Philip Wolfhagen
Artwork title: Late Summer Nocturne
Medium: oil and beeswax on linen
Size: 120 × 96 cm
Year: 2026
$42,000
About the Artwork
The Nocturne has been a favourite genre for me for many years. Each time I approach the task slightly differently. In recent years I have been experimenting with a palette limited to the colours of the spectrum. Surprisingly, if you mix these colours of light in the right proportion you get a beautiful black. Late Summer Nocturne was painted using only three primaries and two violets. This palette has limitless possibilities in terms of hue, but it has a disembodied, almost dreamlike quality. I also like that the word ‘spectral’ meaning both ‘ethereal’ and pertaining to the colour of light.
About the Artist
Philip Wolfhagen is recognised as one of Australia’s leading contemporary landscape painters. He creates images that are inspired by the atmospheric landscape of northern Tasmania and the emotive qualities of light and weather. He has held over 48 solo exhibitions in Sydney, Melbourne, Tasmania, Canberra, Brisbane, Perth WA and Washington DC. Wolfhagen’s work is held in major public and corporate collections in Australia and in private collections nationally and internationally, with the largest national public collection of his work owned by Newcastle Art Gallery, which held a survey exhibition in 2013. His work was included in the 2013 exhibition at the Royal Academy of Arts in London, ‘Australia’, the most significant survey of Australian art ever mounted in the UK.
Photo: Catherine Wolfhagen