PROPERTY FROM A PRIVATE COLLECTION, MELBOURNE WILLIAM CHARLES PIGUENIT (1836-1914) Mt Byron, Lake Petrarch, Tasmania oil on canvas 77.0 x 128.0 cm; 116.5 x 167.5 cm (framed) signed lower left: W.C. Piguenit frame: original, Henry W. Callan and Son, Sydney (label attached verso)
WILLIAM CHARLES PIGUENIT (1836-1914) Beddgelert, North Wales 1889 oil on canvas signed lower left: W C Piguenit 44.5 x 75cm PROVENANCE: The Artist Thence by descent Christie's, Melbourne, 3 May 1988, lot 111 Private collection, Tasmania
WILLIAM CHARLES PIGUENIT (1836 - 1914) CYNTHIA BAY, LAKE ST. CLAIR WITH MT. IDA IN DISTANCE, TASMANIA, c.1880s oil on canvas 72.0 x 108.0 cm signed lower left: W C PIGUENIT PROVENANCE Private collection Deutscher Fine Art, Melbourne Private collection, Brisbane, acquired from the above in 1984 EXHIBITED Australian Paintings: Colonial / Impressionist / Early Modern, Deutscher Fine Art, Melbourne, 30 October – 16 November 1984, cat. 35 (illus. in exhibition catalogue) RELATED WORK Mt Ida, Lake St Clair, Tasmania, c.1881, pencil, watercolour, scraping out, white gouache highlights on white wove paper, 33.2 x 52.9 cm, in the collection of the Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney ESSAY The following excerpts are from Johannes, C.E. and Brown, A.V., W.C. Piguenit 1836 – 1914: Retrospective, Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery, Hobart, 1992, pp. 25 – 26: Born in Hobart in 1836, during the early 1880s W.C. Piguenit and his family moved permanently to Sydney. However, he never forgot ‘the tight little island that I am proud to call my native land’1, and spent time in Tasmania in 18842, returning in 1887 for one last trip into the Western Highlands. He was now fifty-one and would soon no longer have the physical stamina required for the rigours of such explorations. He joined Charles Sprent’s planned ‘West Coast Party’3 which consisted of many eminent Tasmanians, amongst them James Backhouse Walker and Colonel W.V. Legge who would both leave accounts of the overland trip. It also included Piguenit’s old friend R.M. Johnstone who indeed may have invited Piguenit to come… …The West Coast Party left Hobart on 17 February and followed much of the same route Piguenit had taken with Scott in 1873 as far as Lake St Clair. But from there the men veered west south-west across the Navarre Plain, past Mt King William and the King William Range, past Mt Arrowsmith, Mt Rufus, Mt Gell, and The Frenchman’s Cap. The track was incredibly rough… On 20 February the party camped on the Cardigan River.4 Next morning, most of the men continued to the King River, but Piguenit and Legge, ‘wishing to see more of the beautiful scenery in the vicinity pf Lake St Clair, and taking no interest in the King River mines, returned to King William…’5 …On the way out, the West Coast Party had spent a couple of afternoon hours wandering over Lake St Clair’s sandy beach in damp and chilly weather when the lake or rather, the mountains round it were covered with flying clouds and mist… as snow showers passed over and great peak after peak loomed through the gloom, forming a splendid vista of mountains… Everyone had been impressed by the grandeur of the scene…’6 1. Letter from W.C. Piguenit to Andrew Inglis, 12 April 1888 in A.J. Clark Papers, University of Tasmania Archives, Hobart 2. This evidence is provided by a pencil sketch, Mount Wellington from Old Beach, 1884, now in the collection of the Queen Victoria Museum and Art Gallery, Launceston. 3. Charles P. Sprent was Deputy Surveyor General of Tasmania. 4. The Cadigan is a river halfway between Lake St Clair and modern-day Queenstown. 5. W.V. Legge, ‘The Highlands of St Clair’, Papers and Proceedings of the Royal Society of Tasmania for 1887, The Mercury, Hobart, 1888, p. 117 6. Backhouse Walker, J., Walk to the West, 1887, p. 7
WILLIAM CHARLES PIGUENIT (1836-1914) Beddgelert, North Wales 1889 oil on canvas signed lower left: W C Piguenit 44.5 x 75cm PROVENANCE: The Artist Thence by descent Christie's, Melbourne, 3 May 1988, lot 111 Private collection, Tasmania
William Charles Piguenit (Australian, 1836-1914). ''The 'Endeavour' Captain Cook entering Botany Bay. New South Wales on the morning of the 28th April 1770''. A signed oil on canvas. Titled to verso. Within a gilded frame. 80 x 130 cm.
