Background
William Dobell was born in Newcastle, New South Wales, on September 24, 1899.
William Dobell was born in Newcastle, New South Wales, on September 24, 1899.
He moved to Sydney in 1925 to study at the Julian Ashton Art School. In 1929 he went to London on a traveling scholarship to study at the Slade School, where he won prizes for draftsmanship and painting.
He exhibited at the Royal Academy and before the New English Group. Dobell returned to Sydney in 1939. He maintained a subjective approach to painting, and his work was very different from that of current Australian styles. After Dobell won the Archibald Prize the award was immediately challenged on the grounds that Dobell's entry showed a degree of distortion which made it a caricature rather than a true portrait, but the court upheld the judging panel's decision. Resultant newspaper publicity greatly expanded interest in Dobell's work, but as a result of the controversy Dobell withdrew to Wangi, a small coastal town north of Sydney, and became a shy and enigmatic figure. Dobell was also a notable landscapist. He painted local scenes, views of Southeast Asia, and a series of cameos capturing the strangeness of New Guinea. He belonged to no school but acknowledged inspiration from Rembrandt, William Hogarth, Pierre Auguste Renoir, and Chaim Soutine.
Dobell died in Wangi on May 14, 1970.
Quotations:
"A sincere artist is not one who makes a faithful attempt to put on to canvas what is in front of him, but one who tries to create something which is, in itself, a living thing. "
"Honing a thing down until you can still get through with economy, that's power. "
"I am always worried whether I am doing my best work. "
"I paint as I want to with no holds barred. I am more contented lately than I have been for a long time about my work. But not dangerously so. "
"My sitters get tired waiting for commissioned portraits. If they commission me they have to wait years sometimes because I discard so many. "
Gentle by nature, Dobell was also shrewd, warm, and strong in feeling, and these characteristics shone through his work. He was intensely interested in his fellowman. He achieved some of his effects by deft underscoring of aspects that typified the subject's character, and others by sharp delineation of exciting and unusual features of the subject.
He was also gay and consequently never married, while several of his works carried strong homoerotic overtones.
He was never married.
Sir