John PERCEVAL

(Boy with a kite, Fitzroy)
1943

Medium

oil on composition board

Credit Line: National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne
The Joseph Brown Collection. Presented through the NGV Foundation by Dr Joseph Brown AO OBE, Honorary Life Benefactor, 2004
© Courtesy of the artist's estate
Reproduction requests

Gallery location: Gallery 20
Level 3, NGV Australia

About this work

When self-taught artist John Perceval began painting at an early age, he was living in the middle of an experimental period in Australian art. His art was most radical in the early 1940s, when he worked alongside artists, such as Joy Hester, Sidney Nolan, Arthur Boyd and Albert Tucker. This group formed the artist movement known as the Angry Penguins, who redefined art throughout the decade. Boy with a kite, Fitzroy typifies this period for Perceval. The red, feral boy, his animal nature exuding through his monkey feet and hands, grimaces from a childlike mask. The boy rises with his kite, imaginatively levitating over Fitzroy backyards and roofs.

Artwork Details

Medium

oil on composition board

Measurements

63.6 × 71.0 cm

Place/s of Execution

Melbourne, Victoria

Inscription

inscribed in black paint Perceval / Nov / 43

Accession Number

2004.204

Department

Australian Painting

Credit Line

National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne
The Joseph Brown Collection. Presented through the NGV Foundation by Dr Joseph Brown AO OBE, Honorary Life Benefactor, 2004
© Courtesy of the artist's estate
This digital record has been made available on NGV Collection Online through the generous support of The Vizard Foundation

Reproduction requests

Gallery location

Gallery 20
Level 3, NGV Australia

Subjects (general)

Cityscapes Human Figures

Subjects (specific)

buildings (structures) children (people by age group) clothesline Melbourne (inhabited place) power lines roads telephone poles Victoria (state)

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John PERCEVAL (Boy with a kite, Fitzroy) 1943

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John PERCEVAL

(Boy with a kite, Fitzroy)
1943