“Landscape” Oil Painting Signed Lower Left

By Harald Vike (Norway/Australian 1906-1987)

$2,499.95

MATERIALS:

Oil On Canvas

DIMENSIONS:

Image size 59cm x 45.5cm frame size 71cm x 58cm x 4.5cm

INSCRIPTIONS:

Signed ‘Harald Vike’

“Interested from an early age in drawing and painting, he decided to settle in Western Australia and to become a professional artist”

1 in stock

Bio

Harald Vike Bio

Harald Hansen Vike (1906-1987) born on 30 August 1906 at Kodal, Norway He left school at 14 to work on the family farm but in 1923, aged 17, he began working as a stoker on board whaling ships. In 1927 he jumped ship and spent six months in Western Australia before returning to Norway

Interested from an early age in drawing and painting, he decided to settle in Western Australia and to become a professional artist He took art lessons at James W. R. Linton’s Institute of Art and from George Pitt Morison, the curator of art at the Western Australian Museum and Art Gallery, who became a good friend and mentor. Drawing and painting both the city and its inhabitants and the surrounding countryside, in 1933 he won the West Australian Society of Arts’ prize for landscape in watercolours. He worked for J. Gibbney & Son Pty Ltd, a graphic arts studio, as an illustrator

Late in 1934 Vike became a founding member of the Workers’ Art Club (from 1936 the Workers’ Art Guild) and in 1935, influenced by the trade unionist Maurice Lachberg and a fellow artist, Leith Angelo, he joined the Communist Party of Australia. Using the pseudonym Rau (Norwegian for red), he drew cartoons for the party’s newspapers, Red Star and Workers’ Star. An active member of the guild, he acted in plays, designed and constructed sets and conducted weekly drawing classes for no pay. In 1934-37 he shared a studio with Herbert McClintock and regularly exhibited his landscapes and Perth city scenes

During World War II he worked at the Commonwealth Steel Co. Ltd’s store. He continued to paint city scenes—roof scapes, laneways and backyards—as well as people either at work or sitting in trams. Julian Goddard described the pictures of workers as celebrating the strength and effort of labourers, ‘in line with the ethos of social realism’, adding that ‘Vike has abandoned the heroic for the ordinary and adopted a style owing more to his knowledge of modernism than the pictorial rhetoric of social realism’

After the war Vike found employment as an illustrator for the Australasian Post and the Argus. On weekends he painted at Kew, Heidelberg or Bacchus Marsh with Len Annois and Alan McCulloch, who described his landscapes as having a ‘van Gogh-like freshness of colour and texture’. Although he held several solo exhibitions, he did not enjoy meeting prospective buyers of his paintings and failed to sell enough to make a living. In 1949-54 he created sets for the pre-film live entertainment at the Palais Picture Theatre, St Kilda, and in 1954-59 for the Princess Theatre. In 1958 he joined the new television station HSV-7 as chief of props, designing and painting sets

In 1964 Vike left for the Kimberley and the Northern Territory with Sybil (Billy) Mearns, whom he married on 26 October 1965 at Tennant Creek. He painted the barren and harsh landscapes, and also people whom he described as ‘characters’. They travelled back to Melbourne via the Queensland coast, where he painted canecutters. He resumed work at HSV-7 but retired in 1969 and moved to Adelaide, from where he took painting trips to the Flinders Ranges and the Adelaide Hills. In 1982 he moved again, to Sandgate, Brisbane. Next year he spent six weeks in Tasmania, camping at the Franklin River blockade in extreme weather conditions, and recording the protesters and events in a series of paintings and drawings. His work was hung in group exhibitions, including Western Australian Artists 1920-50 (Art Gallery of Western Australia, 1980) and Aspects of Perth Modernism 1929-1942 (University of Western Australia, 1986). Early in 1986 he returned to live in North Perth; the last pictures that he painted were of the Swan River

Condition

Image in (Great Condition) Frame in (Good Condition) may have some minor Chipping and scratching on frame plus usual wear marks from use and displaying consistent with age see photos as photos play an important role in description of condition – Artwork will be Shipped in a picture box made by us from Cardboard and Foam packaging to suit the size of your individual Artwork we will Ship your Artwork within 1-2 working days from sale

NOTE: Display images are for illustration purposes only and may not reflect actual size if you have any questions or if you need clarification please message or send us an email

Most of the art work we sell are of an antique or vintage era and reflect this in condition they are not in new condition unless stipulated we have a scale we use of Excellent Condition: No visible flaws Chips scratches or wear – Great Condition: May have flaws Chips scratches and wear – Good Condition: Does have significant flaws Chips scratches and wear in as found condition

TMC47194W

Postal package 78cm x 65cm x 12cm weight 3kg