Portrait of W.S. Robinson 1952

WILLIAM DOBELL (1899-1970)

Portrait of W.S. Robinson 1952

oil on board
82.5 x 74.5 cm; 99.0 x 91.5 cm (framed)
signed lower right: DOBELL

Provenance:
Commissioned by BHP for its London bureau, 1952
Clune Family Collection, Sydney
Christie's, Sydney, 24 September 1969, lot 64
Private collection
Christie's, Melbourne, 11 March 1971, lot 212
Artarmon Galleries, Sydney, 1973
Hirst Family Collection, Brisbane
Philip Bacon Galleries, Brisbane, 2022
Private collection, Brisbane

Exhibited:
Australian Painting: XIX and XX Century, Auckland City Art Gallery, Auckland; touring to Wellington, Christchurch, Dunedin, Napier, Wanganui, Timaru, Gisborne, Nelson and Palmerston North, 1964, cat.54
On loan to the Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney, 1968 (label attached verso)
The Hirst Collection of Australian and International Art, Philip Bacon Galleries, Brisbane, 5-30 April 2022, cat.8 (illus. exhibition catalogue, p.15)

Reference:
Australian Painting: XIX and XX Century, Commonwealth Art Advisory Board, Canberra, 1964, n.p., cat.54 (illus.)
Adams, B., Portrait of an Artist: A Biography of William Dobell, Hutchinson Group, Melbourne, 1983, p.253

Related Works:
Study for Portrait of W. S. Robinson 1952, oil on board, 31.0 x 38.0 cm, National Portrait Gallery collection, CanberraPortrait of W. S. Robinson, watercolour and gouache on paper, 20.0 x 16.0 cm, formerly in the Rio Tinto Collection, Melbourne

Estimate: $60000 - 80000

Result Hammer: $55000

William Dobell’s portrait of the mining titan W.S. Robinson was commissioned by BHP.(1) Australia’s then biggest company wanted two distinguished paintings of Robinson — one for corporate headquarters in Melbourne, the other to hang in its London bureau — in addition to drawings and oil studies Dobell made as preparation. The artist began work in 1952 straight after returning from his second sojourn in New Guinea. The project would absorb his attention for months.

Success was now enabling Dobell to pick-and-choose, undertaking portraits only of people who interested him. The artist flew to Victoria several times for sittings with the 76-year-old Robinson who had recently retired to Portsea. The purpose of these repeat sessions was not about capturing an accurate likeness.  He did that with the first drawing.  Known for psychologically revealing portraiture, Dobell wanted to convey the sitter’s character, to show what Robinson was like in human terms: ‘I like to get their real personality,’ he later explained, ‘and I think you only get that by knowing the person.’(2)

Putting Robinson in a leather armchair, hands loosely clasped in his lap, Dobell worked at getting this reticent sitter to relax and open up. They chatted with slowly building warmth as the artist patiently drew out an ‘inner’ man known and respected from Kalgoorlie to Queenstown. All the while Dobell studied silver haired Robinson’s long and tanned face, recording the set of his brow, his slight laughter lines, a telling glint in his eyes.

William Sydney Robinson (1876-1963) had been a leader of the ‘Collins House group’ which steered Australia’s mining industry in the early twentieth century.(3) With members and subordinates on the boards of every significant mining company, their decisions influenced both the national and world economy. The group was respected between the wars for rescuing struggling local firms.  Besides directing mining companies, Robinson was a wartime advisor to the Prime Minister, later sat on a metals sub-committee of the British Board of Trade, and in the 1930s introduced employee welfare schemes at Broken Hill. 

Dobell’s completed portrait was both an important work of art and an enduring record of this influential figure in Australian history. Where a conventional portraitist would have crafted a suave picture showing a po-faced businessman, the artist had revealed an individual of restless energy. With his rich oil paint, Dobell captured the lively eyes and reserved smile in a mature face which gently glowed when recounting experiences from a remarkable life.  Those who knew Robinson agreed the portrait so evoked the person—this was their ‘Bill’ pausing between tales of his enthusiasms, of mines up country, of men who toiled within the harsh earth.

The near identical finished portraits were hung in BHP’s offices,(4) while the drawings and painted studies were distributed among mining concerns Robinson once led. All appear valued by the companies as much as for depicting this revered founder, a titan in mining history, as being painted by the great William Dobell. This is probably why only two have entered the market in the decades since: a study, now in the National Portrait Gallery’s collection, and this considerable portrait, formerly BHP’s London picture.

Footnotes

1. Adams, B., Portrait of an Artist: A Biography of William Dobell, Hutchinson Group, Melbourne, 1983, p.253
2. Gleeson, J., William Dobell, Thames & Hudson, London, 1964, p.110
3. Besides Robinson, this influential circle comprised William and Clive Baillieu, F.C. Howard, Frank Govett and W. Massey Green.
4. The sole difference seems that Robinson’s hands sat loosely in his lap in one portrait, and rested upon mining report papers in the other finished version.

Dr Christopher Heathcote

Dr Christopher Heathcote is an art historian, critic and curator based in Melbourne.  He has authored several works on the history of Australian art, including Discovering Dobell (2011) and Drysdale: Defining the Modern Australian Landscape (2013).

• 

  Cameron Menzies, Chairman & Head of Private Sales

  cmenzies@menziesartbrands.com
  +61 (0) 466 636 142 

• 

  John Keats, Chief Executive Officer

  jkeats@menziesartbrands.com
  +61 (0) 3 9832 8700
  +61 (0) 403 159 785

• 

  Catherine Baxendale, Senior Art Specialist

  cbaxendale@menziesartbrands.com
  +61 (0) 2 8344 5404
  +61 (0) 423 067 180

• 

  Asta Cameron, Art Specialist

  acameron@menziesartbrands.com
  +61 (0) 3 9832 8700
  +61 (0) 400 914 088

• 

  Clementine Retallack, Art Specialist

  cretallack@menziesartbrands.com
  +61 (0) 2 8344 5404
  +61 (0) 478 493 026