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WATERCOLOURS AND WOODCUTS OF WESTERN AUSTRALIA BY ARCHIBALD BERTRAM WEBBA.B. Webb was a Kent-born commercial artist who emigrated from England to Western Australia for health reasons in 1915. He began experimenting with woodblock printing in 1921, after returning to Perth from Narrogin, and produced his best work in the medium in the early 1920s, his subjects all describing the scenery around his home at Nedlands. Although an expatriate, and strongly influenced by the art nouveau movement in London and prevailing japonisme, his work is celebrated for its uniquely Western Australian character. The present selection all come directly from the artist's family. "A. B. Webb's prints were affordable to many people, but his watercolours also found a ready market. The prints were usually marked with edition numbers out of fifty, however he probably printed in demand, and it cannot be confirmed that he ever fully completed an edition. The availability of Webb's prints on the secondary market in Perth today would indicate that he sold well in Western Australia... . Remarkably, nearly all of his printed works were produced in a ten-year period, between 1921 and 1931, with most of his best known images made between 1921 and 1925. ... Prints such as The shag c.1921 and Sunshine and shadow c.1921-23 have become iconic images from early twentieth-century visual art in Western Australia. They are strongly identified with aspects of daily life around Perth, and still scenes familiar to the many locals and visitors who walk along the foreshore of the Swan River. ...The combination of strong design, simple imagery and evocative atmospheric colours are, as one reviewer said in the 1920s, 'evidence of a poetic reaction to nature, expressed with full command over the technique of the craft.' " (J. Gooding, Sunshine and shadow: A. B. Webb and the poetics of place, Perth, 2004, p.17) PROPERTY FROM THE ARTIST'S FAMILY (LOTS 28-39)
Archibald Bertram Webb (1887-1944)
The Hills
Details
Archibald Bertram Webb (1887-1944)
The Hills
signed 'A.B. Webb' (lower right), with inscription '"THE HILLS" A.B. WEBB' on the reverse
pencil and watercolour on paper
unframed
25 5/8 x 20in. (65.1 x 50.8cm.)
The Hills
signed 'A.B. Webb' (lower right), with inscription '"THE HILLS" A.B. WEBB' on the reverse
pencil and watercolour on paper
unframed
25 5/8 x 20in. (65.1 x 50.8cm.)
Provenance
By descent from the artist to the present owner.
Brought to you by
Amanda Fuller