W. C. PIGUENIT 1836-1914 The Lane Cove River 1887 oil on canvas signed and dated 'W. C. PIGUENIT / 1887' lower right; signed and inscribed 'THE LANE COVE RIVER. / W. C. PIGUENIT' verso 45.5 x 76.2 cm frame: original, Henry Callan & Son, Sydney PROVENANCE William Charles Piguenit, Sydney Henry Callan & Son, Sydney Private Collection, Sydney Australian and European Pictures, Christie's Australia, Melbourne, 20 April 1993, lot 53, illustrated Private Collection, Melbourne, acquired from the above Fine Australian and International Paintings, Sotheby's Australia, 2 May 2000, lot 54, illustrated $68,500 Private Collection, Sydney, acquired from the above EXHIBITED Messrs. Callan's Exhibition, Henry Callan & Son, Sydney, April 1890, no. 3 LITERATURE 'Callan's Art Collection', The Evening News, Sydney, 10 April 1890, p. 6 'Art Exhibitions in Sydney: Messrs. Callan's Collection', The Sydney Morning Herald, Sydney, 10 April 1890, p. 3
William C. Piguenit (1836-1914) - Original Watercolour This is a lovely watercolour of a Tasmanian Scene. One of the earliest professional painters born in Australia, William Charles Piguenit was mainly self-taught, drawing his inspiration from European romanticism with an emphasis on motifs of heavy grandeur. Known for his Tasmanian landscapes, Piguenit's paintings portray nature in terms of its infinite mystery combined with a topographical essence of its features, and are related to the work of émigré Australian artists, Eugene von Guérard and Nicholas Chevalier. Son of a convict transported to Van Diemen's Land in 1830, William Charles Piguenit was born in Hobart, Tasmania, in 1836. He worked in the Tasmanian Lands and Survey Department from 1850 as a draughtsman and mapmaker, where he learned lithography from Frank Dunnett and Robin Vaughan Hood and developed an interest in photography. After leaving the survey office in 1872, he began making sketching and photography trips to remote and spectacular regions in Tasmania, including Lake St Clair in 1873. He exhibited photographs and paintings of wilderness scenes throughout the 1870s. Piguenit moved to Sydney in 1880, settling in Hunter's Hill with his family and travelling extensively in search of landscape subjects. He achieved early success through public patronage, regularly exhibited paintings in Tasmania and mainland Australia, and joined art societies in Sydney, Melbourne, and Auckland. This piece is Dated 1879, and should be hanging in the Art Gallery of NSW. The Artwork itself measures 27cm by 18cm, and this piece is Gallery Framed
William Charles Piguenit (Australian, 1836-1914). ''Pittwater from the Samphire marshes, Tasmania''. A signed oil on canvas. Titled verso. 65.5 x 91 cm. Provenance: The Estate of Julian Howard Beale, member of the Australian Parliament.
