13 × 19 in
 in
 cm
$2,200
Two nude figures stand against the neutral void of the background, so engrossed in one another as to be unaware of the viewer, who is left almost the voyeur, peering into this intimate scene. The rear figure, half concealed by his companion, emerges only slightly more defined than the dynamic sketches that whisp around his legs.
The eye is drawn to his expression, downcast and seeing none but her, by a swath of blue—the single feature of the background, against which the light casts only the slightest shadow of his tilted head—and the vibrant red hair of the second figure. In contrast to her mate, she glows in shapely white and more finely rendered shadow, the coy tilt of her hand mimicked by the shift of her foot as she leans toward her partner.
| Medium | Works on paper |
| Signature | Signed |
| Frame | Unframed |
| Condition | very good |
| Seller | Private |
| Location | Victoria, Canada |
| Provenance |
Frederick Joseph Ross was born in 1927 in Saint John, New Brunswick and was part of the Maritime Realist school. In 1944, he began his art studies with Ted Campbell at the Saint John Vocational School and, in 1946, painted a large mural there of the school’s annual picnic. Over his career, he painted several more murals that are no longer in existence, though photographs of them survive. Following studies in Mexico in 1949 with Pablo O’Higgins at Taxco, Ross returned to Saint John. In 1950, he briefly visited Mexico again, and met Diego Rivera. He was also heavily influenced by the French artist Balthus, and this interest is credited with prompting his change of subjects from working-class concerns to those of eroticism.
In 1970, Ross resigned his position as Supervisor of Art at the Saint John Vocational School, where he had been teaching since the 1950s, to devote his time fully to painting. Although he had exhibited widely since the 1950s, the 1993 Beaverbrook Art Gallery retrospective, The Art of Fred Ross – A Timeless Humanism, secured his reputation nationally. In 2002, he was made a Member of the Order of Canada.
Source: The National Gallery of Canada, Canadian Book Review Annual Online
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