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William Ernest Maurice Fletcher
1924-1983
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William Fletcher was born at Bellbird, in the Hunter
Valley, on 27 October, 1924. Leaving the town at the
age of 18 to join the RAN, he saw active service in
the Pacific for four years until his discharge in
1946. He settled in a Stanley Street terrace (East
Sydney) and studied at East Sydney Technical College
and the Julian Ashton Art School between 1946 and
1952. He painted inner city streetscapes, but also floral studies which sold well in the Eastern Suburbs boutiques.
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In 1954,
Fletcher moved to Pittwater, where he lived a
reclusive life for the rest of his short life. Initially he stayed at the Barrenjoey lighthouse and began painting Australian wildflowers. Later he moved to the Pittwater side of Newport. For one
year, 1961, he travelled with Sorlie’s tent show
sketching circus scenes.
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In 1965, the house and studio
at Church Point became his permanent home from which
he made several sketching trips to the bush around
Sydney, the Snowy Mountains and to Central
Australia to sketch the wildflowers.
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In 1977, Fletcher spent four months
in England and Europe, including a tour of Greece. In 1978 he began a series of silk screen print sincluding wildfowers, circus scenes and still life.
William Fletcher died suddenly of an asthma attack at his Church Point
(Sydney) home, on 22 January 1983 . Fletcher’s estate contained many previously un-exhibited paintings and drawings
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His cardiac and asthma problems over many years, his reclusiveness and perfectionism all militated against his holding many major one-man exhibitions. During
Fletcher’s lifetime he exhibited in
Canberra, Sydney (Artarmon), and Adelaide.
There have
been three major posthumous exhibitions of Fletcher’s
work; Artarmon Galleries (1983), Rex Irwin Galleries
(Woollahra, 1985), and the Australian Galleries (Roylston
Street, Paddington, 2006)
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John Brackenreg OBE, then Director of the Artarmon Galleries, who was a supporter of the artist during Fletcher’s last and most productive years, provided a foreword to the study of the artist which was written and published by Trevor Andersen in 1983. Brackenreg commented that Fletcher’s subjects 'were beautifully drawn and rendered with infinite patience and love'.
Lloyd Rees, who visited an exhibition of Fletcher’s work at Artarmon Galleries, remarked that the apparent naturalism of the works was deceptive, for Fletcher’s painting was 'an abstraction from nature and not a mere imitation of it'.
Elwyn Lynn, (Art and Australia, Vol 21 No.4, June 1984), referred to Fletcher’s mysterious and haunting use of colour and the imaginative way in which he mingled precision in treatment of species with 'baroque accumulations' of flora.
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During the late 1980s and early 1990s wildflower paintings which were released by the executor of the Fletcher estate and auctioned at major auction houses and achieved pleasing values. As Fletcher's wildflower paintings were produced in the later years of his mature painting and are few in number, their appearance in exhibitions and auction rooms has been infrequent.
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In 1985, Trevor Andersen established the William Fletcher Trust which has continued through his personal donations, those of other generous individuals and the proceeds of the sale of works from the Fletcher estate to assist young Australian artists of outstanding merit, especially those experiencing financial difficulties during their final years of tertiary training.
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The 2006
Exhibition at the Australian Galleries celebrated 20
years of the work of The William Fletcher Trust and the incorporation of the Trust
into the William Fletcher Foundation. This
incorporation followed a handsome bequest from Dr Matheson Lines of Mosman, NSW, a friend of the artist
and supporter of the work of the Trust.
For this
exhibition, a second book on the artist’s
work, William Ernest Fletcher (1924-1983): Australian Wildflowers, Still Life and Streetscapeswas
published by the William Fletcher Foundation in 2006
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