The Hunter 1945

ARTHUR BOYD (1920-1999)

The Hunter 1945

oil on canvas
76.0 x 92.0 cm; 87.0 x 102.5 cm (framed)
signed and dated lower centre: A Boyd 45

Provenance:
Hogarth Galleries, Sydney
Mr Clive Evatt QC, Sydney
Mrs Elizabeth Margaret Evatt, Sydney

Exhibited:
Contemporary Art Society Exhibition, Myer Gallery, Melbourne, 21-31 August 1945, cat.104

Related Works:
The Hunter 1944, oil on cotton gauze on cardboard, 63.6 x 75.8 cm, National Gallery of Australia collection, CanberraThe Hunter I 1944, oil on board, 61.0 x 73.5 cm, private collectionThe Hunter II (The Flood) 1944, oil on canvas on plywood, 99.6 x 91.5 cm, Art Gallery of New South Wales collection, SydneyThe Hunter III (The Lost Hunter) 1944, oil on canvas, 81.5 x 122.0 cm, private collection

Estimate: $80000 - 120000

Result Hammer: $80000

Hailed as a ‘primal force in Australian art’, Arthur Boyd continues to hold the title as one of Australia’s greatest 20th century artists.1

Born into a deeply artistic and religious family in Melbourne, Boyd was encouraged to experiment with art from a young age. He was greatly influenced by European Masters, including expressionist Edvard Munch (1863-1944), as well as the great Northern Renaissance figures Pieter Bruegel (c1525-1569) and Hieronymus Bosch (c1450-1516). However, in equal part, his style was influenced by his environment and the tradition of Australian landscape painting. Boyd’s grandfather, Arthur Merric Boyd (1862-1940), was a traditional landscape painter affiliated with the Heidelberg School and encouraged Boyd’s work in this direction.2

Indeed, it is the Australian wilderness that lies at the heart of Boyd’s singular artistic vision. These landscapes serve as the stage for his continued exploration of allegory, myth, human emotion, and vast personal symbolism.3 The result is a deeply unique and ‘independent dialogue’ between these subject matters that is so particular to Boyd’s visual style, and which is epitomised in his impressive Nebuchadnezzar and Brides series.4

The Hunter 1945 is part of an important series that marks a critical turning point in Boyd’s use of landscape. In the work we see a lone figure surrounded by dense, untamed, and unforgiving forest. The figure - who looks to be a young man - is sat on the edge of an opening, almost blending into the treescape behind him, which is depicted in similar tones. As if discarded, we see a rifle resting away from the figure with several of its fallen prey scattered nearby. A sense of death and loneliness pervades the work. This is intensified by the strong, pigment heavy brushstrokes, Boyd’s use of dark colour, and the crouching posture of the figure. Almost hidden within the foliage in the upper right are two watchful birds - a symbolic inclusion in much of Boyd’s work. The figure averts his eyes from their stares, suggesting a sense of judgement and isolation, perhaps speaking to Boyd’s dislike of army life and its lack of privacy.

The series, which also includes The Hunter II (The Flood) 1944 (Figure 1, acquired by the Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney, in 1972) and The Hunter III (The Lost Hunter) 1944, form a key part of Boyd’s war period. Conscripted at the age of 21, Boyd served in the Army Service Corps between 1941-44, when he was stationed near Bendigo in the Victorian Central Highlands. Boyd produced three striking collections of work during this time that consisted of, in his words, ‘imaginary poems ... psychological or poetic fantasies perhaps.’5

The first group, referred to as the South Melbourne paintings, depict a frenzied, panicked collection of metamorphic beings in the ‘somewhat decayed, half-industrialised inner suburban areas of Melbourne.’6 The works of this period, including Butterfly Man 1943, have been compared with the works of Marc Chagall (1887-1985) and Max Ernst (1891-1976).7 Conversely, the third collection, including The Mourners 1945 (Figure 2) and The Mockers 1945, draws heavily on biblical references, with inspiration from Bosch and Bruegel, and situates these allegorical elements within the Australian landscape.8

What is notable about the middle The Hunter series is that it represents the first time that Boyd placed his emotive figures within the Australian wilderness. It bridges his war period work and introduces the thematic setting that would go on to characterise and dominate the rest of Boyd’s portfolio.

In many ways… what’s most important about this series is that it’s the first group of pictures in which Boyd actually integrates the human figures with the natural landscape. It’s not an urban landscape now, it’s a wild landscape.9

While all The Hunter works portray tormented figures nestled deep within the harsh bush and densely populated forest, The Hunter 1945 is unique in depicting only one figure. Rather, it is the bush that dominates this piece, bringing the depths of Boyd’s wild stage into full view.

The Hunter was originally acquired by Clive Evatt QC, the former owner and director of Hogarth Galleries, Sydney. It became a part of his significant personal collection, which continues to house notable Australian artists including Sydney Nolan (1917-1992) and Tim Storrier (born 1949). Until recently the collection also included Brett Whiteley’s (1939-1992) Henri’s Armchair 1974-75, whose sale with Menzies in 2010 broke the Australian art auction record.10

Boyd enjoyed considerable international acclaim during his lifetime, being awarded Australian of the Year in 1995, and continues to hold an important position in art history. His works can be found in prominent private and public collections, including those of the Tate Britain, London, and the National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne.

Footnotes

1. Zinn, C., ‘Arthur Boyd; Primal Force in Australian Art’, Guardian Weekly, London, 9 May 1999
2. Boyd Family, Bundanon, accessed 26 February 2024, https://www.bundanon.com.au/our-stories/the-boyds/boyd-family/
3. McKenzie, J., ‘Boyd, Arthur (1920–1999)’, The Routledge Encyclopedia of Modernism, Taylor and Francis, 2016
4. Ibid.
5. Arthur Boyd quoted in Philipp, F., Arthur Boyd, Thames and Hudson, London, 1967, p.31
6. Ibid.
7. Ibid.
8. Ibid.
9. Hansen, D., ‘Arthur Boyd - The Hunter III (The Lost Hunter)’, Important Australian Art, Sotheby’s Australia, Melbourne, 26 November 2013, accessed 26 February 2024, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vkrWFKgLpKg.
10. Morris, L., ‘Brett Whiteley Painting Smashes Australian Art Auction Record’, The Sydney Morning Herald, Sydney, 26 November 2020

Alice Evatt
Alice Evatt is a PhD Candidate at the University of Oxford and Balliol College. Alice has experience in the art market, having interned at Sotheby’s London and worked with the Hogarth Galleries in Sydney.

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