WILLIAM CHARLES PIGUENIT (1836-1914) Valley of the Murchison 1880 oil on canvas on board signed and dated lower left: W C. Piguenit / 1880 titled on exhibition label verso 44 x 79cm PROVENANCE: The Artist Thence by descent The Collection of Emma Mary and John Gidley Fleming Thence by descent The Collection of Hilda Irene Fleming and Charles William Harris Thence by descent The Collection of Marjorie Clare and Robert David Fitzgerald Thence by descent Private collection, Melbourne EXHIBITIONS: W. C. Piguenit 1836-1914: Retrospective, Tasmania Museum and Art Gallery, Hobart, 16 December 1992 - 14 February 1993, cat. no. 12 (label verso) touring: Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney, 10 March - 25 April 1993 Art Gallery of Western Australia, Perth, 13 May - 4 July 1993 LITERATURE: Brown, T., William Charles Piguenit, Monochrome Oil Paintings and Gouache, Watercolour, and Ink Drawings, A Catalogue Raisonne, Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery, Hobart, version 1, 21 December 2012, cat. no. 10:1880, p. 13 Launceston Examiner, Tasmania, 10 March 1880, p. 2 (accompanied by the original hand-written statement by the artist for publishing)
WILLIAM CHARLES PIGUENIT, ON THE CLEAR C.1900, WATERCOLOUR AND PENCIL ON PAPER, INSCRIBED PARTIALLY ILLEGIBLY LOWER RIGHT, AUTHENTICITY STATEMENT INSCRIBED VERSO FROM THE ESTATE EXECUTOR DATED 22 JULY 1923, 15 X 25CM, FRAME SIZE: 39.5 X 47CM
WILLIAM CHARLES PIGUENIT, ON THE CLEAR C.1900, WATERCOLOUR AND PENCIL ON PAPER, INSCRIBED PARTIALLY ILLEGIBLY LOWER RIGHT, AUTHENTICITY STATEMENT INSCRIBED VERSO FROM THE ESTATE EXECUTOR DATED 22 JULY 1923, 15 X 25CM, FRAMED: 39.5 X 47CM
WILLIAM CHARLES PIGUENIT, ON THE CLEAR C.1900, WATERCOLOUR AND PENCIL ON PAPER, INSCRIBED PARTIALLY ILLEGIBLY LOWER RIGHT, AUTHENTICITY STATEMENT INSCRIBED VERSO FROM THE ESTATE EXECUTOR DATED 22 JULY 1923, 15 X 25CM, FRAMED: 39.5 X 47CM
WILLIAM CHARLES PIGUENIT (1836 - 1914) VALLEY OF THE GROSE, 1883 oil on board 43.5 x 57.0 cm signed and dated lower left: W. C. Piguenit 1883 PROVENANCE The artist’s granddaughter, a gift of the artist E. W. Deakin, Sydney, a gift from the above Private collection Sotheby’s, Melbourne, 28 April 1997, lot 214 Jack Manton, Queensland Thence by descent Jennifer Manton, Sydney Estate of the above, Sydney EXHIBITED W.C. Piguenit, 1836 – 1914: retrospective, Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery, Hobart, 16 December 1992 – 14 February 1993 and touring, Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney, 10 March – 2 April 1993; Art Gallery of Western Australia, Perth, 13 May – 4 July 1993, cat. 16 (label attached verso)
W.C. PIGUENIT 1836-1914 The Lane Cove River 1887 oil on canvas signed and dated 'W. C. PIGUENIT / 1887' lower right; signed and inscribed 'THE LANE COVE RIVER. / W. C. PIGUENIT' verso 45.5 x 76.2 cm frame: original, Henry Callan & Son, Sydney PROVENANCE: William Charles Piguenit, Sydney Henry Callan & Son, Sydney Private Collection, Sydney Australian and European Pictures, Christie's Australia, Melbourne, 20 April 1993, lot 53, illustrated Private Collection, Melbourne, acquired from the above Fine Australian and International Paintings, Sotheby's Australia, 2 May 2000, lot 54, illustrated Private Collection, Sydney, acquired from the above EXHIBITIONS: Messrs. Callan's Exhibition, Henry Callan & Son, Sydney, April 1890, no. 3 LITERATURE: 'Callan's Art Collection', The Evening News, Sydney, 10 April 1890, p. 6 'Art Exhibitions in Sydney: Messrs. Callan's Collection', The Sydney Morning Herald, Sydney, 10 April 1890, p. 3
