William Dobell Australia, 1899-1970
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About William Dobell
Sir William Dobell was born in Newcastle, NSW in 1899. After 10 years extensive study in Europe and London, he returned to Sydney, giving a new dimension to Australian painting. Because of the assimilation of a number of influences, he had a broad appeal to all schools and was claimed as the figurehead of the Sydney modernist wartime movement. He was appointed official war artist and some of his best 'portraits including The Billy Boy, The Strapper, Scotty Allan and The Cypriot were the result of this period. He further secured his position in Australian art history by winning the coveted Art Gallery of New South Wales Archibald Prize in 1943 with his portrait of colleague Joshua Smith. He took out both the Archibald and Wynne prizes in 1948 with the baroque style portrait of Margaret Olley and a landscape entitled Storm Approaching, Wangi. He won a third Archibald Prize in 1959 with a portrait of his surgeon Dr. Edward McMahon and was knighted in 1966.
William Dobell is one of the most prolific of the artists listed in our database, with the number of works offered for sale by auction since 1967 of 1,660, of which 1,275 (77%) were sold. The highest price recorded for the artist is $1,220,000 for The Dead Landlord (1936) sold by Sotheby's in August 2019. This year 24 works have been offered for sale. Works by William Dobell are held by the National Gallery of Australia, National Gallery of Victoria and a further seven major public national galleries (see list below).
William Dobell is listed in the following standard biographical references:
- McCulloch, Alan McCulloch, Susan McCulloch, Emily McCulloch-Childs. The New McCulloch's Encyclopedia of Australian Art. 4th Edition, Aus Art Melbourne & The Miegunyah Press, 2006. Page 381
- Campbell, Jean. Australian Watercolour Painters: 1780 to the Present Day. Craftsman House, Sydney, 1989. Page 304
- Dictionary of Australian Artists Online, an online resource for biographical data about Australian artists, designers, craftspeople and curators.
- The Find New Zealand Artists web site: a database of artist names that directs researchers to the rich resources found in New Zealand's libraries, art society exhibition histories and published sources.
- Australian Prints + Printmaking, a database listing printmaking artists from Australia, New Zealand and the Pacific region based on the print collection of the National Gallery of Australia.
Artists' Resale Royalty
Could the second and subsequent works by this artist sold after June 9, 2010 for over $1,000 be liable for the Artists' Resale Royalty? More info…
Yes, eligible, subject to the artist satisfying the residency test. The artist is alive or has been deceased for less than 70 years. Contact the Copyright Agency for information on the residency test.
The Australian Art Sales Digest is a database of over 610,000 works by more than 12,000 artists who are listed as having either lived or worked in Australia or New Zealand, and an additional 36,000 foreign and other artists, offered for sale by auction in Australia and New Zealand from the early 1970s to the present day.
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