Portrait of Ermes de Zan [Study for ‘Portici’ 1987], with another sketch verso

Ink on paper, 165 x 205 mm (image), signed and inscribed lower right ‘for dear Janet, love Jeffrey Smart’, inscription relating to colours verso, to which is attached another small, unsigned pen sketch drawn on notepaper in blue ink of a road and urban landscape, 70 x 20 mm, framed in timber with glass both sides.

Study for the oil painting ‘Portici’ (1987) which features Jeffrey Smart’s life partner Ermes de Zan seated on steps reading a newspaper. Jeffrey Smart and Ermes De Zan (1948 – ) met in Rome in 1975, when de Zan was about to leave Italy to study at Yale. De Zan visited Smart at his home Posticcia Nuova in Arrezzo, Tuscany, that year, a deep friendship developed into a relationship and de Zan moved in that year. The two remained life partners until Smart passed away in 2013.

Janet Hawley (1944 – ) is a noted Australian arts writer who interviewed Jeffrey Smart on a number of occasions. This small, intimate study was gifted to her by the artist.

Reference :

Jeffrey Smart Drawings and Studies 1942 – 2001. Melbourne : Australian Galleries, 2001, pp. 132 – 133

Provenance:

Lawson’s, Sydney, Important Australian Art from the collection of Janet Hawley, 1 December 2022, lot 515

Lawson’s, Sydney, Collector’s Edit – Fine Art, Editions & Sculpture, 29 September 2024, lot 5001