Preliminary sketch for portrait of Patrick White in rocking chair Feb/80 / by Brett Whiteley

ML 1189

fonds

February 1980

Graphic Materials, Drawings

153844

1 drawing - 58.3 x 35.3 cm, in perspex vitrine frame, 60 x 37 cm - charcoal and gouache collage (head and shoulders) pasted onto larger sheet on which the image is continued in felt-tipped pen

Copyright status:: In copyright - Life of Artist plus 70 years.
Approval for reproduction required:
Please acknowledge:: Mitchell Library, State Library of new South Wales and Courtesy copyright owner

The finished painting which derives from this preliminary drawing is now held in the New South Wales Parliament House collection
In his biography of White, David Marr describes the genesis of the portrait: While he worked at Flaws in the Glass, White was having his portrait painted by Brett Whiteley ... Whiteley's turned out to be the finest of the half dozen White allowed to be painted. He caught what is almost impossible for photographs and paintings to show: the ironic play which gives life to White's basilisk face. (Patrick White: A Life, London, 1991, p. 600)

Title inscribed in ink lower right; artist's monogram stamp 'BW' in circle above inscription