James Fairfax Portrait of a collector in eleven objects

James Fairfax was one of the nation’ s greatest philanthropists, collectors and champions of Australian art. Chairman of what was then known as John Fairfax Ltd, he published Art in Australia, put together one of the country’ s most important collections of European old masters, and was one of the Art Gallery of New South Wales’ s most generous benefactors. This evocative new biography from his nephew, Alex Gilly, pieces together Fairfax’ s life through the prism of his collection. From a long-case clock built by Fairfax’ s grandfather and given to his parents as a wedding gift to a sculpture by Robert Klippel and a silkscreen by Henry Moore and a mural created for his country home by Donald Friend.

Alex Gilly is the late James Fairfax’ s nephew. He is a writer, translator and magazine editor who was born in New York City and has lived in Australia, Canada, France, California, and the UK. One of his translations, Thierry Cruvellier’ s The Master of Confessions was longlisted for the 2015 PEN Translation Prize. He’ s also the author of Devil’ s Harbor (Forge, 2015).

Foreword 1. Wilson’ s Clock 2. Cycling to the You Yangs 3. Lady with a Pug 4. The Three Marys at the Sepulchre 5. The Beacon 6. The Wedding Party 7. The Dragon Robe 8. Revolt 9. The Golden Age 10. The Crusader 11. Retford Park 12. Wilson’ s Clock Reprise Notes Acknowledgements Index