Musgrave Street Wharf, Mosman by Norman Lloyd, 1938

Transcript

Musgrave Street Wharf, Mosman by Norman Lloyd, circa 1938, is made with oil paint on canvas, measuring 42.5cm high by 53cm wide. It is located on Wall 3: European Tradition and Regional Landscape.

This work is depicted at eye level but from a distance and across water which is located at the bottom of the canvas. From the left edge of the work to the right, a large hill takes up most of the canvas, starting from the upper left side and running across to the right before sloping to the bottom right-hand side of the art piece. Filling up the rest of the canvas around the hill is a light, pale blue sky.

The hillside portrays homes and buildings in different shapes and colours which are positioned all over. There are residential homes in colours of terracotta and cream with gable roofs (otherwise known as slanting roofs). There are also taller vertical buildings with flat roofs (which appear to be apartment buildings), also depicted in light cream colours with square windows. Between the homes and the buildings there are lots of lush, leafy green trees and green grass.

Towards the bottom of the hillside and built into the water is a sandy-brown-coloured wall. Slightly to the right of the centre, protruding from the middle of the wall, is a brown wharf which extends into the body of water.

The water is a dark green colour with various coloured brushstrokes running through it, ranging from cream to green to blue and red, making the water appear as though it is softly rippling.

The painting is depicted in an expressive style, with gestural brushstrokes and a thick application of paint. The artist has signed his name, ‘Norman Lloyd,’ in red paint in the bottom-left corner.

This work is framed in an elaborate gold-painted plaster frame. There are raised swirling lines all throughout.

Norman Lloyd, whose work was impressionistic style, was born in 1895 near Newcastle, NSW. Leaving school in 1911, Lloyd started to work and study painting with Julian Ashton and James R. Jackson in Sydney. 

In 1916, Lloyd enlisted with the Australian Imperial Forces and was sent to Europe where he was seriously wounded in battle. He returned a year later to Sydney where he re-commenced painting lessons at the Julian Ashton Art School.

From 1926 to 1929 Lloyd visited Europe and travelled widely in Italy and France, exhibiting in the UK, France and Australia.

In the 1930s, Lloyd emigrated permanently to London, UK with his wife Edith. And kept his  connection with Australia by becoming a Fellow of the Royal Art Society of New South Wales.   Lloyd moved to Chassignolles, France from 1954 to 1974 and eventually back to London where he passed away in 1983.

This artwork was purchased by USU in 1938.

The biographical information included in this description was sourced from the website of Day Gallery. Read more about Norman Lloyd here.