Jeffrey Smart, the renowned Australian urban landscape artist, has died in Italy at the age of 91.
The Adelaide-born painter, who moved to Italy in 1963, died of renal failure, with his partner of over 30 years, Ermes De Zan, at his side. He passed "slowly and surely", friends said at a hospital near his home in Arezzo, central Italy.
Smart's paintings of post-industrial society were known for depicting the beauty in everyday life.
He trained at the South Australian School of Art then later in Paris after he travelled to Europe following the second world war. He returned to Australia in 1951, working as an art critic for the Daily Telegraph, a television presenter for the ABC, and as a teacher at the National Art School in Sydney, before relocating permanently to Italy.
Philip Bacon, a friend and one of Smart's agents added: "He was an absolutely unique personality in every way."
"He was amusing and witty and determined. He was a force of nature, really."
Stuart Purves, another of Smart's agent in Australia, told AAP, "I think he was one of the great milestones in our cultural well-being, a really significant person in that regard."
The news was met with sadness on Twitter:
Tweet from Christine Milne
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Erica Green, director of the Samstag Museum of Art at the University of South Australia, where Smart trained between 1937 - 1941 said he had left a "wonderful legacy of art".
The Samstag Museum put on a retrospective of Smart's work last year, featuring the first public display of his last completed painting.
Green added: "He has made a truly significant contribution to Australian art and to understanding how we view our urban landscape. That's really Jeffrey's legacy. He was a larger than life character, he was loved by many people. He was an absolute gentleman, very gregarious, charming, a great host."
Green visited Smart in Italy in late 2011 to bestow an honorary doctorate on the artist, who was unable to pick the award up in person due to ill health.
"It was clear he was absolutely mentally engaged with art, but he was also, I think, very conscious of death. I think he was someone who loved life and had a wonderful life and probably wanted to hang on to that."
