Ayers Rock 1959
Oil on canvas
86.3 x 129 cm
Signed and dated; also signed, dated and inscribed artist on reverse
Provenance: The Berry collection, Melbourne
Exhibited: Modern Australian Paintings, Bridget McDonnell Gallery, 2010, no. 18
Eric Stewart was a self-taught artist. His paintings were inspired by books on indigenous culture including Myths and Legends of the Australian Aborigines by W. Ramsay Smith, 1930; Brown Men and Red Sand by Charles P. Mountford, 1948 and Aboriginal Myths and Legends by Roland Robinson, 1966. Stewart suffered from tuberculosis and moved to New South Wales for health reasons in 1970. At this time many of his paintings were sent to auction in St. Kilda and dispersed through the antique trade. Clifton Pugh discovered some in a second-hand furniture shop in Echuca in January 1972 and declared him to be a “primitive genius”. This discovery led to
exhibitions later that year at Powell Street Galleries, South Yarra and Macquarie Galleries, Sydney. Reference: In the Dreamtime - Paintings by Eric L. Stewart 1903-1970 by Barrie Reid, Art and
Australia, Vol. 10, no. 2, October 1972
Item #2275
Price: $15,000.00