Sotheby’s Australia will offer an early masterpiece by the influential Australian-born Impressionist painter John Peter Russell (1858-1931) during its August 25 Important Australian Art sale at the InterContinental Sydney. The stunning work, titled “Ariadne,” depicts the daughter of King Minos of Crete laying recumbent on the seashore, swathed with fine drapery and propped up against two giant shells.Geoffrey Smith, Chairman of Sotheby’s Australia commented: “Confidante of Vincent van Gogh and friend of Claude Monet, John Russell became Australia’s most internationally accomplished contemporary artist. Ariadne 1883 is the artist’s most ambitious and celebrated formative subject, bearing the hallmarks of the Neo-classical ideal of the late nineteenth century and the influence of Frederic Leighton, one of its most renowned exponents. With Ariadne, Russell’s audacious subject and strident palette proved contentious to less progressive Australian audiences when initially shown.”John Peter Russell was the only Australian painter to benefit from a close and personal relationship with the French Impressionist and Post-Impressionist painters during his expatriate years in Europe in the 1880’s, becoming friends with Vincent Van Gogh, an associate of Claude Monet and August Rodin, as well as a mentor to Henri Matisse.Ariadne was first exhibited at the Art Society of New South Wales in March 1883 and was originally owned by the engineer, politician, pastoralist, and artist, Edward Combes, who according to Sotheby’s Australia was a family friend and early mentor of John Russell. “Ariadne” is Russell’s largest composition and has remained in a private Melbourne collection since 1973.
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