Monday morning

Monday morning

(1938) Melbourne

oil on canvas

38.4 x 46.4 cm

incised l.r.: R. Drysdale

The Metropolitan Museum of Art,

New York Dodge Fund, 1941 (41.181)

To stimulate his students' imagination, George Bell set compositions and 'homeworks' that were also intended to help them solve artistic problems and explore ways of treating and symbolising a variety of forms. These included such general topics as 'thirst', 'laziness', 'holiday', 'siesta' and 'Monday morning'.¹ Although these exercises were often executed on bits of paper or cardboard, Drysdale developed the theme of 'Monday morning' into a finished composition.

Like The rabbiter and his family , Monday morning shows the early influence on Drysdale of the School of Paris painters. His pronounced visual memory and talent for imitating the style of others prompted fellow students 'to wonder when the real Tas would appear.'²

In 1939, the Australian government established its first diplomatic post in Washington and Richard Casey was appointed Australia's first representative. The Caseys moved to Washington in 1940 where they were instrumental in organising the exhibition Art of Australia 1788-1941, a survey of Australian art which toured to twenty-nine American venues. In late 1941, Maie Casey wrote to Drysdale, advising him that the trustees of the Metropolitan Museum of Art had expressed interest in acquiring Monday morning. Although sorry to part with the painting, she felt it would be of far greater benefit for Drysdale to have a work hanging in the Metropolitan than in her home. It was the first work by Drysdale to enter a public collection.³

1 Eagle & Minchin 1981, p. 85.
2 ibid., p. 100.
3 Several works, including the following, were purchased from the exhibition by American institutions.
The Museum of Modern Art, New York bought Peter Purves Smith, Kangaroo hunt (1939), oil on canvas, 64.8 x 92.7 cm; William Constable, Design for an Aboriginal ballet, no. 1, watercolour, dimensions unknown, and Elaine Haxton, Early colonial architecture, watercolour, dimensions unknown. Margaret Preston's Aboriginal landscape 1941, oil on canvas, 40.0 x 52.0 cm, was bought by the Yale University Art Gallery, Newhaven; and The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York acquired Kenneth Macqueen, Cabbage gums and cypress pines, watercolour, dimensions unknown.