Leonard Crawford

Chapman Powell Street Gallery, Melbourne to Mrs Clive Brown;
Sotheby's, Melbourne, 19 April 1993, lot 106 – probably on behalf of the above;
to Charles Nodrum Gallery, till 1998; to Private collection, Melbourne;
The National Australia Bank Art Collection, till 2022

Group Exhibition of Gallery Artists, Rudy Komon Gallery, Sydney, late 1960s;
Survey - Crawford, French, Johnson, Kemp, Senbergs, National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne, 1965, cat. no. 4;
Leonard Crawford, Chapman Powell Street Gallery, Melbourne, 1970;
Art and Furniture of the 1960s, Charles Nodrum Gallery & Luke Design, Melbourne, 15 October - 7 November, 1998, cat. no. 10

The term "Opus Anglicanum" (literally "English work") refers to the needlework and embroidery produced in Medieval England for both ecclesiastical and secular use on vestments and hangings, and often employing silk, gold and silver threads. Its high quality was prized across Europe, mostly for ecclesiastic purposes but also in the secular world where it was much esteemed for diplomatic gifts. An influential exhibition of Medieval sculpture, metalwork and ivories was held at the Victoria and Albert Museum in late 1963 and included several - now rare - examples of Opus Anglicanum. Crawford's CV lists him as teaching at RMIT from 1959-62 and from 1964-85 - leaving 1963 unaccounted; if he was in London in that year it is most probable he saw that exhibition, which would also explain both the unusual use of collaged string in this work and the title - for it is indeed an "English work" and inspired by Opus Anglicanum. We are unsure exactly how many works he painted beyond the fact that he numbered them in order of execution.