WILLIAM CHARLES PIGUENIT (1836 - 1914) MT WELLINGTON FROM NEW TOWN BAY, c.1898 oil on canvas 30.5 x 45.0 cm signed lower left: W C PIGUENIT bears inscription on label verso: William Charles Piguenit / MOUNT WELLINGTON FROM / NEW TOWN BAY / c. 1898 PROVENANCE Private collection Sotheby’s, Melbourne, 6 April 1987, lot 52A (as ‘Mount Wellington from New Town Bay, Tasmania’) Private collection Christie’s, Melbourne, 28 July 1991, lot 17 Private collection Sotheby’s, Melbourne, 30 April 2002, lot 68 The Cbus Collection of Australian Art, Melbourne, acquired from the above EXHIBITED Overland, Latrobe Regional Gallery, Victoria, 10 March – 15 July 2012 on long term loan to the Queen Victoria Museum & Art Gallery, Tasmania LITERATURE Nainby, B., Stanhope, Z., and Furlonger, K., The Cbus Collection of Australian Art, in association with Latrobe Regional Gallery, Melbourne, 2009, pp. 14, 230 RELATED WORK Mount Wellington from New Town Bay, 1879, oil on canvas, 47.3 x 70.3 cm, in the collection of the National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne ESSAY The towering presence of kunanyi, Mount Wellington, above the waters of timtumili minanya, the Derwent River, had always been a rich source of subject matter for colonial artists, including John Glover, John Skinner Prout, Knud Bull, Henry Gritten and Eugene von Guérard. Unlike these earlier artists, however, William Charles Piguenit had been born in Hobart and spent over half of his long life in kunanyi’s shadow. It is not surprising that some of his earliest displayed works of art – lithographs prepared with his cousin and later brother-in-law, Alfred Randall – depict this mountain.1 Its dominant presence was a forerunner to the impressive geological formations that Piguenit travelled to in remote areas of Tasmania and in New South Wales, which formed the subject matter upon which his critical and commercial success was based. Throughout his artistic career, Piguenit painted kunanyi from a variety of locations, as he was later to do of Turrumburra, Lane Cover River, near his house in Sydney (see lot 5). A number of these paintings, such as Mount Wellington from Kangaroo Bay, Tasmania, 1884 (Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery) are expansive views from the eastern banks of the river towards the distant township. In contrast, this smaller work is a more concentrated and intimate depiction, looking along the inlet of New Town Bay towards the rolling foothills. The purple, morning-hazed folds of the mountain here suggest an element of protection rather than domination, the autumnal colours lining the shore evidence of introduced trees and established gardens, settlement rather than wilderness. The vibrant points of colours of the trio of children playing in the tidal mudflats and aboard the boats focus the eye at the point where the horizontal and vertical strokes of the watery reflections meet.2 Piguenit often varied the brushstrokes in his oil paintings: sometimes immaculately smooth, at other times textural to convey turbulent weather conditions or vegetation. The freedom of application and freshness of colours in this painting are notable within his oeuvre of often-sombre scenes of awe-inspiring grandeur and dramatic environs. 1. These 1870 prints are now rare: examples are held in the Crowther Library, Libraries Tasmania, Hobart. Although Piguenit’s later art was widely reproduced, he did not continue with lithography as an artistic medium. 2. The freedom of Piguenit’s brushstrokes in this painting contrast with another New Town Bay view dated 1879 in the collection of the National Gallery of Victoria which is surprisingly static in composition and style. Comparing the two, however, does show that Piguenit took liberties with the accuracy of his locations for aesthetic effect. ALISA BUNBURY
WILLIAM CHARLES PIGUENIT (1836 - 1914) “WHEN THE GLOW IS IN THE WEST”, LANE COVE FROM ABOVE THE BRIDGE, 1893 oil on canvas 76.0 x 127.0 cm signed and dated lower right: W.C. PIGUENIT/ 1893 PROVENANCE James R Lawson, Sydney, 25 October 1911 Private collection Christie’s, Sydney, 6 October 1976, lot 291 (as ‘A Coastal River, New South Wales’) Lauraine Diggins Gallery, Melbourne Danuta and Ted Rogowski, Melbourne The Rogowski Collection, Leonard Joel, Melbourne, 23 February 1998, lot 43 The Cbus Collection of Australian Art, Melbourne, acquired from the above EXHIBITED Art Society of New South Wales 15th Exhibition, York Street, Sydney, September 1894, cat. 309 Selected Australian Works of Art, Lauraine Diggins Gallery, Melbourne, 24 October – 4 November 1983, cat. 17 (illus. in exhibition catalogue, as ‘A Coastal River, New South Wales’) W.C. Piguenit, 1836 – 1914: retrospective, Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery, Hobart, 