Oil on board
Signed “Charles Meere” lower right
Inscribed “‘Bull Paddock’, Tumut /Charles Meere A.R.C.A./16
Rickard Avenue, Mosman,
N.S.W.
PRICE 60 gns.” to the reverse
39.0 x 49.0 cm
Charles Meere, born in London, migrated to Australia
in 1932,settling in Sydney where he sought work as a commercial artist.
He worked in what came to be known colloquially, as Australia ’s unofficial
art centre: an old factory warehouse housed a graphic design studio (employing
Lloyd Rees and Roland Wakelin at the time); the publication Art and Australia
was being produced by Sydney Ure Smith; and Max Dupain had a photographic studio
there. During the 1930s, this ‘centre ’“provided a nexus between
the commercial and fine art worlds when artists had few opportunities to sell
their work”. Meere developed a sufficient enough reputation through his
commercial art to procure various commissions. In addition, he taught life
classes, and through both of these enterprises he was able to pursue “his
first love”, mural paintings. (Thomas [ed.]1988)
Charles Meere’s work was considered during the 1950s as “meticulous...he
never loses sight of form and space, his pictures having a calculated sequence
of related facts”. (Badham 1951)
Represented
The Art Gallery of New South Wales
References
Badham, Herbert 1951, A Gallery of Australian Art, Currawong Publishing Co.,
Sydney.
Thomas, Daniel (ed.) 1988, Creating Australia: 200 Years of Art 1788 – 1988,
Adelaide International
Cultural
Corporation of Australia in association with the Art Gallery Board of South
Australia, p.176.
