Billabong (c. 1959) – SOLD

This rare and charming oil by Ray Crooke AM (1922-2015) stems from a period of work early in Crooke’s painting career that rarely appears on the art market, the late 1950’s.

Whilst most art collectors are more familiar with Crooke’s later work that features tropical North Queensland, Crooke’s creative output also included beautiful paintings that reflected the colours and scenery of regional Australia, inspired by his many travels to these areas.

Crooke began painting when he was 17. He joined the Australian Infantry Force in 1939, and served in World War II in Western Australia, North Queensland, Thursday Island, Cape York and Borneo.

At the end of the war, Crooke lived in the tropics, and then returned to full time painting in 1946, exhibiting his work from 1949, and embarking on regular painting trips to Thursday Island, Papua New Guinea, Cape York and Fiji.

From 1955 to 1959 Crooke lived in Melbourne with his wife and family. During this time, he taught art and it was at around this period that “Billabong” would most likely have been painted. After 1959 Crooke moved back to North Queensland and painted full time whilst travelling constantly for the next eight years in the north, West Australia, Fiji and Tahiti. He moved to Sydney in 1969, then later returned to Cairns in north Queensland where he lived for the remainder of his life, passing away in 2015.

“Billabong” was first purchased in the late 1950’s. The painting has travelled many miles and holds a fascinating history and provenance, having once been owned by the influential and well-known American television network executive, Oliver Treyz (1918-1998).

Oliver Treyz was best-known for being president of the American Broadcasting Company, a position he held from 1958 to 1962. During his time at the American Broadcasting Company Treyz was responsible for the creation of several popular and memorable television programs including:  Adventures in Paradise, Cheyenne, Hawaiian Eye, 77 Sunset Strip, Surfside 6, Maverick, The Rifleman and The Untouchables.

In the late 1950’s Oliver Treyz travelled to Australia with his boss from ABC television in the USA, Leonard Goldenson (1905-1999). Goldenson was the founder and president of American Broadcasting Company from 1953-1986 and a legend in the television industry.

Treyz and Goldenson came to Australia with their wives on the invitation of Rupert Murdoch, a fellow media executive who was building his news empire in Australia. Goldenson and the younger Rupert Murdoch had struck up a friendship due to their common interest in media and entertainment and Rupert’s curiosity and desire to expand from print to broadcast media and television.

At that time and in the years that followed Goldenson would assist Rupert with information on how television networks operated in the USA, when Rupert expanded his media interests into television news and entertainment in the US.  Murdoch would also sell a 6% stake of his News Limited company to ABC America in exchange for exclusive rights to air ABC television shows in Australia, establishing his foothold in Australian television, a crucial step in Rupert’s News Corporation’s transformation into a global media conglomerate.

During Treyz’s and Goldenson’s month-long visit to Australia in the late 1950’s, they were hosted by the Murdoch family and travelled to several places of interest, including Arnhem Land in the Northern Territory.

The Murdoch’s were already established then as an art-collecting family, and during their Australian trip Treyz and Goldenson also visited local galleries, including the prestigious Australian Galleries in Collingwood (established in 1956), which was one of Melbourne’s best galleries, from where Treyz purchased “Billabong”.

The subject of the painting reflects Ray Crooke’s love of nature and the times he spent in regional areas recording the landscapes and people around him. In “Billabong” Crooke records in fine and varied detail the greenery and colours of the native vegetation of the Australian bush with the focal point of the scene being an idyllic setting by a billabong, a lifeblood water source in regional Australia.

The charming inclusion of an embracing couple strolling by the tranquil reflections of the billabong create a gentle atmosphere in the painting which is complemented by Crooke’s addition of other delightful elements such as the birds high in the treetops, and the country cottage.

The painting’s title, “Billabong” would have been significant for its appeal to Treyz and not doubt part of the decision to acquire the painting as a reminder of his visit, being that “billabong” is a truly Australian word associated with the Australian landscape, language and culture. The word “billabong” originates from the indigenous Wiradjuri language, an Aboriginal language spoken in New South Wales.

Upon his return to the USA, “Billabong” hung for decades in the Treyz family living room. Oliver’s sons, James and Donald, recall that the painting was a cherished memento of their father’s time in Australia, of which he spoke fondly recounting exciting stories of encounters there, and creating a lifelong fascination for Australia within his sons.

After Oliver Treyz’s passing in 1998, “Billabong” was inherited by his sons, who have enjoyed and lovingly cared for and conserved the painting, which has never been offered for sale since it was purchased by their father in the late 1950’s. Recently, Oliver’s sons organised for the painting’s return to Australia, its land of origin, where they felt it would be most fitting for “Billabong” to be seen once again and to find its next custodian.