Roy de maistre biography

Biography

One of the pioneers of modern Australian painting, Roy de Maistre remains best known for his early collaborative experiments in colour and abstract form with Roland Wakelin in Sydney around 1918-19.

Studying initially at the Sydney Conservatorium of Music, de Maistre enrolled in classes with Antonio Datillo-Rubbo at the Royal Art Society where he produced works influenced by reproductions brought back from Europe by his teacher and fellow student Norah Simpson of European post-impressionists, including Vincent van Gogh, Paul Gauguin and Paul Cézanne.

Following brief service in the Australian Army during the First World War, de Maistre was inspired by colour-therapy treatment given to shell-shocked soldiers, which led him to crystallise his theory of colour harmonisation based on analogies between colours of the spectrum and notes of the musical scale.

Enlisting Wakelin as a collaborator, he embarked on a series of experiments that culminated in the lan