's delight in irridescent colour... it is the non-natural palette which only a great colourist can use by instinct." (P McCaughey, cited in E Fink, op.cit, p.30)
Young was to divide his life between Australia and England, first returning to England in 1893 when the College closed. He remained there for two years and then spent the next seventeen years in Australia. In 1912 Young re-located once again to England, this time with his family, and he did not return to Australia until 1923.
Painted while Young was resident in London therefore, Gypsies Bathing is an outstanding example of the artist's sophisticated facility with the medium of watercolour and his talent as a colourist. Young painted many variations on the theme of gypsies and was clearly drawn to a perceived romanticism in their way of life. However his treatment of the subject matter is typically fantastic and reveals a decorative sense of design that he developed during his tenure as an illustrator of poster art.
The dense blue of the background and the frieze-like composition are echoed in another work from this period, Flight into Egypt, which is now in the collection of the Mildura Art Gallery. Young's work has always been distinctive for its synthesis of styles and influences which renders his work difficult to categorise under a single conventionally defining label. There is a strong classical influence in Gypsies Bathing, evident in the draperies and poses of the figures. Yet the flowing lines and the startling use of colour, in particular the deep rich red of the trees, indicate a more Modern sensibility. In a review of Young's work, Patrick McCaughey perceptively noted that: "What reaches us now... is Blamire Young's delight in irridescent colour... it is the non-natural palette which only a great colourist can use by instinct." (P McCaughey, cited in E Fink, op.cit, p.30)