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Emanuel Phillips Fox 1865 - 1915 SEA AT NARRABEEN, c1913-14 oil on canvas SIGNED signed lower right: E. Phillips Fox DIMENSIONS 36.5 x 46.0 cm PROVENANCE Leonard Joel, Melbourne, 14 July 1955(label attached verso) Private collection Sotheby's, Melbourne, 27 March 1988, lot 85 Private collection, United States of America EXHIBITED Catalogue of Pictures by the Late E. Phillips Fox,Upper Athenaeum Hall, Melbourne,29 February 1916, cat. 66 Exhibition of Oil Paintings by the Late E. Phillips Fox,Fine Art Society's Galleries, Melbourne,22 July - 2 August 1919, cat. 40 On extended loan to Newcastle Region ArtGallery, New South Wales (label attached verso) LITERATURE Zubans, R., E. Phillips Fox: His Life and Art,The Miegunyah Press, Melbourne,1995, p. 229, cat. 451 ESSAY Like his friend and contemporary Rupert Bunny, Emanuel Phillips Fox excelled in subjectpainting, portraits and landscapes, his most memorable works including A Love Story (ArtGallery of Ballarat, Victoria), Bathing Hour, c1909 (Castlemaine Art Gallery and HistoricalMuseum, Victoria), and The Ferry, c1910-11 (Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney).Visiting Australia in 1913 with his artist-wife Ethel Carrick, Fox received a number ofprestigious portrait commissions the most significant being that of the Prime MinisterAndrew Fisher for Canberra's Historic Memorials Collection, and of Henry Giles Turner,President of Trustees of the National Gallery of Victoria. Both Fox and Carrick heldexhibitions in Melbourne and Sydney, the Art Gallery of New South Wales purchasingMotherhood, 1908 from Fox's Sydney show at the Royal Art Society. A number of sparklinglandscapes and seascapes - Fairy Bower, Manly, Cremorne Point, and Rocks at Balmoralwith others - were painted in Sydney prior to the opening, for special inclusion in theexhibition. Such was their popularity that Fox painted more after the exhibition closed,and again in 1914. Fairy Bower, Manly was so favoured that he painted three differentversions. 'He had always found scenes of the sea and water seductive', Ruth Zubans notedin her classic study of Fox's work, 'and Manly, with its sun and glorious setting, becameon of his favourite sites.'1 The Green Wave, Manly, c1914 (National Gallery of Victoria,Melbourne) is another sunny triumph, so full of colour, atmosphere and vivacity that theviewer is seemingly transported to the scene and the sound of the great wave breaking. While the waves that break on the shore in Sea at Narrabeen, c1913-14 are different inthat they are seen as part of the wider, more panoramic view, the painting has all thesame, seductive appeal. Colours are deeper and more sumptuous, the breezy atmosphereenveloping. When EXHIBITED in Fox's posthumous show at the Upper Athenaeum Hall,Melbourne in February 1916, the art critic for The Argus noted that he sometimes handledhis landscapes 'by means of dexterous impressionism that fully realised the essentials ofthe scene he had chosen ...', as much in the joyous, sunny moments of Sydney Harbouras in the south of France. 'The sea', he continued, 'was also a favourite subject with Mr.Fox, and its placid moments appealed to him most. Many striking studies are hung ofsunlit waters and stretches of coast in Sydney, Hobart, and Melbourne, Sorrento havingsupplied motives for three.'2 For Fox, nature was the springboard of his inspiration, theenthusiasm of his response being as readily felt in scenes of Australia's different coastlinesas of the Mediterranean. 1. Zubans, R., E. Phillips Fox: His Life and Art, The Miegunyah Press, Melbourne, 1995, p. 165 2. 'Late Mr. Fox's Pictures', The Argus, Melbourne, 29 February 1916, p. 9 DAVID THOMAS