Brian Dunlop
Brian Dunlop
Top Floor Room (Study for ‘The Meeting’, 1980), 1980-85
Brian Dunlop (1938-2009)
oil on canvas
62 x 106 cm (frame: 65 × 109.5cm)
signed lower right, titled and dated verso
Related works: The Meeting, 1980, illustrated in L. Strahan, Brian Dunlop, Craftsman House, Sydney, 1990, p. 156, fig. 17 (illus.)
Room with a visitor, 1979, Collection Queensland Art Gallery
Provenance: Joseph Brown Gallery, Melbourne
$5,500
enquiries:
simon@ensemblefineart.com.au
0419 540 162
This a study was for a large painting previously in the State Bank of Victoria (later Commonwealth Bank) collection. The setting is Brian’s Clarence St. studio on the top floor of a building near Wynyard Station where he worked for a few years before coming to Melbourne. The model also posed for Room with a visitor, 1979 in the Queensland Art Gallery collection.
Dunlop’s interests lie in nature, the metaphorical power of light, and the essence of humanity. In 1994 Dunlop explained, ‘Interiors are minds, spaces inhabited by thoughts and objects that are impregnated with power and light. Windows are penetrated by light and offer a glimpse of the world outside. Curtains are eyelids. The spaces between and around objects are as important as the objects. Interiors are a microcosm in which one can focus all one’s knowledge, the light constantly changing as is the artist’s mood and awareness.
Brian Dunlop was born in Sydney. He enjoyed early success in his art career winning a scholarship to the National Art School, Sydney. His draughtsmanship was recognised in 1958 when at the age of 18 he won the Le Gay Brereton Prize for drawing, and four years later one of his drawings was purchased by the Art Gallery of New South Wales. He travelled in Italy, Greece, North Africa, Spain and England, became passionate about Renaissance art and also the light of Europe. Back in Australia, Dunlop taught at the East Sydney Technical College and then the Alexander Mackie College of Advanced Education. In 1980 he was artist-in-residence at the University of Melbourne, and won the Sulman Prize for genre painting. He painted the portrait of Queen Elizabeth II in 1984 for the 150th anniversary of the founding of Victoria. Monographs of his work were published in 1984 and 1990. Brian Dunlop’s work is held by the National Gallery of Australia, the National Portrait Gallery and all state galleries.