16 December 1992 – 14 February 1993 and touring, Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney, 10 March – 2 April 1993; Art Gallery of Western Australia, Perth, 13 May – 4 July 1993, cat. 36 (label attached verso) Dawn to Dusk: Landscapes from the Cbus Collection of Australian Art, Latrobe Regional Gallery, Victoria, 31 May – 16 November 2014 on long term loan to Geelong Art Gallery, Victoria LITERATURE ‘The Piguenit Exhibition’, Sydney Morning Herald, Sydney, 23 October 1911, p. 10 (as ‘When the Glow is in the West’) Johannes, C., and Brown, A., W.C. Piguenit, 1836 – 1914: retrospective, Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery, Hobart, 1992, cat. 36, pp. 58 (illus., as ‘Lane Cove from above the Bridge’), 65 Nainby, B., Stanhope, Z., and Furlonger, K., The Cbus Collection of Australian Art, in association with Latrobe Regional Gallery, Melbourne, 2009, pp. 14, 17, 28 (illus.), 230 ESSAY ‘I often look down the estuary of Lane Cove, near our house, and am struck with the blueness of the landscape. The trees, at a distance of only half a mile, are a rich purplish blue, set in a blue environment which gives a dreamy blue indefiniteness to the whole landscape, which is often intensified in the early mornings.’1 No matter how commanding the scenery beyond might be – often towering mountains or sweeping vistas – few of William Charles Piguenit’s landscapes fail to contain expanses of water: streams, rivers, lakes, even floodwaters, reflective of their surroundings, the atmospheric weather and the changing times of day. A favourite topic in the 1880s and 1890s were the waters, tidal mudflats, mangroves and gumtree-lined banks of Lane Cove River, Turrumburra to its Gamaragal owners, an estuary and tributary of the Parramatta River, north-west of Sydney’s centre. From 1882 until his death in 1914, Hobart-born Piguenit lived with his family in Hunters Hill, a short stroll from the river and its meandering flow became familiar both to him, and to his receptive audience. Piguenit painted the river from a variety of locations, from Onions Point on the eastern tip of the peninsula, to Buffalo Creek and further upstream. However, his views of the river often centred around Fig Tree Bridge, near his house.2 An iron truss swing bridge completed in 1885, it was the first bridge to cross Lane Cove River, and one of a series of bridges that allowed road traffic to traverse from the south and north shores of Port Jackson. Thus, it also permitted Piguenit to explore the river’s banks on foot, and many of his paintings are titled in relation to this important structure – above, below, or near. In one view, he painted the bridge cutting across the river, a rare inclusion by Piguenit of the built environment and its impact upon the landscapes he so loved.3 More typically he incorporated gentle reminders of human presence: a rowing boat, or a larger sailing boat in the distance; figures on the riverbank; cattle or the occasional house. Sparsely inhabited until well into the twentieth century, the Lane Cove valley was nevertheless impacted, with early timber felling, and then noxious tanneries, dairies and orchards benefitting from its waters and proximity to Sydney’s markets. None of this is evident in this panoramic painting, Lane Cove from above the bridge, 1893.4 There is no sign of human activity and, unusually, Piguenit included a group of kangaroos, haloed by the last rays of the setting sun, as the only observers of this tranquil, almost mesmeric scene.5 One likes to think that Piguenit did indeed come across kangaroos still living in the bushland at that time.6 This painting is an exemplar of Piguenit’s peaceful river scenes, which also included the Derwent, Huon, Nepean and Murray. The luminous expanse of the water leads our eyes to the purple hills, while the light clouds similarly direct our attention to the horizon. The eucalypts on the opposite bank are in shadow, while the right bank catches the golden raking light, its proximity to the viewer enhanced by the details of the textured multi-coloured rocks, gnarled bark and the zigzags of the drooping branches. The original