Studying the Moderns - Australian artists in France and England 1890 - 1940
Andrea Hope, 2024
Evelyn Chapman, Girl in Red Hat, (detail) c1918
Introduction
"The Australian artist within the limits to which [they] usually confine themselves, reveals a sense of colour, an eye for affect, and an appreciation of the brightly beautiful that would of themselves redeem any work from being altogether commonplace. The reason why the greatest things are seldom attempted is to be found, partially at any rate, in the attitude of the Australian public. The local market for expensive and elaborate productions of an artistic kind is strictly limited. The man or woman who is confident of ability to produce the very finest work gravitates naturally to the arts centres of the old world. Everything invites [them] to try [their] fortune where rivalry is keenest, where instruction is of the best, where appreciative patrons are most numerous, where prizes are richest and most plentiful."
Western Australian, October, 1905
From the late 1800s many Australian artists travelled to Europe and England to study art – some for short periods and others settling there for most of their lives.
They were exposed to numerous traditional, contemporary and emerging artistic styles, and most chose their own way, not necessarily conforming to what they saw and experienced, but rather adapting composition, colours and techniques to the development of their own work. For example, artists like Tom Roberts returned from England in the mid 1880s with a nationalistic approach to painting light filled paintings outdoors, John Peter Russell influenced Henri Matisse with his use colour on the coast of France, and printmakers such as Dorrit Black returned to Australia, incorporating the modern styles of cubism and futurism into their teaching. They painted landscapes, seascapes, city and country life, figures, portraits and interiors. It was a time when Australian artists sought to find their own voice, without the restrictions they may have faced in submitting works to a conservative Australian audience.
Studying art in Australia in the late 1800s
In the late 1800s and early 1900s the key art schools in Australia were the National Gallery School in Victoria, the Julian Ashton School in Sydney, the Brisbane Technical College, South Australian School of Art and the Perth Technical College.
Generally training in these schools was traditional, naturalistic and representational, based on 19th Century conventions of academic training in Europe. However, there was a growing interest in painting 'en plein air' (outdoors) with the subject matter reflecting the developing interest in nationalism as Australia moved towards Federation.
H.P. Gill in the lecture room of the school of Design, Adelaide, 1905
National Gallery Art School, Melbourne. c.1901-1906. Jessie Traill (top right), Janet Cumbrae Stewart (top, fourth from right), Constance Jenkins (bottom right), Norah Gurdon, (bottom, second from right), Janet Cumbrae Stewart
Julian Ashton was one teacher who was a strong advocate of plein air painting. (He was to open his own school, Academy Julian, in Sydney – drawing on the Académie Julian in Paris where he’d studied briefly in 1874.)
However, Bernard Hall, who was the longest-serving director of the National Gallery of Victoria (NGV) and the head of the Gallery Art School from 1892 until his death in 1935, wielded enormous influence over local taste-making and the building of national art collections (largely through the Felton bequest). Hall had been trained in Britain and then Germany, and was committed to the classical academic tradition and 'instituted an austere regime of painting' i. Nonetheless, he initiated a shift away from sentimental paintings towards decorative figure compositions and a sense of 'art for art’s sake', with a more textured and broader handling of paint, but he had no interest in supporting modernist painting techniques. His approach limited options for development for students at this major art school.
Hall's early students included Hugh Ramsay, George Bell, Max Meldrum, Violet Teague and Rose MacPherson (Margaret Preston), all of whom were to later travel overseas.
Overview - Art Styles in Australia 1890 - 1940
Post Impressionism,
1910 - 1940
1840 1870 1880 1890 1900 1910 1920 1930 1940
Tonalism
1915 - 1950
Surrealism
1929 - 1945
Abstract Art 1940 -
Includes Expressionism
Colonialism
1790 -1880
Naturalism & Australian Impressionism
1880 - 1920
Federation & Edwardian art
1890 - 1910
Symbolism, Art Nouveau, Aestheticism
1885 - 1910
Tonalism
1915 - 1950
Exposure to British and European art in the late 1800s
Artists in Australia became increasingly aware of broader international developments art through several avenues which included: local artists travelling overseas; training by international teachers; exhibitions which included artwork by overseas artists; books, magazines and newspapers; and reproductions of artwork sent from overseas.
Artists such as Julian Ashton, Alfred Daplyn, Arthur Loureiro, Emma Minnie Boyd, Tom Roberts, Elizabeth Parsons, David Davies, John Longstaff, Emanuel Phillips Fox, and Tudor St. George Tucker all travelled overseas for short periods around 1880 - 90. Their destination was predominantly London and Cornwall and their focus had primarily been on Realism and Naturalism, which influenced Australian Impressionism and then Federation art in particular.
Florence Fuller, Weary, 1888
Tom Roberts, A Quiet Day on the Darebin Creek, 1885
Arthur Loureiro, The Forest at Fontainebleau, 1882
They brought back with them new approaches to painting which informed and educated a new generation of artists, but their experience predated Modernism.
