The David & Susi Caddy Collection
David & Susi Caddy
The resonating tone of the David and Susi Caddy collection is an enduring spirit of wanderlust — a characteristic shared by the familial owners and the artists whose works are intertwined within the collection. For over 20 years, David and Susi Caddy have been making their yearly pilgrimage from England to Australia for three months of the year. They are now closing this chapter of their lives as they move to live full-time in England; parting with their beloved collection of Australian art, which intersects the journey of many generations roaming across Australia and abroad.
David and Susi's collection effortlessly navigates a century of Australian art, while also reflecting the narrative of their well-travelled paths. Housing exemplary archetypes from the defiant tonalist painters influenced by Max Meldrum’s School (later coined Meldrumites) and George Bell, the collection ambles from this period to the later modernist and abstract attitudes of the mid to late 19th-20th century. The artists spanning these eras characterised the modern Australian psyche, displaced European attitudes striving to examine and interpret the new world they found themselves in. Their gradual awareness is apparent in the subject treatment and redefined palette employed to represent the subtle tones of the Australian landscape.
Betty Olsen (née Caddy)
In 2001, David inherited a modest yet succinct selection of artworks from his uncle and aunt, Kit and Betty (née Caddy) Olsen. Betty Olsen was an artist in her own right studying under George Bell and Max Meldrum. She collected many works from her peers and acquaintances during her studies and throughout her life as a practising artist. David and Susi cared deeply for Kit and Betty and kept close contact until their passing. They admired the collection in its essence and resolved to conscientiously gather artworks that would complement it.
David and Susi admired the worldliness in the lives of the painters that they collected. One can travel the world through these pictures – the majority painted through the eyes of a decisive array of distinguished Australian artists; impressions of London, Rome, Cairo and Paris are represented. The collection includes an early example by Nora Heysen titled Red and White Roses, 1934 (Lot 56), painted the year the young artist travelled to London in her mid-twenties; Charles Blackman’s moody silhouette of the Parisian Streets executed in the Antipodeans archetypal style;Hayward Veal’s fragmented details of the coast of Normandy and Paris Market scenes; Charles Bush’s picturesque watercolour renditions of Venice and Cairo; and William Dargie’s grand tour of Roman ruins.
NORA HEYSEN (1911-2003), White And Red Roses 1934, $18,000-25,000
For the last 20 years, David and Susi’s collection has proudly adorned the walls of their Toorak apartment; now bare, the images remain firmly planted in their mind’s eye. After years of careful curation and preservation, this esteemed collection is now ready to journey once again to the collections of new custodians who will cherish and appreciate their intrinsic grace and sincerity.