Jeffrey Smart

(1921-2013)

Study for The Victor Emmanuel II Bridge, 1971

Footnotes

PROVENANCE
Christies, Australian Paintings & Prints, Sydney, 4 October 1977, lot 140
The Collection of Amina and Franco Belgiorno-Nettis AC CBE, Sydney

EXHIBITED
Jeffrey Smart, Macquarie Galleries, Sydney, 17-29 November 1971, cat. 20
Jeffrey Smart, South Yarra Gallery, Melbourne, 11-24 November 1972, cat. 24

LITERATURE
Peter Quartermaine, Jeffrey Smart, Gryphon Books, South Yarra, 1983, p. 112, No. 602
John McDonald, Jeffrey Smart Paintings of the '70's and '80's, Craftsman House, Roseville, 1990, p. 157, no. 57

Jeffrey Smart painted Study for the Victor Emmanuel II Bridge in 1971 in Rome when he returned there from Australia in January. It was to be a bitter-sweet year for him, filled with grief and fortuity in equal measure. Smart arrived in Rome to discover that his friend and patron, Mic Sandford, had just died and bequeathed to him a lifetime lease of a villa in Florence and enough money to complete the purchase of Smart's ramshackle farm house in Arezzo, Il Posticcia Nuova, where he would remain for the rest of his life.1 It was during this period that some of Smart's most widely known Italian landscape series were painted, such as The Red Arrow and Motordump – Pisa.

In the Victor Emanuel Bridge paintings Smart adopts an exaggerated perspective taken from the least touristic vantage point of one of Rome's most well-known bridges connecting the Vatican City to the historic town centre. Instead of capturing the elegant arch of the 19th century bridge with its allegorical sculptural groups carved from travertine marble, Smart gives prominence to the bland 20th century railing running along the street leading to the bridge, the Lugotevere in Sassia. A figure in yellow facing away from the audience and the placement of Smart's ubiquitous road signals are given more prominence than the bridge itself. The entire scene plays out as though observed from a moving motorcar heading towards the bridge that will inevitably reveal itself to the audience, if only the act of painting did not stop time.

Jeffrey Smart made preparatory studies in oil for all of his works and they are an important foundation for the larger scale versions. In Study for The Victor Emmanuel II Bridge he plays with each component of the composition, balancing the elements to create a sense of tension and mystery that borders on the surreal. It is as though the narrative of the city is found in the everyday facets and not its monuments.

1 Barry Pearce, Jeffrey Smart, The Beagle Press, New South Wales, 2005, p. 254