Reference: see Sotheby’s Australia - October 31, 2012 - FLETCHER MARTIN
1904-1979
AUSTRALIAN BEACH PATTERN (AFTER CHARLES MEERE)
oil on canvas
95.3 X 127CM
PROVENANCE
Adolph Loewi, Los Angeles
Private Collection, Rome, circa 1950
By descent
Private Collection, Rome
OTHER NOTES
Charles Meere's Australian Beach Pattern (1938-
1940, Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney) is
a masterpiece of Australian Art Deco classicism;
a sonorous hymn to sun, sand and surf and to the
bronzed, athletic, Australian body. First shown in
the 1940 Wynne Prize exhibition, seen again in
the artist's 1952 retrospective and purchased by
the AGNSW in 1965, the painting nevertheless
remained somewhat neglected until featured in
the Gallery's 1982 On the Beach exhibition, and
again a few years later in the Bicentennial touring
show Creating Australia. Since then it has become
one of the Gallery's most celebrated modern
pictures, regularly featured in scholarly and popular
publications and exhibitions. (1) In turn, this
new-found 'iconic' status has led to the discovery
in Europe and Australia of a number of previously
unknown but closely-related works: a variant by
Meere's studio assistant Freda Robertshaw (sold
Sotheby's Australia , 25 August 1998, lot 31), and four
smaller facsimile renderings by the artist and/or from
his studio. (2)
The present work emerged recently in the United
States, a signed copy by the American painter,
teacher and illustrator Fletcher Martin. Largely
self-taught, Martin served in the U.S. Navy as a
young man before working as a printer, a métier
which segued in the mid-1930s into painting.
During the Depression he undertook a number of
commissions for the Work Projects Administration
(WPA), painting murals for government buildings
in California, Texas and Idaho, while establishing
himself as a book and magazine illustrator. In this
latter role he served as an artist-war correspondent
for Life magazine in North Africa and Europe during
World War II, and after the war his work appeared
regularly in Life, Esquire, Fortune and other American
periodicals. He exhibited widely – with more than
two dozen solo museum shows across America to
his credit – and held artist-in-residence or teaching
positions at a number of universities. His work is
represented in many prestigious public collections,
including the Metropolitan Museum, New York, the
Museum of Modern Art, New York and the Whitney
Museum of American Art.
While it is not known when, where or how Martin
might have encountered Meere's painting, his
decision to make a copy of the work is not surprising.
Both artists had trained as mural painters – Meere
under William Rothenstein in London, Martin under
David Sequeiros in California – and the complex
array of figures, the tightly-balanced armature
of angled limbs and beach equipment, displays
a kind of horror vacui not uncommon in public
works of art. Moreover, Australian Beach Pattern's
provincially-inflected classicism is very much in keeping with Martin's early style, which shows the
influence both of the Mexican muralists and of the
American Regionalists.
A large-scale, (3) vintage, faithful transcription of
an important Australian painting, this version of
Australian Beach Pattern is an art-historical discovery
as impressive as it is intriguing.
Dr David Hansen
(1) See Linda Slutzkin, 'Spartans in Speedos', in
Daniel Thomas (ed.), Creating Australia: 200 Years
of Art 1788-1988, International Cultural Corporation
of Australia, Sydney, 1988, p. 176-177; Jackie Strecker,
Charles Meere's 'Australian Beach Pattern': From
Origin to Icon, Fine Arts IV thesis, Power Institute,
University of Sydney, 1988
(2) Australian Beach Pattern, 1940, oil on canvas,
75 x 98cm, signed lower right 'Charles Meere',
Modern Australian Painting 1920s-1980s, Deutscher
Fine Art, Melbourne, 9-20 September 1997, no. 7;
Australian Beach Pattern, oil and wax on cardboard,
73 x 102.5cm, Fine Australian and European Paintings,
Sotheby's Australia, Sydney, 16 August 1999, lot 39;
Australian Beach Pattern, oil on canvas, 65 x 88cm,
signed lower right 'CM MELBOURNE', Australian &
International Paintings, Deutscher-Menzies, Sydney ,
4 March 2003, lot 29; Australian Beach Pattern, oil on
canvas, 65 x 85.5cm, signed lower right 'CHARLES
MEERE', Fine Art Auction, Deutscher & Hackett,
Melbourne, 26 November 2008, lot 18
(3) At 95.3 x 127cm, the work is in fact slightly larger
than Meere's original in the Art Gallery of New
South Wales, which measures 91.5 x 122cm.Estimated Price: AUD20,000 - AUD30,000
Publishing details:
Location: