Oscar Humphries opens up on why the family is selling his late father’s rare art and book collection, and his dad’s love of Oscar Wilde and artist Charles Conder.
Among Oscar Humphries’ regrets about his relationship with his late father is that they too often fought like cats and dogs about art.“I always used to be a bit mean about it. He hated it … it really annoyed him.”
Now 250 items, ranging from the work of Anglo-Australian impressionist artist Charles Conder to a first edition of Oscar Wilde’sinscribed to Leonard Smithers, one of the most innovative and influential printers of the period, will go under the hammer.Alongside them are Humphries’ own art, books and letters from F. Scott Fitzgerald, and a collection of Edna’s costumes, “face furniture” and caricatures.
“I think Conder appealed to Dad because here’s an Australian who goes to London and then, quite quickly, finds himself surrounded by these great artists and Oscar Wilde,” he says. Almost all in the sense of Barry Humphries being a fan or a friend. Often both. On the wall is a work by Arthur Boyd, one of Australia’s most widely respected and prolific modern artists. It’s of Humphries himself painting in the bush near Shoalhaven.Artist Sidney Nolan and Humphries met in 1950s London. Oscar says they did night shifts together in an ice-cream factory. They had a mutual friend, Nobel Laureate Patrick White. John Olsen’s name comes up too.
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