On the rocks, 1935

Important Australian + International Fine Art
Melbourne
26 August 2026
10

Dorrit Black

(1891 - 1951)
On the rocks, 1935

colour linocut on paper

19.5 x 31.5 cm (image)
23.0 x 35.5 cm (sheet)

artist’s proof

edition of 50

Estimate: 
$20,000 – $30,000
Provenance

Estate of the artist, Adelaide
Thence by descent
Helen Finlayson (née Black), Adelaide, 1951 [the artist's sister]
Margaret Michelmore (née Finlayson), Adelaide, a gift from the above
Private collection, Adelaide, a gift from the above

Exhibited

Sixth Exhibition of British Lino-Cuts, Ward Gallery, London, 1 – 25 May 1935, cat. 66 (another example)
Contemporary Group Exhibition, Farmers Blaxland Galleries, Sydney, 13 – 24 August 1935, cat. 79 (another example)
Exhibition of Oils, Watercolours and Lino Cuts by Dorrit Black, Royal South Australian Society of Arts, Adelaide, 7 – 23 July 1938, cat. 35 (another example)
Exhibition of Modern Lino-Cuts, City of Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery, Birmingham, 30 March – 19 April 1939, cat. 7 (another example)
Dorrit Black (Retrospective), Royal South Australian Society of the Arts, Adelaide, 25 October – 3 November 1945, cat. 56 (another example)
Claude Flight and his Followers: The Colour Linocut Movement between the Wars, Australian National Gallery, Canberra, 18 April – 12 July 1992, then touring to: Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney, 14 October – 29 November 1992; National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne, 16 December 1992 – 1 March 1993; Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa, Wellington, 19 March – 16 May 1993; and Auckland Art Gallery Toi o Tāmaki, Auckland, 3 June – 18 July 1993, cat. 25 (another example)
Sydney Moderns: Art for a New World, Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney, 6 July – 7 October 2013 (another example)
Dorrit Black: Unseen Forces, Art Gallery of South Australia, Adelaide, 14 June – 7 September 2014 (another example)
Cutting Edge: Modernist British Printmaking, Dulwich Picture Gallery, London, 19 June – 8 September 2019 (another example)
Dangerously Modern: Australian women artists in Europe 1890 – 1940, Art Gallery of South Australia, Adelaide, 24 May – 7 September 2025 and Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney, 11 October 2025 – 1 February 2026 (another example)

Literature

North, I., The Art of Dorrit Black, Art Gallery of South Australia, Adelaide, and Macmillan, South Melbourne, 1979, cat. L.24, p. 132 (another example)
Coppel, S., Lino Cuts of the Machine Age: Claude Flight and the Grosvenor School, Scholar Press, Leicester, United Kingdom, in association with National Gallery of Australia, Canberra, 1995, cat. DB26, pp. 158, 159 (illus., another example)
Edwards, D., and Mimmocchi, D. (eds.), Sydney Moderns: Art for a New World, Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney, 2013, pp. 179 (illus., another example), 310
Lock, T., Dorrit Black, Unseen Forces, Art Gallery of South Australia, Adelaide, 2014, pp. 79, 156, 159 (illus., another example), 160, 203 (illus., another example)
Samuel et al., Cutting Edge: Modernist British Printmaking, Dulwich Picture Gallery, London, 2019, pp. 72, 73 (illus., another example)
Freak, E., (ed.) et. al., Dangerously Modern: Australian women artists in Europe 1890 – 1940, Art Gallery of South Australia, Adelaide and Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney, 2025, pp. 255 (illus., another example), 342