Collection Online

10 Rillington Place
1964

Medium
oil and graphite on canvas on plywood, charcoal on paper, gelatin silver photographs, cord, cup, object, wood and glass

Measurements
150.0 × 137.2 cm

Credit Line
National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne
Samuel E. Wills Bequest, 1986
© Wendy Whiteley/Copyright Agency

Gallery location
Not on display

 

About this work

After several months spent in Italy in 1961, Brett Whiteley moved to London where he lived in an apartment close to where notorious murderer John Christie had strangled several women during the 1940s and early 1950s. Becoming preoccupied with these brutal murders, Whiteley produced a series of paintings depicting violated female bodies at close range, twisted and contorted near the point of abstraction. The nude female form became a recurrent motif for the artist and he returned to it repeatedly throughout his career, often in highly sexualised images of his wife Wendy.

Artwork Details

Place/s of Execution
London, England

Inscription
inscribed in brown ink on reverse: "10 RILLINGTON PLACE WII." / OIL TEMPERA (TEMPERA with a line through it) ON CANVAS, / PHOTOGRAPHS, CUP AND / OBJECT, MOUNTED BOARD / 59" x 54" / (150 x 137cms) / Brett Whitley 1964.

Accession Number
AC2-1986

Department
Australian Painting

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