The National Gallery Travelling Scholarship, which first awarded in 1887, was designed to enable the most talented students at the Gallery’s School to complete their art training abroad. The Scholarship was to be awarded 'to the best work exhibited by students at the National Gallery art classes' although in 1898 the terms of the award expanded to allow students from outside to be considered, although only under 'certain conditions'.
Although the terms of the award dictated that at least one original canvas and two Old Master copies from each recipient which would be added to the Melbourne collection, it did provide them with a stipend of £150 per year, for three years, to travel and study in the 'principal art centres of Europe'ii.
Although the terms of the award dictated that at least one original canvas and two Old Master copies from each recipient which would be added to the Melbourne collection, it did provide them with a stipend of £150 per year, for three years, to travel and study in the 'principal art centres of Europe'ii.
Numerous Immigrant teachers travelled to Australian throughout the 1800s. One such important teacher was Italian artist Girolamo Nerli. Nerli studied in Florence and was an advocate of painting outdoors. After travelling to Melbourne in 1885, and then later Sydney, he influenced Australian Impression with his free brushwork and often sketcherly approach. He later travelled to New Zealand where he taught Frances Hodgkins, who in turn was to teach Australian artists in Paris in the early 1900s.
Hodgkins also exhibited her modernist art in both Sydney and Melbourne, where her work was critically acclaimed.
French sisters Berthe Mouchette and Marie Lion came to Australia in 1881 and provided private classes in art in Melbourne and later Adelaide (with their students including Margaret Preston, who later taught Bessie Davidson in Adelaide, before they travelled together to Paris). The sisters had exhibited at the Paris Salon and were amongst the first teachers to enable women to study life drawing with nude models.
South African born Florence Fuller arrived in Perth in 1904, after working for some years in Europe and exhibiting at the Paris Salon and Royal Academy of London. She was to have a strong influence on artists such as Kathleen O’Connor, who was encouraged to travel overseas herself in 1906.
Antonio Dattilo-Rubbo conducted an art school in Sydney for some forty-three years from 1897, having arrived in Sydney from Italy the previous year. He quickly established himself and taught many of the leading Australian modernists, including Norah Simpson, Grace Cossington-Smith, Tempe Manning, Donald Friend, Alice Danciger, Mary Webb, Frank Hinder, James Cant and Gerald and Margo Lewers iii.
Several major exhibitions featuring overseas artists were held towards the end of the century, for example, The Anglo-Australian Society of Artists held exhibitions in Melbourne, Sydney and Adelaide in 1880s and 1890s and the Melbourne Centennial International Exhibition from 1888-89.
In the Introduction to the first Anglo-Australian Society of Artists exhibition it was stated that;
"The Council of selection and invitation secured over 200 works from leading artists of the Royal Academy the Royal Society of painters in water colours, the Royal Institute of painters in watercolours, the Royal Society of British artists, the Royal Scottish Academy, the Royal Hibernian Academy, and the new English Arts Club."
Melbourne Centennial International Exhibition 1888-9
However, unsurprisingly, the exhibitions prior to the 1900s contained many traditional artworks, including portraits, landscapes and seascapes.
Publications from overseas, and then from within Australia, were an important part of art education.
The English art journal The Studio was a useful source of information for Australian artists from the late 1890s. The magazine included articles on art and exhibitions in England, as well as in France, and numerous colour and black and white prints. Occasionally it featured information about Australian artists working in England, such as George Lambert. In 1903, it provided advice on the best ateliers (studios) in Paris for women to receive training in art.
Connoisseur was another popular magazine and the British Australasian and The London Times would have also been read widely. these publications also included articles and information about artists and exhibitions.
From about 1910, a number of publications about modern art began to become available to an Australian audience. For example, in London Roger Fry published articles in Vision and Design (1920) and produced eight books from the mid 1920s, notably Transformations (1927) and Cézanne (1928). The treatise Du Cubisme by Albert Gleizes and Jean Metzinger had been translated into English in 1913.
Gleizes was later to teach Grace Cowley, Dorrit Black and Anne Dangar in Paris. Andre Lohte, who was also sought out as a teacher by many Australian students, produced a number of articles which were translated into English.
The Australian magazine Art in Australia was published several times per year between 1916 and 1942 and included articles about local and overseas artists and events. It also included numerous colour and black and white reproductions. Artist Roland Wakelin wrote several articles, including one titled The Modern Art Movement in Australia, in 1928. He wrote:
"It was about the year 1913 that the first glimmerings of what is now called "modern art” came to us in Sydney—I remember seeing in a Sunday paper a cubist "Nude Descending a Staircase.” It was puzzling, but I wanted to know more about these pictures. The names of Cezanne, Gauguin and Van Gogh were then unknown here. We art students knew a little of the French Impressionists, Manet, Monet, Degas and Rodin, but more of the English Impressionism of Whistler."
