Lloyd Rees
Encyclopedia
Lloyd Frederic Rees AC CMG (17 March 18952 December 1988) was an Australia
n landscape
painter
who twice won the Wynne Prize
for his landscape paintings.
Most of Rees's works are preoccupied with depicting the effects of light and emphasis is placed on the harmony between man and nature. Rees's oeuvre is dominated by sketches and paintings, in which the most frequent subject is the built environment in the landscape.
, Queensland
, the seventh of eight children of Owen Rees and his wife Angèle Burguez, who was half Mauritian, half Cornish
. After formal art training at Brisbane's Central Technical College, he commenced work as a commercial artist in 1917.
Rees was engaged to sculptor Daphne Mayo, but it was broken off in 1925. He married Dulcie Metcalf in 1926. In 1927 Dulcie died in childbirth and Rees married again, in 1931, to Marjory Pollard, mother to his son Alan. Rees's wife died on 14 April 1988 and he died on 2 December of the same year.
Following Rees's death, Alan Rees and his wife Jancis gave to the Art Gallery of NSW all of Rees's surviving sketchbooks.
The sketchbooks are now held by the Art Gallery of NSW, comprising approximately 700 images in pencil, carbon pencil, wash, watercolour and ballpoint pen. They reveal a capacity to characterise the texture and light of landscapes in these brief media - concerns that are equally evident in his paintings throughout his career.
Rees's own philosophical views he expressed in the Epilogue to their book:
in 1950 and 1982. He also won the Commonwealth Jubilee Art Prize in 1957 and the McCaughey Prize
in 1971.
Rees was appointed a Companion of the Order of St Michael and St George
(CMG) in 1978 and Australia's highest civilian honour, Companion of the Order of Australia
(AC) in 1985.
He was awarded the Medaille de la Ville de Paris in 1987 in honour of his artistic achievements.
For forty years, from 1946 to 1986, Rees taught art with Sydney University's Faculty of Architecture and in 1988 received the Sydney University Union Medal for his contributions to art and the University. In the same year he was named as one of the Australian Bicentennial Authority's
Two hundred people who made Australia great.
Australia
Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...
n landscape
Landscape
Landscape comprises the visible features of an area of land, including the physical elements of landforms such as mountains, hills, water bodies such as rivers, lakes, ponds and the sea, living elements of land cover including indigenous vegetation, human elements including different forms of...
painter
Painting
Painting is the practice of applying paint, pigment, color or other medium to a surface . The application of the medium is commonly applied to the base with a brush but other objects can be used. In art, the term painting describes both the act and the result of the action. However, painting is...
who twice won the Wynne Prize
Wynne Prize
The Wynne Prize is an Australian landscape painting or figure sculpture art prize. One of Australia's longest running art prizes, it was established in 1897 from the bequest of Richard Wynne...
for his landscape paintings.
Most of Rees's works are preoccupied with depicting the effects of light and emphasis is placed on the harmony between man and nature. Rees's oeuvre is dominated by sketches and paintings, in which the most frequent subject is the built environment in the landscape.
Life and training
Rees was born in BrisbaneBrisbane
Brisbane is the capital and most populous city in the Australian state of Queensland and the third most populous city in Australia. Brisbane's metropolitan area has a population of over 2 million, and the South East Queensland urban conurbation, centred around Brisbane, encompasses a population of...
, Queensland
Queensland
Queensland is a state of Australia, occupying the north-eastern section of the mainland continent. It is bordered by the Northern Territory, South Australia and New South Wales to the west, south-west and south respectively. To the east, Queensland is bordered by the Coral Sea and Pacific Ocean...
, the seventh of eight children of Owen Rees and his wife Angèle Burguez, who was half Mauritian, half Cornish
Cornish Australian
Cornish Australians are citizens of Australia whose ancestry originates in Cornwall, United Kingdom, one of the six Celtic Nations. They form part of the worldwide Cornish diaspora which also includes large numbers of people in the US, Canada, New Zealand, South Africa, Mexico and many Latin...
. After formal art training at Brisbane's Central Technical College, he commenced work as a commercial artist in 1917.
