Studio - 13 Eccleston Street

"When I visited his studio at 13 Eccleston Street, Victoria ... the long painting room was full of objects miscellaneous yet carefully chosen: a sofa designed by his friend Francis Bacon, a French eighteenth-century chair ... All these objects were over-shadowed by the canvases of de Maistre which face the visitor from wall, floor and easel ... strong, lucid statements. It is possible for an inferior artist to be lucid and strong if he selects suitably simple objects, but it takes talent to make lucid, strong statements about complicated matters ...".
John Rothenstein, 1956

De Maistre's paintings of his Eccleston Street studio in London which he used from 1937 until his death, are regarded as being amongst his finest works. 'Studio - 13 Eccleston Street' was based on the colour charts and music works that de Maistre made during the 1930s, demonstrating his continuing interest in later years in the experiments first begun with Roland Wakelin in Sydney in 1918.

Friends in London included fellow artist Francis Bacon who was deeply indebted to de Maistre as a painter, Director of the Tate Gallery John Rothenstein and Australian writer Patrick White, who for ten years rented the flat upstairs.

Australian Art Department, AGNSW, 2001