John Passmore, Sydney;
Private Collection, New South Wales in January 1956;
thence by descent from the above
Click image to zoom
John Passmore
Four Bathers at a Bridge, c. 1953
oil on board
34.00 x 41.00
signed 'JP' lower right
John Passmore: Exhibition of Paintings and Drawings, Von Bertouch Galleries, Newcastle, 20 September – 13 October 1985, no. 27 (label verso, from previous frame)
Barry Pearce, John Passmore Retrospective, exhibition catalogue, AGNSW, 1985, see plate 28 for a slightly larger work of bathers flinging themselves off a jetty.
With Passmore's immense respect for Cézanne, it's not surprising to find the series of bathers painted in the early 50s to have occupied a major proportion of his energy. They can be roughly divided into two groups: the active and the passive. In the latter the bathers tend to be resting and reclining (Pearce, pl 16); in the middle ground they start to move (Harbourside, 1952, NGV collection, Pearce pl 22; The argument, 1953, AGNSW collection, Pearce pl 61) and at the active extreme he catches them hurtling into the water - as in this work. It's a sight known to every Australian who has spent time by the sea - young, usually teenage, boys competing boisterously to make the biggest and loudest splash (Pearce pl 28). This youthful hyperactivity makes the perfect foil for the restrained stillness of the arguably more conservative works in the first category.
Further works by the Artist
Since its establishment in 1984, the Charles Nodrum Gallery’s exhibition program embraces a diversity of media and styles - from painting, sculpture & works on paper to graphics and photography; from figurative, geometric, gestural, surrealist & social comment to installation & conceptually based work.