Rees was engaged to sculptor Daphne Mayo, but it was broken off in 1925. He married Dulcie Metcalf in 1926. In 1927 Dulcie died in childbirth and Rees married again, in 1931, to Marjory Pollard, mother to his son Alan. Rees's wife died on 14 April 1988 and he died on 2 December of the same year.
Following Rees's death, Alan Rees and his wife Jancis gave to the Art Gallery of NSW all of Rees's surviving sketchbooks.
Europe
Rees first travelled to Europe in the 1920s (to meet with his then fiancée Daphne Mayo) and made sketches, including many of Paris, which were left accidentally on a bus in London at that time. While some of his works - and indeed his betrothal to Mayo - were lost, his connection with the landscapes of town and country France and Italy was to last a lifetime. Rees visited Europe again in 1953, 1959, 1966–67 and 1973, painting and sketching on all of his journeys.The sketchbooks are now held by the Art Gallery of NSW, comprising approximately 700 images in pencil, carbon pencil, wash, watercolour and ballpoint pen. They reveal a capacity to characterise the texture and light of landscapes in these brief media - concerns that are equally evident in his paintings throughout his career.
Late works
Rees painted right up to his death, by which time he was in his nineties. His works of the last one to two decades in particular showed a preoccupation with the spiritual dimension of the relationship with and portrayal of the landscape, and this became the focus of the final book prepared in cooperation with the author Renée Free: Lloyd Rees: the last twenty years. His late works show an abstraction of form and a focus on the source and effects of light on the landscape, such as in his work The Sunlit Tower, painted when he was 91 years old, and winner of the Jack Manton Prize for 1987 (a prize awarded by the Queensland Art Gallery). He claimed that one of the benefits of his failing eyesight in his old age was that he could look directly at the sun.Rees's own philosophical views he expressed in the Epilogue to their book:
From quite an early age I was overwhelmed with the fact of endlessness... Planetary systems can blow up, but the universe is endless, and our little life is set in the midst of this, and everything in it has a beginning and an end... [This] gives to life a sense of mystery that is always with me.
Honours
Rees won the Wynne PrizeWynne Prize
The Wynne Prize is an Australian landscape painting or figure sculpture art prize. One of Australia's longest running art prizes, it was established in 1897 from the bequest of Richard Wynne...
in 1950 and 1982. He also won the Commonwealth Jubilee Art Prize in 1957 and the McCaughey Prize
McCaughey Prize
The McCaughey Prize is an Australian art prize awarded to an artist or artists, under which the National Gallery of Victoria and the Art Gallery of New South Wales acquire work by the winning artist....
in 1971.
Rees was appointed a Companion of the Order of St Michael and St George
Order of St Michael and St George
The Most Distinguished Order of Saint Michael and Saint George is an order of chivalry founded on 28 April 1818 by George, Prince Regent, later George IV of the United Kingdom, while he was acting as Prince Regent for his father, George III....
(CMG) in 1978 and Australia's highest civilian honour, Companion of the Order of Australia
Order of Australia
The Order of Australia is an order of chivalry established on 14 February 1975 by Elizabeth II, Queen of Australia, "for the purpose of according recognition to Australian citizens and other persons for achievement or for meritorious service"...
(AC) in 1985.
He was awarded the Medaille de la Ville de Paris in 1987 in honour of his artistic achievements.
For forty years, from 1946 to 1986, Rees taught art with Sydney University's Faculty of Architecture and in 1988 received the Sydney University Union Medal for his contributions to art and the University. In the same year he was named as one of the Australian Bicentennial Authority's
Australian Bicentenary
The bicentenary of Australia was celebrated in 1970 on the 200th anniversary of Captain James Cook landing and claiming the land, and again in 1988 to celebrate 200 years of permanent European settlement.-1970:...
Two hundred people who made Australia great.
Collections
- Art Gallery of New South Wales
- Art Gallery of Western Australia
- Darling Harbour Authority
- Parliament House, Canberra
- Australian National Gallery
- Newcastle Region Art Gallery
- Queensland Art Gallery
- Royal Australian College of Physicians
- Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery
- University of Sydney
- University of Western Australia
- West Australian Institute of Technology