title of this painting may have been When the glow is in the west, exhibited the year after this was painted and about which a later reviewer wrote that ‘the exquisitely painted surface of the river that shines like a mirror will be especially admired’.7 Despite the high acclaim and numerous accolades with which Piguenit’s evocative landscapes were received during the latter nineteenth century, his subsequent reputation has been overshadowed by those of contemporaries such as Louis Buvelot and the young guns of the Australian Impressionists whose landscapes were pastoral rather than sublime. But Piguenit warrants ongoing recognition for his fascination with atmospheric effects (particularly light upon water) and his determination to reveal the grandeur of remote landscapes of Tasmania and New South Wales to an urban audience. Indeed, many of the regions he painted are tourist highlights today, such as Lake St Clair and Lake Pedder. Fortuitously much of the upper Lane Cove River has been protected from development and is now enjoyed by visitors to the Lane Cove National Park. 1. Piguenit to Legge, 1896, quoted in W.V. Legge, W.C. Piguenit: An Appreciation of a Tasmanian Artist, Passmore, Launceston, 1922, p. 8 2. Saintonge, 42 Avenue Road, Hunters Hill. Piguenit never married and lived with his parents, sisters and their husbands throughout his life. The current Figtree Bridge was built in 1963. 3. The Lane Cove River, undated, oil on canvas, sold Sotheby’s, Melbourne, 2 May 2000, lot. 54 4. Piguenit often titled his works ‘Lane Cove’ rather than ‘Lane Cover River’. 5. A trio of kangaroos was also included in his monochromatic oil painting The King William Range, Tasmania, 1891 (Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery), but such wildfire is otherwise rare. See S. Backhouse, Brown, T. and Johannes, C., A Passion for Nature: William Charles Piguenit, Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery, Hobart, 2012, illus. p. 94 6. In complete and awful contrast, in 1885 Piguenit discovered the decomposing body of a murdered woman while walking with his dog near Lane Cove Road. Australian Town and Country Journal, 17 January 1885, p. 13; see https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/71022653 (accessed 12 June 2022) 7. ‘The Piguenit exhibition’, Sydney Morning Herald, 23 October 1911, p. 10; see https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/15283292 (accessed 12 June 2022) ALISA BUNBURY
WILLIAM CHARLES PIGUENIT (1836-1914), (attributed), Woolloomooloo Bay N.S.W. (circa 1890), watercolor, 22 x 41.5cm, 43 x 60cm overall. Gallery and exhibition label and notation verso from "Swain's Bookshop, Rare Books" noting the picture was procured from a family member of Piguenit. Also bearing "G. N. Ingleton" label, 1975 ref. no. 10487 (catalogue page attached verso). LITERATURE: "W. C. Piguenit, Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery, Tasmania", by C. Johannes & A. Brown, 1992, page 80 (related work, illus.). Accompanied by a letter of authenticity from Mr Peter Perry formerly the Director of Castlemaine Art Gallery, Provenance: Private Collection Melbourne. Joel Auctions, 20th March, 2018, lot 232.
PIGUENIT, WILLIAM CHARLES (Hobart, Tasmania / Australia 1836-1914 Sydney, Australian landscape painter and watercolorist), painting: "Landscape with cows in a river course in front of mountain ranges", probably oil on cardboard, signed W. C. Piguenit" and titled on the reverse side of the framing on old label: "St. Paul's Dome from the South Esk. / Tasmania". Summarized painting. Framed in gallery rail and mount behind glass. Measures in the passepartout 17 x 27.3 cm. PIGUENIT, WILLIAM CHARLES (Hobart, Tasmanien / Australien 1836-1914 Sydney, australischer Landschaftsmaler und Aquarellist), Gemälde: "Landschaft mit Kühen in einem Flusslauf vor Gebirgszügen", wohl Öl auf Karton, u. r. signiert W. C. Piguenit" und revers auf dem Rückseitenschutz der Rahmung auf altem Etikett betitelt: "St. Paul's Dome from the South Esk. / Tasmania". Summarische Malweise. In Galerieleiste und im Passepartout hinter Glas gerahmt. Maße im Passepartoutausschnitt 17 x 27,3 cm.
