• Title
  [Street photographer, ca. 1941 / attributed to Roland Wakelin]
• Creator
  Roland Wakelin, 1887-1971
• Call number
  ML 1468
  
• Level of description
  fonds
• Date
  
  [ca. 1941]
• Type of material
  Graphic Materials, Paintings
• Reference code
  1000184
• Physical Description
  1 painting - oil on board - 63.5 x 75.8 cm
  
• Collection history
  Private Collection, Sydney; Christie’s Australia, Melbourne, 27 April 1998, Lot 94; The Estate of the Late Roland Wakelin, Sydney
• Scope and Content
  An unsigned and undated painting depicting the once common sight in Australian towns and cities of a street photographer in action kneeling in front of a trio of child subjects, surrounded by a cluster of spectators and passers-by.
  
  At the centre of this urban streetscape, [perhaps George Street or Martin Place in Sydney], businessmen hurry along the pavement set against a row of tall buildings, a little brown-haired girl wearing a sleeveless, white-collared blue dress and long socks, stands between two taller blonde boys [perhaps twins] in identical white short-sleeved shirts, blue ties and shorts. Closest to the trio of children, an immaculately clad woman [perhaps the mother] dressed for a day in town in a white dress, hat and gloves, leans forward to smooth the hair of one boy (far right), while a less smartly dressed woman [perhaps an older relative] raises her arm to wave the other boy (far left) closer into the picture. Meanwhile, two women [perhaps office girls on a break – they do not wear gloves] stop to observe the spectacle, one pointing toward the children and commenting to her companion, standing closest to the kerb with her back to the street, behind the kneeling street photographer.
  
  There is a preliminary sketch for a domestic interior/still life on the reverse.
• Access Conditions
  
  Access via appointment
• Copying Conditions
  In copyright:
  Please acknowledge:: Mitchell Library, State Library of New South Wales and Courtesy copyright holder
• General note
  
  In the 1941 Society of Artists Exhibition, Sydney, Wakelin exhibited an oil "Street Photography". He valued the painting at 57 gns.
• Signatures / Inscriptions
  
  Unsigned.
• Date note
  
  Undated.
• Subject
  Art, Australian--20th century.
  Street photography--New South Wales--Sydney.
  Street life--New South Wales
  
• Topic
  pedestrians
  photographers
  children
  men's clothing & accessories
  women's clothing & accessories
  businesspeople
  
• Open Rosetta viewer
  IE10386525

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