The Last Flush

Details

Artist

Clarice Beckett

Title

The Last Flush

Year

c.1927 - 31

Medium

oil on canvas

Size

20 x 25 cm

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Provenance

Hilda Mangan (the artist's sister)

by descent

Exhibited

Clarice Beckett Retrospective, Realities Gallery, Melbourne, 1979

Clarice Beckett: Black Rock and Environs, Black Rock House, Melbourne, 1982

In a Certain Light: Clarice Beckett and Olive Cotton, Ivan Dougherty Gallery, University of NSW, Sydney, 1995, cat. no. 35

Clarice Beckett 1887 - 1935, Niagara Galleries, 29 Feb - 1 April 2000, cat. no. 19

Clarice Beckett, Martin Browne Fine Art, 26 June - 21 July 2002, cat. no. 20

From Van Diemen's Land to the MCG, Images of Hobart Town to Melbourne Now, Lauraine Diggins Fine Art, 29 June - 10 August 2013

Further Information

Beckett was renowned for her innovative compositions, her remarkable poetic lyricism and the dramatic intensity she was able to create. This work shows the essence of the atmospheric moment as well as creating an illusion of the actual temperature and a sense of atmospheric space all characteristic traits of the artist.

Sunsets were a feature of Beckett's 1928 exhibition but she continued them as subject matter often including a favourite motif of the telegraph pole as seen in The Last Flush. But now employed as a dramatic form to perpendicular to emphasise the diagonal movement of the streak of sunset. Every composition was chosen with great care for the size of the board or canvas, and she knew her territory as well as Cezanne.

Beckett was greatly admired for achieving all those requirements of painting to achieve a sense of living breathing elusive reality. Incredible skill with handling the paint and keeping a freedom of the impression is evident in this image.

This work was painted from Beckett's favourite haunts on the cliff tops along the foreshore looking out to Port Phillip Bay. It shows her classic poetic lyricism and a contemporary daring with her sparing use of paint and her paring back of form.

Rosalind Hollinrake