FREDERICK RONALD WILLIAMS (AUSTRALIAN 1927-1982) Lysterfield Hill 1965-1966 gouache on paper 36 x 56 cm (14 1/8 x 22 in.) framed dimensions: 68 x 87 x 3 cm (26 3/4 x 34 1/4 x 1 3/8 in.) signed lower center PROVENANCE Anna Schwartz Gallery, Melbourne Private Collection, Melbourne Sotheby's Melbourne, Australia, August 14, 2012, lot 33 (Illustrated on page 77 of the catalog) Private Collection, USA (acquired from the above sale by the present owner) LOT NOTES Frederick Ronald Williams’s Lysterfield Hill is a masterful example of how he redefined the Australian landscape through a modernist lens. Painted in the 1960s, during a formative period in Williams’s career, the work captures the essence of a specific place in Victoria-Lysterfield Hill-yet transforms it into something far more expansive: a distilled meditation on land, memory, and perception. His innovative approach to landscape painting bridged European modernist traditions with a uniquely Australian vision, resulting in a body of work that is both formally sophisticated and deeply rooted in place. Born in Melbourne, Williams trained in both Australia and London. Early in his career, he was influenced by the European masters—particularly Cézanne and the tonal painters-but it was his return to the Australian landscape in the 1950s that marked a turning point. Rather than depicting the land in a romantic or representational style, Williams abstracted its forms and colors. He sought to convey its vastness, flatness, and spatial complexity through innovative mark-making and composition.<>brToday, Frederick Ronald Williams is celebrated as a visionary who expanded the language of landscape painting. His works are held in every major public collection in Australia, including the National Gallery of Victoria and the National Gallery of Australia, and continue to influence generations of artists drawn to the vast and complex beauty of the land.