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Lot Essay
'Between December 1952 and January 1953, John Reginald Christie strangled three prostitutes at 10 Rillington Place, London W11. ... The paintings in this series, apart from a portrait of Mrs. Christie, relate only to the murders of Rita Nelson, Cathleen[sic] Maloney and Hectorina McLennan.' (Brett Whiteley, Marlborough exhibition catalogue, 1965.)
Whiteley arrived in London at the end of 1960 and had a studio in Ladbroke Grove, around the corner from Rillington Place where Reginald Christie had lived. 'I got interested in Christie then, about 1961 I suppose. It was a general contemplation of that aspect of London -- the mixup of races, the asphalt pimping sort of Ladbroke Grove beer-bottle stuff, the violence of London. I feel very sad for a man like Christie. He crystallises the life around him. And life on that level is very banal. I know, I drank with the people who knew Christie -- the brother of one of the girls he killed, Kathleen Maloney, for instance.' (Whiteley quoted in Robert Hughes, The Bulletin, 18 Dec. 1965, p.41)
Of Christie's victims, Kathleen Maloney seems to have been of particular interest to Whiteley. An orphan, Maloney was brought up in a convent, but by 19, had turned to prostition. In early 1953 she accompanied Christie home after drinking in the Westminster Arms, Paddington. She was Christie's seventh victim. Whiteley completed at least seven works on Kathleen Maloney as part of his Christie series, including Christie and Kathleen Maloney 1964-65, now in the National Gallery of Australia, Canberra, and Preliminary Sketch for Christie's Murder Series (Kathleen Maloney) 1965, in the collection of the Whiteley Estate, Brett Whiteley Studio, Sydney.
Whiteley arrived in London at the end of 1960 and had a studio in Ladbroke Grove, around the corner from Rillington Place where Reginald Christie had lived. 'I got interested in Christie then, about 1961 I suppose. It was a general contemplation of that aspect of London -- the mixup of races, the asphalt pimping sort of Ladbroke Grove beer-bottle stuff, the violence of London. I feel very sad for a man like Christie. He crystallises the life around him. And life on that level is very banal. I know, I drank with the people who knew Christie -- the brother of one of the girls he killed, Kathleen Maloney, for instance.' (Whiteley quoted in Robert Hughes, The Bulletin, 18 Dec. 1965, p.41)
Of Christie's victims, Kathleen Maloney seems to have been of particular interest to Whiteley. An orphan, Maloney was brought up in a convent, but by 19, had turned to prostition. In early 1953 she accompanied Christie home after drinking in the Westminster Arms, Paddington. She was Christie's seventh victim. Whiteley completed at least seven works on Kathleen Maloney as part of his Christie series, including Christie and Kathleen Maloney 1964-65, now in the National Gallery of Australia, Canberra, and Preliminary Sketch for Christie's Murder Series (Kathleen Maloney) 1965, in the collection of the Whiteley Estate, Brett Whiteley Studio, Sydney.