RAY CROOKE (1922 - 2015)
Original Oil on Canvas on Board Painting
Title: Farm Natives
Hand Signed: Lower left
Image Size: 75cm x 100cm
Frame Size: 96cm x 120cm (Older Style Frame with minor wear)
Art Condition: Very Good to Excellent for Age of Work
Framed and Ready to Hang.
Provenance:
Multiplex Limited, Perth
Sotheby's, Sydney, 22 April 2008, lot 102
Savill Galleries, Sydney, 2013 (label attached verso)
Company Collection, Victoria
You can also come view this work and many others in our Surry Hills Gallery in Sydney. Please message me to arrange a time to view in person.
This Ray Crooke purchase will come with a Certificate of Authenticity as a genuine Signed Ray Crooke Painting.
Serafin Martinez
Principal, Martinez Art Dealer
Surry Hills, Sydney, Australia
ABN 36 561 407 649
Biography:
Ray Crooke was born in Auburn, Victoria in 1922. He spent time in Townsville, Cape York and other parts of northern Australia joining the Australian Army during World War II.
After the war, he enrolled in Art School at Swinburne University of Technology and later travelled to New Guinea, Tahiti and Fiji.
His portrait of the novelist George Johnston won the Archibald Prize in 1969, and the University of Queensland owns three of Ray Crooke's portrait paintings: Portrait of Xavier Herbert, Portrait of Professor Emeritus Sir Zelman Cowen, and Portrait of Sadie Herbert.
However, he is not known usually for portrait painting. He is known for serene views of Islander people and ocean landscapes, many of which are based on the art of French Artist - Paul Gauguin.
His painting The Offering (1971) is in the Vatican Museum collection. Many of his works are in Australian Galleries.
"North of Capricorn" was an Australian touring retrospective exhibition in 1997 organised by the Perc Tucker Regional Gallery (Townsville), initiated and curated by Grafico Topico's writer and curator Sue Smith.
He was made a Member of the Order of Australia in the 1993 Australia Day Honours, "in recognition of service to the arts, particularly as a landscape artist".
Crooke died on 5 December 2015 at the age of 93.