ROY DE MAISTRE (1894-1968) Biography

Description / Expertise

After gaining a reputation as one of Australia's first modernist painters, Roy de Maistre, disillusioned at the lack of support for his work, left Australia in 1930, and settled in London. There he quickly gained recognition on the fringes of the English avant garde, being associated with Francis Bacon, Herbert Read and artists such as Henry Moore, Barbara Hepworth, Tristram Hillier, Paul Nash and Ben Nicholson who were connected with the Mayor Gallery (where de Maistre had a one-man exhibition in 1934), and others such as James Cant, Ivon Hitchens, Robert Medley and Ceri Richards, with whom he arranged an exhibition in 1937.

John Weyman (c. 1975) was a close friend of de Maistre (and Douglas Cooper, co-director of the Mayor Gallery) in the early 1930's and owned several of de Maistre's paintings. The National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne has a work: A Painted Picture of the Universe from Weyman's collection, inscribed “... from R. de M to J. W. 1934”. It would seem almost certain that both sides of this work date from the same period.

Weyman's portrait appears to be very closely modelled on a work by Picasso, Saltimbanque aux bras croises, 1923 (C. Zervos, Pablo Picasso, volume 5, 1923-1925, France, 1952, number 15, plate 9). Boatyard shows de Maistre's nascent interest in Cubism (which was to blossom into his mature style in the late 1930's ) and surrealism appears to be influenced by painters such as Edward Wadsworth and John Tunnard. This work is possibly On the Slips (catalogue number 16, Roy de Maistre, Mayor Gallery, October-November 1934) who thought that it showed de Maistre's “increasing command of colour”.

Heather Johnson, Sydney. August 1989