Description:

EMANUEL PHILLIPS FOX (1865-1915)
Nu En Plein Air c.1911

oil on canvas
signed lower right: E. Phillips Fox
artist's name and title on gallery labels verso
63 x 79cm

PROVENANCE:
Whiteford and Hughes, London, cat. no. 26 (as "Reverie") (label verso)
Private collection, Melbourne
Christie's, Melbourne, 27 April 1998, lot 33
Private collection, Sydney
Christopher Day Gallery, Sydney 2006 (label verso)
Private collection, Western Australia

EXHIBITIONS:
(possibly) Salon d'Automne 1912, cat. no. 589
or
(possibly) Societe Internationale de Peinture et de Sculpture, 6 - 31 December 1912, cat. no. 47 (as "Vue en plein air")

LITERATURE:
Zubans, R., E. Phillips Fox, His Life and Art, The Miegunyah Press, Melbourne University Press, Melbourne, 1995, pp. 156 (illus.), 227, cat. no. 383

"An important category of work which became part of Fox's repertoire after his return to Paris was the painting of the nude. The monumentality and unselfconsciousness with which he approached this theme could not have developed outside the French context. These works emerge rather later in Fox's career and are first mentioned in a letter to Norman Carter in September 1909: 'I have be doing some small nudes lately..." Writing to Heysen in September 1911, he elaborates:

'Since we have been in Paris, painting nudes out of doors, in our garden - we have fixed things up so that no one can see, & we are not disturbed - very interesting work, but mighty difficult - I try to complete a 25 canvas at one go - for better or worse - I find I get better results - coming back when one is not in the same attitude generally busts up the show'" (p.155)

OTHER NOTES:
RELATED WORKS:
Emanuel Phillips Fox, Nude in Sunlight c.1911, oil on canvas on masonite backing, 61 x 74cm, Private collection, Zubans, R., E. Phillips Fox, His Life and Art, The Miegunyah Press, Melbourne University Press, Melbourne, 1995, pp. 156 (illus.), 227, cat. no. 388

Emanuel Phillips Fox, (The Nude, Study) c.1911, oil on canvas, 63.5 x 79.5cm, Private collection, Melbourne, Zubans, R., E. Phillips Fox, His Life and Art, The Miegunyah Press, Melbourne University Press, Melbourne, 1995, pp. 167 (illus.), 227, cat. no. 385

Emanuel Phillips Fox, Nude (also known as "After the Bath"), oil on canvas, 65 x 81.2cm, The Collection of Kerry Stokes, Perth, Goddard, A., Art, Love and Life: Ethel Carrick Fox and E Phillips Fox, Queensland Art Gallery, Brisbane, 2011, pp. 106-7 (illus.), 157

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