Grace Crowley
(Barraba, NSW 1890-1979 Manly NSW)
Abstract *SOLD*
oil on canvas
signed & dated verso ‘Grace Crowley/ II/ ALH/ 1927’
38 x 28 cm.
Provenance
Private collection, UK.
This early abstract by the pioneering Australian Modernist painter Grace Crowley (1890-1979) was painted in Paris while the artist was enrolled at L'académie André Lhote under the cubist painter of said name. It is numbered ‘II’ on the reverse, and must have been one of a series, perhaps set by Lhote himself. It is signed in two orientations, to show it can be hung in portrait or landscape mode, and the addition of Lhote’s initials ‘ALH’ is notable. The painting is stylistically unusual within Crowley's oeuvre, and represents an experimental moment before she had fully established her own visual lexicon.