Derwent Lees
Derwent Lees (14 November 1884 – 24 March 1931) was an Australian landscape painter.
Derwent Lees was born Desmond Lees in Hobart, Australia, in 1884. He lost a foot in a riding accident as a youth, while studying at Melbourne Grammar School in 1899-1900.[1] Moving to London in 1905, Lees studied at the Slade School of Fine Art, joining its staff in 1908. He was a member of the New English Art Club from 1911. The earliest known pencil work of a model is from 1909 while at the Slade school and is held in a private collection in Doreen, Victoria, Australia.
He was a friend of Augustus John and James Dickson Innes, and spent the period from late 1910 to 1912 with them at a cottage called Nant Ddu in north Wales. In 1912 Innes and Lees went on another painting trip to Collioure in France.[2] His wife Lyndra was one of Augustus John's former models. He was the only Australian artist represented at the 1913 Armory Show in New York.[3]
His artistic career was curtailed by a mental health problem which saw him confined to an asylum from 1918 until his death in 1931.
Works in collections
Title | Year | Medium | Gallery no. | Gallery | Location |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Lyndra at the Pool | 1913 | Oil on wood panel | 29025 | National Gallery of Australia | Canberra, Australia |
Four Heads | 1910 | Pencil & paper | H1979.5 | Brighton and Hove Museums | Brighton, England |
Landscape at Collioure | 1910 | Watercolour & gouache on paper | N04241 | Tate Gallery | London, England |
The Awakening | 1910 | Watercolour, pen & ink | 63973 | National Gallery of Australia | Canberra, Australia |
Lyndria in Wales | 1910-14 | Oil on paper | 2450 | Fitzwilliam Museum | Cambridge, England |
Evening | 1911 | Oil on canvas | 9684 | Government Art Collection | London, England |
Girl in a Black Hat | 1912 | Oil on wood panel | 1888-4 | National Gallery of Victoria | Melbourne, Australia |
Metairie des Abeilles | 1912 | Oil on wood | N05355 | Tate Gallery[4] | London, England |
Metairie des Abeilles | 1912 | Watercolour on paper | N05356 | Tate Gallery | London, England |
Spanish Landscape | 1912 | Oil on wood panel | 29026 | National Gallery of Australia | Canberra, Australia |
Spanish Landscape | 1912-14 | Oil on board | H1990.24 | Brighton and Hove Museums | Brighton, England |
Lyndra, the Artist's Wife | 1913 | Pencil & paper & board | H1981.7 | Brighton and Hove Museums | Brighton, England |
Lyndra in a Landscape | 1913 | Oil on wood panel | 1821-4 | National Gallery of Victoria | Melbourne, Australia |
Pear Tree in Blossom | 1913 | Oil on wood | N05021 | Tate Gallery | London, England |
Lyndra at Tanygrisiau | 1913-1914(?) | Oil on wood panel | 1957-0014-3 | Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa | Wellington, New Zealand |
The Yellow Skirt | 1914 | Oil on wood panel | 127080 | National Gallery of Australia | Canberra, Australia |
Self Portrait | 1917 | Etching | D5046 | National Portrait Gallery | London, England |
Not titled [Eve holding the apple] | 1920-29 | Watercolour, pen & ink, pencil on cardboard | 57603 | National Gallery of Australia | Canberra, Australia |
Not titled [Portrait study: Woman with head turned to the right] | 1920-29 | Brush & ink & pencil on paper | 57591 | National Gallery of Australia | Canberra, Australia |
Not titled [Profile portrait of a woman] | 1920-29 | Pencil on paper | 57597 | National Gallery of Australia | Canberra, Australia |
Not titled [Woman reading] | 1920-29 | Pencil, ink & pen on paper | 57600 | National Gallery of Australia | Canberra, Australia |
Lady Howard de Walden | Pencil on paper | FA101413 | Brighton and Hove Museums | Brighton, England | |
Welsh Landscape in Winter | Oil on wood panel | 1951.1086 | Glynn Vivian Art Gallery | Swansea, Wales |
References
- ↑ artuk. Retrieved 13 June 2016
- ↑ Carrick Hill
- ↑ Giles Auty, "Exuberance truncated", Weekend Australian, 19-20 July 1997, p. 12
- ↑ Tate Collection: Derwent Lees
Further reading
Wikimedia Commons has media related to Derwent Lees. |
- Derwent Lees, "Drawings", The Blue Review, Vol. I No. I (May, 1913).
- Alleyne Zander, "Derwent Lees", Art in Australia, series 3, no. 48, Feb 1933.
- Eric Rowan, Some miraculous promised land: J. D. Innes, Augustus John and Derwent Lees in North Wales 1910–13, Llandudno: Mostyn Art Gallery, 1982.
- Merlin James, "Derwent Lees", The London Magazine, Feb/Mar 1992.
- Henry R. Lew, In Search of Derwent Lees, privately published by Henry R. Lew, North Caulfield, Victoria, Australia. 1996. ISBN 0-646-28383-9.
- Henry R. Lew, "J.D. Innes and Derwent Lees", The Australasian Antique Collector, Dec 1997–June 1998.