Charles Conder (English, 1868-1909), Spanish Night

Lot Details & Additional Photographs

Oil on canvas (lined), appears unsigned, retaining exhibition label to medial stretcher, presented in a later gilt frame.

Stretcher size 27 1/4 x 38 3/4 in.; Frame dimensions 37 x 48 in.

Mrs. Cecil Lawson
Mrs. E. Cohen
Sotheby's, British & Continental Pictures, including Greek Art, 17 May 2007, Lot 62
Acquired from the above

Exhibited:
Leeds, Leeds City Art Gallery, Catalogue of the Exhibition of Pictures by Charles Conder, October 2-15, 1933
Sheffield, Graves Art Gallery, Charles Conder 1868-1909, September 1 - October 1, 1967, No. 101a

Charles Conder was an English-born painter, lithographer, and designer who played an important role in the development of Australian Impressionism. After moving to Australia as a teenager, he worked and painted alongside Tom Roberts and Arthur Streeton and became a leading member of the Heidelberg School. In 1889, he participated in the landmark 9 by 5 Impression Exhibition in Melbourne, which helped establish a distinctly Australian approach to plein-air painting through its emphasis on atmosphere, light, and the local landscape.

Conder left Australia for Europe in 1890, studying in Paris at Fernand Cormon's atelier and becoming acquainted with artists and writers including Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec, Oscar Wilde, Aubrey Beardsley, and Louis Anquetin. He later divided his time between Paris, Dieppe, and London, moving within the artistic and literary circles of the fin de siècle. His later work became increasingly decorative and poetic, influenced by Aestheticism, Japanese art, and the fêtes galantes tradition.

Obscuring varnish visible under UV light; overcleaned; some loss to tacking edge.