Brett Whiteley, “Henri's Armchair”, 1974-75, oil, ink and charcoal on canvas, 195.0 x 302.0 cm, signed, dated and inscribed verso: "HENRI'S ARMCHAIR"/ (Sept-Oct-Nov-Dec) 1974/ OIL ON CANVAS/ brett whiteley/ TO Clive Evatt/ 12/March/75
On the 9th November I predicted that Brett Whiteley’s “Henri’s Armchair” was likely to be THE auction of the year; turns out the pundits and myself were correct.
After just under 5 minutes the exceptionally well provenanced and very fresh to the market work, the artist’s homage to Matisse, met the lower estimate set by Menzies and sold for AU$5m on the hammer. With buyer’s premium the total sale price was AU$6.136m, a new auction record for both the Australian art market and Brett Whiteley.
Henri's Armchair was painted in 1974 to 1975 and shows the domestic interior of Whiteley's studio-home with its views to Sydney Harbour, a vista which has become the most recognizable iconography of his oeuvre.
“…The scene outside his window was impossible to resist. ‘Optical ecstasy’ were the words he used to describe the rush of ultramarine blue, the light, the water, the birds and the boats darting past. So he painted the harbour, but he also painted the interior as well, assembling studio items alongside various glimpses of domestic life. One of the first instances of this occurring can be seen in his 1974–75 painting, Henri’s Armchair, where Whiteley captures a moment of stillness and calm inside the family home at 1 Walker Street.
The painting pulls together the various elements of Whiteley’s world: interior and harbour views, a nude sketch, an erotic drawing, a sculpture of a palm, cornflowers in a vase, wooden floorboards, a rug. In the foreground a hand is drawing the outlines of what looks like a woman’s body – perhaps his wife, Wendy, whose legs extend from the couch in the corner, reinforcing the sexual energy that shimmers below the surface of this scene. On the table Whiteley has placed a box of matches and a notebook open to two pages: a drawing of a chair and two written words, ‘Henri’s Armchair’. Ultimately the eye is drawn to the back of the room, beckoned by the languorous elegance of Sydney Harbour, its individual elements reduced to those brisk white lines that Whiteley connoisseurs would come to know so well.” (Extract from catalogue essay, Ashleigh Wilson)