WILLIAM C. PIGUENIT (1836 - 1914) Highland Scene with Figures Travelling Down Stream, Tasmania 1877 oil on canvas 30.5 x 40.5 cm (frame: 48 x 58 x 6 cm) signed and dated lower right
W. C. PIGUENIT 1836-1914 Villa Maria Bay, Sydney 1882 oil on canvas signed and dated 'W C Piguenit / 1882' lower right 36 x 66.5 cm PROVENANCE Private Collection, Sydney Private Collection, New South Wales, by descent from the above EXHIBITED 3rd Exhibition, Art Society of New South Wales, Town Hall, Sydney, March 1883, no. 258, 'Villa Maria Bay'
WILLIAM CHARLES PIGUENIT (1836 – 1914) AN AUTUMN SUNSET, LANE COVE RIVER, N.S. WALES, c.1910 oil on canvas SIGNED: signed lower left: W. C. PIGUENIT inscribed on gallery label on frame verso: An Autumn Sunset / Lane Cove River, NSW / W C Piguenit bears inscription on label on stretcher verso: An Autumn Sunset / Lane Cove River / NS Wales DIMENSIONS: 46.0 x 76.5 cm PROVENANCE: Private collection Masterpiece Fine Art Gallery, Hobart McRae Collection, Hobart Christie’s, Hobart, 26 August 1996, lot 35 (as ‘An Autumn Sunset Lane Cove, New South Wales’) Private collection, Sydney EXHIBITED: 26th Annual Exhibition, Art Society of Tasmania, Hobart, 1910 (label attached verso) LITERATURE: Johannes, C.E., and Brown, A.V., W.C. Piguenit 1836-1914: Retrospective, Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery, Hobart, 1992, p. 68 ESSAY: William Charles Piguenit’s landscapes celebrate the sublime in nature, its wonder and grandeur, which so fascinated Eugene von Guérard and his contemporaries. Born in Hobart, he drew early inspiration from the atmospheric waters and mountains of Tasmania. Later, moving to Sydney, his earliest known painting of Lane Cove was shown in the 1883 exhibition of the Art Society of New South Wales. By 1886 he was living at Hunters Hill, overlooking the Lane Cove River, the subject of many future paintings. His interest in the panoramic river landscape, especially the effects of light on water, spread further. Within New South Wales he was drawn to the Parramatta, Nepean and Snowy rivers, to the Derwent and Lake Pedder in Tasmania, and abroad to the Conway River and Mount Snowdon in North Wales. The romantic in approach, curiosity led to awe, Mount Olympus, Lake St Clair, Tasmania, The Source of the Derwent, 1875, and The Flood in the Darling 1890, 1895, both in the collection of the Art Gallery of New South Wales, are classics of their kind. This grand Tasmanian work was the first oil painting acquired by the Art Gallery, its popularity reflected in it being the gift of fifty subscribers in 1875.1 In 1901 Piguenit was awarded the Wynne Prize for A Thunderstorm on the Darling. By now, he was held in such high regard that in 1902 the Gallery’s Trustees commissioned him to paint Mt Kosciusko, 1903 to commemorate the Australian Federation. When An Autumn Sunset, Lane Cove River, N. S. Wales, c.1910 was exhibited in the 26th annual exhibition of the Art Society of Tasmania, Hobart, in May 1910, Piguenit was proudly acknowledged as ‘an artist of whom Tasmania is especially proud’.2 And our painting is described as ‘a remarkable one … in respect to reflections of light from behind a clump of trees and on the river’.3 The same painting was noted interstate, The Leader, Melbourne reporting that: ‘The gem of the half dozen is, I think, An Autumn Sunset. The golden glow seems to radiate real sunlight’.4 Remote in locale and overpowering in stature, his eminent panoramas were sometimes touched by a romantic melancholia. Even some closer to civilization seemed a little distant. Figures, boats, fishermen and warm sunlight were added as humanising touches. This is particularly so for Lane Cove subjects. People, though diminutive in size, walk along the riverbank in Lane Cove River from Cliffs Near Bridge, New South Wales, c.1890 – 1901.5 And the undated On Lane Cove River gives centre attention to the fishermen hauling the net into their boat.6 In An Autumn Sunset, Lane Cove River, N. S. Wales, two boats filled with young people relax and enjoy themselves on calm waters. Even birds join in. Autumn and sunset are in tantalizing harmony as ‘Seasons of mists and mellow fruitfulness’ abide in the dusk of departing day. Solitude has been dispelled à contre-jour, companionship and golden light.7 1. See Pearce, B., Australian Art in the Art Gallery of New South Wales, Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney, 2000, p. 35 2. The Mercury, op. cit., 3 May 1910, p. 7 3. ibid. 4. Helena, op. cit., p. 54 5. Leonard Joel, Fine Art Auction, Melbourne, 24 March 2015, lot 52 6. Ken & Rona Eastaugh Collection, Sotheby's, Melbourne, 4 May 2009, lot 49 7. John Keats, ‘To Autumn’, published in 1820 DAVID THOMAS
W. C. PIGUENIT 1836-1914 On the Derwent above Risdon Ferry, Tasmania 1880 oil on academy board signed and dated 'W C Piguenit / 1880'lower left; inscribed 'On the Derwent above Risdon Ferry / Tasmania' verso 29 x 42.5 cm PROVENANCE Private Collection, Tasmania Fine Australian Books, Paintings and Drawings, Sotheby's Australia, Melbourne, 16 April 1985, lot 45, illustrated Mr Beat Altermatt, Melbourne, acquired from the above
WILLIAM CHARLES PIGUENIT (1836-1914) High water, New South Wales oil on canvas signed lower right: W C PIGUENIT 61 x 98cm PROVENANCE: Leonard Joel, Melbourne, 23 July 1986, lot 1290 Private collection, Melbourne
WILLIAM CHARLES PIGUENIT (1836-1914) Woolloomooloo Bay NSW c.1890 watercolour unsigned accompanied by a letter of authenticity from Peter Perry 22 x 41.5cm PROVENANCE: G. N. Ingleton, 1975 ref. no. 10487 (catalogue page attached verso) Private collection, Melbourne LITERATURE: Johannes, C., & Brown, A., W. C. Piguenit, Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery, Tasmania, 1992, p. 80 (related work, illus.)
