Provenance:
Private Collection, Wellington

Despite the almost constant presence of the landscape in Jeffrey Harris' work, particularly in earlier years, this has always been a subject of secondary importance to the expression of human relationships and emotion for the artist. It is his own experience of angst, tension and love that lie at the heart of Harris' work, and many of his paintings therefore function as autobiographical snapshots of his life. This 1975 work was most likely created as a portrait of Harris, his wife Joanna and their baby daughter Imogen. Through a deft and symbolic handling of colour, On the Beach reveals this familial narrative unto the viewer.