Peter Purves Smith
The mad woman
A student of the George
Bell School Melbourne, the Grosvenor School, London and La Grand
Chaumiere, Paris, Purves Smith was strongly influenced by the
work of the surrealists. Considered to be one of Australia's
most promising young artists, before his untimely death in
1949, Purves Smith's most important paintings were painted in
Paris and London in the two years before he joined the British Army
in 1940.
Peter Purves Smith has distorted the image in 'The mad
woman' to convey a state of extreme emotion. Waves of blue and
green colour are thrust against one another creating a sense of
disorder and turmoil rather like that produced by an exploding
volcano.