"Mont Epomeo" 1950
Watercolour & Ink on Paper
31x47cm
Signed, Titled, Dated '50 Lower Right
Prov: Private Collection Adelaide
$10,000-15,000
Jeffrey Smart’s first visit to Europe between 1948 and 1950 marked a turning point in his artistic development. Following his studies in Paris under Fernand Léger, Smart travelled to the Italian island of Ischia, where he worked alongside fellow Australian artists while producing a significant body of drawings and works on paper. Executed in watercolour, ink and gouache, these works reveal an artist experimenting with colour, structure and composition as he absorbed the influence of both European modernism and the Italian landscape. They represent the formative experiences from which his distinctive artistic vision would emerge.
Painted in 1950, Mont Epomeo depicts the extinct volcanic peak that dominates the island of Ischia. More than a topographical study, the work demonstrates Smart’s early concern with compositional order and spatial structure. The confident pen line establishes the underlying framework of the composition, while transparent washes of watercolour and carefully applied gouache articulate the changing planes of the volcanic landscape. Although markedly different in subject from the urban and industrial scenes for which Smart later became renowned, the artist’s instinct for balance, geometry and measured design is already clearly evident.
Executed immediately prior to Smart’s return to Australia, Mont Epomeo belongs to one of the most significant periods of his career. The artistic lessons gained during these formative European years would inform the compositional discipline and clarity that became the hallmarks of his mature work. Early European works on paper from this period remain comparatively uncommon, making the present example both an important record of Smart’s first encounter with Europe and a valuable insight into the development of one of Australia’s most distinguished modern painters.
