Model Tudor Village, Fitzroy Gardens 1986



Synthetic polymer paint on canvas, 162.5 x 162
signed and dated [on reverse]
Coll.: unknown (last auctioned Sept.2019)

First exhibited, with its brightly coloured twin, Tudor Village (1986), in the ‘5AR: artists and architects’ show at the George Paton Gallery in June 1986, and subsequently purchased for the Derwent Collection of Australian art. As Victoria Hammond noted in 1995, at the time of the public exhibition of this collection, assembled by a group of Tasmanian ‘shareholders’, (Hammond 1995: 13), most of the 65 works were to be sold in the near future. Indeed, Arkley’s painting was apparently acquired for a Tasmanian private collection in 1995, and was later recorded at auction in Sydney in August 2000, and again in June 2010. Many thanks to Emma Bett, Exhibitions Manager, Bett Gallery, Hobart, for assistance with details relating to this work (correspondence April 2009).

The theme, repeated in a number of other Arkley works over subsequent years, is discussed in some detail in Carnival 26-28, where several of the artist’s source images are reproduced. The direct point of reference was the miniature Tudor Village, a gift from England, installed in Melbourne’s Fitzroy Gardens in 1948. Derided over the years as kitsch, the site was later restored at significant expense by the Melbourne City Council (for a detailed report, see Carmelo Ferraro, “It Takes a Village,” The Age, 21 May 2008).

Provenance

  • Purchased from Tolarno for the Derwent Collection, Hobart, Aug.1986 (advice of Maudie Palmer: see Hammond 1995: 50)
  • Private collection, Tasmania, 1995 (acc.to Menzies June 2010)
  • Auctioned by Christie’s, Sydney, 13 Aug. 2000, lot 58 (ill.; details as above; est.$70-90,000; not sold)
  • Auctioned by Menzies, Sydney, 24 June 2010, lot 46 (details as listed above; est.$80-120,000)
  • Auctioned by Menzies, Sydney, 26 Sept.2019, lot 32 (details as above; est.$80-120,000; sold for $92,045 inc.buyer’s premium; catalogue essay by John Gregory)

Exhibited

  • George Paton Gallery, Melb. Uni., June 1986 (‘5AR’), as Tudor Village in Black & White
  • Plimsoll Gallery, Hobart (‘The Total Look: Locating Furniture’), 8/91
  • Tasmanian Museum & Art Gallery, Hobart (‘The Derwent Collection’), 30 June-May 1995, cat.5
  • Dick Bett at ACAF7, Melbourne, Oct.2000 (acc.to Menzies June 2010)

Literature

  • Austin 1986 (‘5AR’ catalogue = Transition June 1986), ill.on p.6: as Tudor Village in Black and White
  • Hammond 1995 (Derwent Coll. exh. cat.), p.50
  • Spray 79-81 (inc.ill., p.79: size given incorrectly as 185 x 169)