Donald Friend
(Australia 06 Feb 1915–16 Aug 1989)
Sofala
- Other titles:
- Sofala Street
- Location
- Not on display
- Further information
"Its single street, deep in the Turon valley is lined with a forest of verandah posts: the whitewash on shanties and abandoned stores cannot disguise their age-hitching posts, spring carts and bearded old-timers drowsing in the shade create the atmosphere of a different world ...".
George Farwell, 1947Jaded by a frenzied city existence, Donald Friend and fellow artist Russell Drysdale made a trip from Sydney to the Bathurst area in August 1947, prompted by an article in the Sydney Morning Herald about the former gold-rush towns of the area. Stopping in Sofala, described in Friend's diary entry as 'a lovely crazy old village - perfect', the two artists made sketches of the main street from the same viewpoint.
Their respective paintings are a fascinating contrast of temperaments: Friend's quaint and light-hearted in mood, Drysdale's classical and brooding.Friend was one of a remarkable group of figurative artists, dominated by Drysdale and Dobell and including Sali Herman and Jean Bellette, which flourished in spite of a tendency amongst a number of Sydney painters of the period, towards abstraction.
Australian Art Department, AGNSW, 2001
- Year
- 1947
- Media
- Painting
- Medium
- oil, pen and ink on canvas
- Dimensions
- 51.5 x 61.2cm stretcher; 76.5 x 86.8 x 8.0cm frame
- Signature & date
- Signed and dated u.r. corner, black oil "DONALD. 47".
- Credit
- Gift of Margaret Olley 1995
- Accession number
- 140.1995
- Copyright
- © Reproduced with permission of the Estate of Donald Friend
