Lot 31: JOHN PETER RUSSELL , BAY OF NICE

Signed, inscribed with title and dated January 1891 lower centre; bears artist's name and title 'Nice - La Baie' on label on the reverse Oil on canvas on board

36 by 53 cm

Galerie G. Denis, Paris, cat. 9 (label on the reverse)
John Peter Russell, Wildenstein & Co., London, July - August 1965, cat. 17, collection of M. Louis Jouve (label on the reverse)
John Glover to Brett Whiteley , Joseph Brown Gallery, Melbourne, 7-18 April 1969, cat. 8
John Peter Russell: Australian Impressionist, Rijksmuseum Retrospective, Vincent van Gogh Museum, Amsterdam, 10 January - 12 February; University Art Museum, University of Queensland, Brisbane, 25 February - 19 March; National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne, 30 March - 6 May, Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney, 21 May- 26 June 1978, cat. 32

The artist's daughter, Mme Jeanne Jouve; to her husband's brother, Monsieur Louis JouveJoseph Brown Gallery, Melbourne, 1969
Private collection, Sydney; purchased from the above

John Peter Russell and his family spent the winter of 1890-91 in the South of France at the Villa des Pines, Cap d'Antibes. It was here that Russell completed some eleven oil paintings, which are among the closest in all his oeuvre to those of the great French impressionist, Claude Monet, whom he had met in 1886. Indeed Monet's paintings of the Cap d'Antibes area inspired Russell's visit, Monet's influence being seen 'in their similarity of subject-matter and pictorial viewpoints'. υ1 Like Monet before him, Russell painted several views across the Bay of Nice, and in other works closely observed the changing effects of light at different times of the day, as in Alpes Maritimes from Antibes, 1890 in the collection of the National Gallery of Australia, Canberra. A brilliant colourist, Russell differed from Monet in seeking more form in his paintings.

Writing to Tom Roberts, Russell described the area with its many nurseries of flowers, the olive trees and market gardens, 'the rest pine woods of glorious views East Bay off Nice with all the snow-clad Alpes Maritimes in view.' υ2 The absence of figures, as in the Queensland Art Gallery's Coraux des Alpes, adds to the singularity of these landscapes, although the presence of man is suggested by the two white boats here in Bay of Nice. They provide effective contrasts to the purity of the surrounding, sparkling colours Â? a sea of deep blues and emeralds, snow-capped purples in the distance and rocks of yellow Â? all bathed in the brilliance of the southern light of the Mediterranean sun.

1. Galbally, A., The Art of John Peter Russell, Sun Books, Melbourne, 1977, p. 72.
2. Tom Roberts Papers, Mitchell Library, State Library of New South Wales, Sydney, letter IX, quoted in Galbally, loc. cit.