Shoalhaven and Black Swan on River, Arthur Boyd
Oil on board, 24cm x 14.5cm
Provenance: Art Galleries Schubert, Queensland. Private collection, Queensland. Deutscher-Menzies, Melbourne.
From the renowned Boyd family of artists, Arthur Boyd was a painter, potter and printmaker. Boyd’s emotional vision is conveyed in lyrical allegories of the Australian bush. Working on themes of love, loss and shame, he draws upon personal and ambiguous symbolism with works engaging with humanitarian issues. Boyd was associated with the Antipodeans, a group of painters championing figurative art in London in the late 1950s. Even while working in London, he continued to capture the Australian landscape (1).
Riversdale, the home of Arthur Boyd and his wife, is located on the banks of the Shoalhaven River. The home was purchased in the early 1970s, based purely on a photograph sent to England, and Boyd explored the surrounding environment in many works in his later life. He painted the world reflected in the river on calm days, and in this piece a black swan drifts across the scene. Boyd has also painted the fallen eucalypts along the riverbank and the burnt tree trunks. They form a strong set of vertical lines within the picture plane and serve to remind us of the natural 'fierceness' inherent in this country, which Boyd explored with such deep fascination and a wary reverence. (2)