Arthur Merric Bloomfield Boyd AC, OBE (1920-1999) Australian
"Shoalhaven River and Black Bird"
Signed, oil on board, 30cm by 21.5cm

Christie's: "Australian, International and Contemporary Paintings", Melbourne, 3rd - 4th May 2004, lot 1048
Provenance: Art Galleries Schubert, Queensland

Arthur Merric Bloomfield Boyd AC, OBE (1920-1999) was a leading Australian painter, printmaker, sculptor, designer, and ceramicist. Boyd comes from a distinguished artistic dynasty in Australia. Beginning in 1886 with the marriage of artists Arthur Merric Boyd (1862–1940) and Emma Minnie Boyd (née à Beckett), the Boyd family have contributed vastly to the landscape of Australian art, pioneering a lasting and illustrious legacy of experimental ceramics, painting, and sculpture.

Following Boyd’s training at the National Gallery School in Melbourne, Australia, and his service as a cartographer in the Australian Army during the Second World War, Boyd established himself as a prominent painter in Britain. Boyd returned to New South Wales, Australia in 1971, settling with his family on the banks of the Shoalhaven River at his home Bundanon which was gifted to Australia and now serves as a prominent art gallery and museum. The Shoalhaven River fascinated Boyd from thereon, becoming one of his most emotive, enduring, and allegorical subjects throughout his career.

“At daybreak the water’s edge would draw the line Arthur Boyd drew between two worlds”

Darleen Bungey in "Arthur Boyd: A Life"

In "Shoalhaven River and Black Bird", Boyd paints with a loose hand suggesting an intimate familiarity with the Shoalhaven River and its landscape. The sandstone escarpments are painted in a glistening monochrome ivory hue and finished with a dash of ochre. The river is still. Boyd’s scene is a pure and unspoiled landscape, devoid of urban life, be this roads, buildings, vehicles, or boats. It is unashamedly a celebration of the Shoalhaven River and its hold on Boyd’s life and career.