E. Phillips Fox: Souvenir Catalogue

• EMANUEL PHILLIPS FOX , although a teacher of art in Melbourne for many years after his return from Paris in 1892, in his work possessed none of the pretentiousness or labour of the academies. His canvases include some of the finest in Australian painting. He possessed a French love of his craft; there is a delicate tactile sensuousness about his handling of pigment that makes his work as modern as when it wa s painted. His nudes are living creatures possessing the vibrancy of life in their flesh tints. It is his attitude to his art and his fine realization of colour sensations, rather than any superficial likeness in technique, that makes Fox the Australian Renoir. He exploited the technical resources of broken colour to the full and, although his colour harmonies are rich and varied, they are always admirably restrained. Fox was able to achieve that indefinable lyrical quality that makes the colour of a first-rate Impressionist painting sing even in its lowest registers. " The Art Students " in the Sydney Gallery, " R e s t , " " The Arbour," and " Reverie" are some of the most notable of his many fine compositions. Streeton will be remembered for his contribution to an Australian vision in Landscape, but in the realm of values Phillips Fox was, without doubt, one of the greatest of Australia's Impressionist painters, and the most gifted of her colourists. —Bernard Smith. Extract from "Place, Taste and Tradition" Ure Smith P'ty. Ltd., Sydney, 1945. ACKNOWLEDGMENTS The Trustees wish to express their thanks to all Galleries and private individuals who have kindly lent work for this exhibition; particularly t o Mrs. E. Phillips Fox for her help in locating works and permission to reproduce the frontispiece portrait; to t h e National Gallery o f Victoria for the use o f t he colour blocks and the portrait of Gyles Turner, and to t h e National Art Gallery o f New South Wales for the blocks o f " T h e Ar t Students," "Twi l i ght on t h e Se i ne" and Adelaide." of C A T A L O G U E T O T H E EXHIBITION (All sizes are sight sizes in inches. Dates in parenthesis are either known or approximated by owners) THE ARBOUR Signed in full (1911). Lower left Oil on canvas 75 H x 90 W Lent by The National Gallery of Victoria 2 THE LESSON Signed in full (1912). Lower left Oil on canvas 79 H x 52 W Lent by The National Gallery of Victoria 3 MY COUSIN Signed in full (1894). Lower right Oil on canvas 80 H x 351 W Lent by The National Gallery of Victoria 4 PORTRAIT OF HENRY GYLES TURNER Signed in full (1914). Lower right Oil on canvas 491 H x 371 W Lent by The National Gallery of Victoria 5 THE MUSL IN DRESS Signed in full (1912). Lower left Oil on canvas 58 H x 44 W Lent by The National Gallery of Victoria 6 PORTRAIT OF A YOUNG GIRL Signed in full (1904). Lower right Oil on canvas 56 H x 35 W Lent by The National Gallery of Victoria 4 5