drysdalethemesexhibitionforumbeyond the end
developmentpaintingsphotographstouring
space
space
space
Click on the image to magnify		space Halfcaste woman
space
1960 Potts Point, Sydney
oil on canvas
92.2 x 71.6 cm
inscribed in black paint l.r.: Russell Drysdale 60
Private collection

Halfcaste woman provides an interesting companion to Malay boy, Broome. Predominantly painted with strong single colours, both paintings depict half-length figures who engage directly with the viewer. The simple composition and choice of a semi-profile format in Halfcaste woman, resembles fifteenth-century Florentine portraits, and in particular Alesso Baldovinetti's Portrait of a lady in yellow, in the National Gallery, London, with which Drysdale would have been familiar.1

The theme of the 'half-caste' had been explored by Arthur Boyd in the mid 1950s and early 1960s. Boyd's allegories, which combined dreams with his personal imagery, alluded to thwarted love as a result of cultural and social immobility. Drysdale's rendition of the subject is much more direct, while retaining an element of discomfort. His choice of subject was also extremely personal. As someone born in Great Britain who had adopted Australia as a homeland, Drysdale recognised the feelings of belonging in neither place: '... I know that I can never look at Europe like a European and as a painter never really be other than a halfcaste...'2

1 Alesso Baldovinetti, Portrait of a lady in yellow (about 1465), tempera and oil on wood, 62.9 x 40.6 cm, National Gallery, London.
2 Letter from Drysdale to Paul Haefliger, about 10 December 1957, quoted in Klepac 1983, p. 152.

to the top

An Australian Broadcasting Corporation and National Gallery of Victoria Collaboration
© 1999 ABC and NGV