The Spearing of Gilbert II 1957-58

DAVID BOYD (1924-2011)

The Spearing of Gilbert II 1957-58

oil on board
92.0 x 122.0 cm
signed lower right: David Boyd

Provenance:
Acquired from the artist, private collection, Adelaide, 1959
Thence by descent, private collection, Melbourne
Menzies, Melbourne 24 September 2015, lot 28
Private collection, Sydney

Exhibited:
David Boyd: A Retrospective Exhibition, Commonwealth Institute Art Gallery, London, 18 April - 11 May 1969; Commonwealth Institute Art Gallery Scotland, Edinburgh, 22 May - 7 June 1969; City Art Gallery, Sheffield, 19 July - 17 August 1969, cat.4 (illus. exhibition catalogue)
David Boyd Retrospective 1957-1982, Wagner Art Gallery, Sydney, 7 January - 31 March 1983

Reference:
Benko, N., The Art of David Boyd, Lidums, Adelaide, 1973, pp.18-28 (illus. p.25)

David Boyd’s important and poignant painting The Spearing of Gilbert II 1957-58 is available for private sale with Menzies.

David Boyd was a member of what is arguably Australia’s most illustrious artistic dynasty. One of five children (including his famous elder brother, Arthur Boyd), David credited the creative freedom encouraged by his parents growing up in Murrumbeena, Victoria, as pivotal to his later development as an artist. Boyd recalls his father Merric Boyd (a potter) instilling the belief that ‘it's the divine right of everybody to be creative in every way possible. I assumed at the time that it would be the same with everybody, every household, that they all made pots and they all drew on the walls and painted and modelled clay and so on …’(1)

While this unconventional upbringing may have solicited raised eyebrows from the neighbours, it undoubtedly fostered a spirit of creative fearlessness in David, as he went on to vigorously apply his talents across different media – most notably pottery and painting. In 1951 Boyd moved to London with his wife Hermia, where they pursued collaborative work in ceramics. Here the pair developed a reputation for quality and innovation in their work, and were hailed by the press as a ‘golden couple.’(2) Despite this success, Boyd had returned to Melbourne by 1957 and begun working in oils, focusing on creating narrative history paintings specific to his home country.

Boyd’s first major group of paintings were based on Australian explorers. The present work is part of this series and depicts the death of John Gilbert, a naturalist in Ludwig Leichhardt’s expedition of 1844-46. According to legend, Gilbert was killed by a spear when Aboriginal locals attacked the expedition party on the Cape York Peninsula in 1845. There remains some controversy over the veracity of this tale.

While based on a supposed historical event, this strangely haunting painting appears more symbolic than literal. In the foreground, the male figure of Gilbert sinks into a body of water, a spear protruding from his torso. His arms are outstretched towards the Aboriginal man at water’s edge, who looks on with an expression of empathy. While essentially portraying violence – or its immediate aftermath – the image is devoid of brutality. Instead, the strong light of the moon illuminates the ghostly figure of Gilbert, and suffuses the entire scene with an almost spiritual aura.

In his Explorers series, Boyd often depicted dramatic moments between European settlers and Aboriginal people as recounted from early expeditions. The present work shares many similarities with another powerful painting Boyd created during the same period, King Found 1958. Here John King, the only surviving member of the Burke and Wills expedition of 1860, is painted from a similar perspective and with the same flowing white hair and beard as Gilbert.

It is worth noting that in late 1950s Australia when The Spearing of Gilbert II was created, the representation of Aboriginal people in a manner beyond the pejorative trope of the ‘noble savage,’ was still a relatively novel occurrence. The precedent was set by Yosl Bergner, who in the 1940s depicted the degradation and dispossession suffered by Australia’s First Peoples for the first time in contemporary art.(3) A small number of other artists including both David and brother Arthur Boyd followed suit in the 1950s to create works that, even in the highly mythologised manner seen in the present painting, ultimately reflect the shared humanity of all involved.

With its elegiac quality and sense of gravitas, The Spearing of Gilbert II presents a unique contribution to this important period in twentieth-century Australian art; a time when artists began to question ongoing racial injustices bound up in our nation’s history.

FOOTNOTES

(1) David Boyd, quoted in Dynasties: Boyd (Episode 3), Australian Broadcasting Corporation, 23 November 2003
(2) Niall, B., ‘Figurative Artist Stepped Out from His Brother’s Shadow,’ The Sydney Morning Herald, Sydney, 19 January 19 2012
(3) Morgan, K., ‘Boyd’s Brides: A Modern Allegory,’ Arthur Boyd: Brides, Heide Museum of Modern Art, Victoria, 2014, p.14

Marguerite Brown
Marguerite Brown is an independent arts writer based in Melbourne.  She has a particular interest in Australian printmaking and works on paper, and is a member of the Management Committee for the Print Council of Australia. 

• 

  Cameron Menzies, Chairman & Head of Private Sales

  [email protected]
  +61 (0) 466 636 142 

• 

  Catherine Baxendale, Senior Art Specialist

  [email protected]
  +61 (0) 2 8344 5404
  +61 (0) 423 067 180