Every year, modernist Eric Thake would send his friends a hand-made Christmas card. Original lino-cut prints, these cards have since become canonical, each observing a changing nation through one its most distinct voices. They also speak to Thake’s innerworld, with this particular work coming from the collection of his friend, revered writer and curator Ursula Hoff.

‘Nuns on the Geelong Road’ is among Thake’s best known linocuts. It is a delightful image – a car-full of nuns steam down Geelong road, black mounds but for a pair of eyes in the rearview mirror. Even nuns have places to be. Humorously, Thake writes “...or Oil Sheiks to Bahrein? Ursula, the choice is yours” inside the card, setting up a visual pun for his recipient to solve.

Represented across numerous public collections, including at the National Gallery of Victoria, ‘Nuns on the Geelong Road’ is a museum-quality work. It speaks to Thake’s remarkable wit, Australian modernism and the friendship between an artist and scholar. With strikingly excellent provenance, it is a prize for collectors of modernist art.

Eric THAKE (1904 - 1982)
'Nuns on the Geelong Road…' 1969
linocut on paper
Image Size: 15 x 21 cm
Dimensions: 15 x 42 cm
Signed: Signed and dated lower right: Eric Thake 1969; titled lower left
Comes with Letter of Provenance

RELATED IMPRESSIONS:
- National Gallery of Victoria, accession number P139-1974
- Art Gallery of New South Wales, accession number DA77.1970
- National Gallery of Australia, accession number 73.257.30

Overall sheet size 15 x 42 cm, scored to fold
Inscribed reverse sheet, pencil ...Oil Sheiks to Bahrein?
Inscribed reverse sheet, ink Ursula, the choice is yours. / Best Wishes for Xmas 1969. / from Eric & Grace

Condition: Excellent.

(c) The Artist or Assignee