PIGUENIT, William C (1836-1914) 'Morning Mist on the Conway, North Wales,' 1909. Signed lower left. Old label verso for Angus & Robertson, Castlereagh St, Sydney. Provenance: Estate Late John F Cuningham.
W. C. PIGUENIT 1836-1914 (View of Adamson''s Peak from Esperance, South Tasmania) oil on canvas signed ''W C PIGUENIT'' lower right 50.8 x 91.8 cm PROVENANCE Private Collection, New South Wales Private Collection, Sydney, by descent from the above
William Charles Piguenit (1836 - 1914) On the Nepean, 1881 (Study) oil on canvas board (aka. Hawkesbury River with Figures in Boat) 23.5 x 14.5cm unsigned, original displayed in Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery
William Charles Piguenit (1836-1914) Long Nose and Balls Head from the Atlas, 1894 oil on canvas, signed and inscribed verso 'Long Nose and Balls Head, from the Atlas, W.C. Piguenit'
W.C. PIGUENIT 1836-1914 Long Nose and Balls Head from the Atlas (1894) oil on canvas signed and inscribed 'Long Nose and Balls Head / from the Atlas / W.C. Piguenit' verso 30.5 x 51 cm PROVENANCE Dr John Raven, Sydney The Dr John L. Raven Collection, Christie's, Sydney, 13 September 1984, lot 112 Private Collection, Brisbane Savill Galleries, Sydney Mr Tom Schrecker, Sydney, acquired from the above on 21 September 2000 THE TOM SCHRECKER COLLECTION, SYDNEY
W. C. PIGUENIT (1836-1914) Lane Cove River from Cliffs near Bridge, New South Wales c.1890-1901 oil on canvas PROVENANCE: Private collection, Atlanta, United States Great Estates, Charlton Hall Auctions and Galleries, Columbia, Unites States, 12 September 2009, lot 105 Private collection, United States Traditional Paintings, Furniture and Decorative Arts, Shapiro Auctioneers, Sydney, Sydney, 7 December 2009, lot 3 Private collection, Victoria signed lower right: W. C. PIGUENIT label attached verso: HENRY W. CALLAN & SON/ Print Sellers and Dealers in the Work of Art 89.5 x 65cm EXHIBITED: (Possibly) Henry W. Callan & Son [inaugural] exhibition of pictures by Australian and English Artists, Sydney, April-May 1890 LITERATURE: (Possibly) 'Callan's Art Collection', Evening News, Sydney, 10 April 1890, p. 6. (Possibly) 'Messrs. Callan's Collection', The Sydney Morning Herald, Sydney, 10 April 1890, p. 3.
William Charles Piguenit (1836-1914) Our Camp on the Snowy River N.S.Wales watercolour, signed lower left 'W. C. Piguenit', titled centre 'Our Camp on the Snowy River N.S.Wales' 21.3 x 35cm
W. C. PIGUENIT 1836-1914 On the Conway, North Wales oil on card 16 x 21 cm PROVENANCE Private Collection, Sydney PROPERTY FROM A PRIVATE COLLECTION, SYDNEY
William Charles Piguenit (1836-1914) Mangroves, Parramatta River at Ermington 1908 Watercolour Titled lower centre Signed & dated lower left 12 x 19.5 cm
