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Lot Essay
'Mr Tom Roberts versatile and industrious pencil has produced five pictures "A Spanish Beauty", not young enough for Donna Julia, but one who might pass for Donna Inez, for she certainly resembles that lady, in that "She looks a lecture, Each eye a sermon, and her brow a homily,"
Argus, 5 March 1887
Roberts' A Spanish beauty is a subject which derives from his tour of Spain with Russell and Maloney in the late summer and autumn of 1883. Painted in Spain or in his studio in London after their tour, the picture, Whistlerian in tone in its sustained darks, was exhibited in Melbourne after Roberts' return to Australia in 1885, and was subsequently mentioned by Streeton as having had a major influence on the Heidelberg group.
'Travelling light constrained the size of any works that Roberts attempted in Spain. Also, Roberts was a studio worker, meticulous, not someone to set up his easel anywhere. Perhaps even the works known to have been started around Granada, received finishing touches in London. A Spanish beauty, 1883-84 epitomises such uncertainty. The title and the physiognomy encourage the belief that it was done in Spain, though it is undated. Was this work of an English lady in fancy dress? The social columns were replete with accounts of costume balls when the leaders of society revelled in Spanishness. ... To accept that Roberts made A Spanish beauty in Spain is to raise a question mark over the sitter. To what class of woman would a penniless artist have gained access. Maloney recalled Roberts' flirtations with women in the inns. When he exhibited the portrait at the Australian Art Association early in 1887, one critic offered to 'give five years of his life to arrange the folds of her lace mantilla'. It is possible that men had done a deal more for much less. Arthur Streeton never forgot the impression that this small portrait had made on their artistic circle.' (H. McQueen in T. Lane, Australian Impressionism, Melbourne, 2007, p.22).
Argus, 5 March 1887
Roberts' A Spanish beauty is a subject which derives from his tour of Spain with Russell and Maloney in the late summer and autumn of 1883. Painted in Spain or in his studio in London after their tour, the picture, Whistlerian in tone in its sustained darks, was exhibited in Melbourne after Roberts' return to Australia in 1885, and was subsequently mentioned by Streeton as having had a major influence on the Heidelberg group.
'Travelling light constrained the size of any works that Roberts attempted in Spain. Also, Roberts was a studio worker, meticulous, not someone to set up his easel anywhere. Perhaps even the works known to have been started around Granada, received finishing touches in London. A Spanish beauty, 1883-84 epitomises such uncertainty. The title and the physiognomy encourage the belief that it was done in Spain, though it is undated. Was this work of an English lady in fancy dress? The social columns were replete with accounts of costume balls when the leaders of society revelled in Spanishness. ... To accept that Roberts made A Spanish beauty in Spain is to raise a question mark over the sitter. To what class of woman would a penniless artist have gained access. Maloney recalled Roberts' flirtations with women in the inns. When he exhibited the portrait at the Australian Art Association early in 1887, one critic offered to 'give five years of his life to arrange the folds of her lace mantilla'. It is possible that men had done a deal more for much less. Arthur Streeton never forgot the impression that this small portrait had made on their artistic circle.' (H. McQueen in T. Lane, Australian Impressionism, Melbourne, 2007, p.22).