(Duchamp had seen photographs by Eadweard Muybridge, which influenced this early Futurist artwork.)
Marcel Duchamp, Nude Descending a Staircase, No. 2, 1912
Eadweard Muybridge, Man descending stairs, from Animal Locomotion, 1887
Wakelin's comments reflect the general level of understanding by the Australian population about developments art in Europe in the early 20th Century.
It wasn’t until about the mid 1920s that Modern art in Australia by Australians began to be shown, with The Sock Knitter, by Grace Cossington Smith in around 1915, being the first generally acknowledged modernist work.
Grace Cossington Smith, The Sock Knitter, c1915
An artist’s life overseas
How did Australian artists make the most of the opportunities overseas?
While some artists made the journey on their own, other chose to be with family or friends – there are many instances of artists sharing the same accommodation and travelling together. As had been common for centuries, they copied works in art museums.
Many travelled through several countries to visit museums which held work by artists they admired, or just to observe the different light and lifestyles, and some joined artist colonies or summer schools. They mixed socially with local and international (and other expatriate) artists, often living in close proximity to cultural hubs, such as Montmartre and Montparnasse in Paris and Chelsea in London.
Aside from taking formal lessons at academies and schools, artists worked closely with private teachers, respected artists and friends at a range of ateliers (studios). They joined art societies and clubs and exhibited with local artists. Artists also applied to exhibit with formal and established galleries and Salons, and developed relationships with local art dealers.
Many artists won prestigious awards, both in England and France. Australian artists developed and explored new styles of art - not only painting, but also printmaking, sculpture, pottery, fabric and costume and set design. While some remained relatively true to traditional styles or Impressionism, others embraced modernism, from Cubism through to Abstract art.
Regardless of what directions they took, all the artists who spent any time overseas would have been influenced to some degree by what they saw and who they met. In particular a greater use of colour and design can be seen reflected in works from this period.
However, there was a large cohort of Australian painters, including Tom Roberts and Hans Heysen, who, particularly up until well after the end of World War I, remained largely focused on portraying Australia’s post Federation national identity through nostalgic paintings of rural homesteads, gum trees and intimate views of the middle class enjoying afternoon tea on the verandah. “The favoured view was of homestead paddocks with milking cows casting long shadows in early morning or twilight, as they grazed in cool temperate pasture”iv
While some remained overseas for most of their lives, others returned to Australia to progress their careers, and influence a new generation of artists.
While overseas during the period from 1890 to 1940, Australians were exposed to significant change affecting France and the UK – two world wars, the depression of the late 1920s and early 30s, vast modernisation of very day life (motor cars, electricity etc), the ‘roaring twenties’ and increasing interest in women’s rights, including the suffragette movement in England. These changes were to influence artists’ decisions about their involvement in these significant events, and whether they chose to remain or return to Australia.
The development of Modern art in France and the UK
Art Styles in France 1890 - 1940
1840 1870 1880 1890 1900 1910 1920 1930 1940
Expressionism
1905 - 1914
Surrealism
1924 - 1945
Fauvism
1904 - 1908
Abstract Art 1910 -
Includes Constructivism, Suprematism, De Stijl, Dada
Romanticism
1780 -1840
Impressionism
1870 -1890
Symbolism
1880 - 1920
Realism
1830 - 1880
Post Impressionism
1885 - 1910
Cubism
1908 - 1922
School of Paris
1900 - 1940
The Bauhaus
1920 - 1935
Impressionism, with its focus on light and capturing momentary effects, had been the emerging style attracting artists in France from the early 1870s. Post Impressionism, which is largely identified with the work of Paul Cezanne, Vincent van Gogh, Paul Seurat and Paul Gauguin, saw experimentation in composition and colour, with Cezanne and Seurat in particular being interested in science and its application to how our eyes perceive images. Both Impression and Post Impressionism, which in a large part led to Modernism, persisted as important influences well in the 1900s.
Since the late 1800s art styles had been changing dramatically in Europe. Artists were experimenting with Symbolism, Expressionism, Fauvism and Cubism - all Modernist forms of art. From the early 1910s there was a move towards Abstraction. The opening up of new avenues for exhibiting work from the second half of the 19th Century meant that artists no longer needed to rely on the academic Paris Salon to show their works, so felt freer to explore new techniques and subject matter.
Jeanne Jacquemin, Daydream, 1894
Ernst Kirchner, Potsdamer Platz, 1914
Henri Matisse, Open Window, Collioure, 1905
Albert Gleizes, Man on a Balcony, 1912.
Sonia Delauney, Rhythm, 1938
France and Modernism
Paris around the turn on the century saw the construction of the Eiffel Tower, the Paris Métro, and the completion of the Paris Opera. Three lavish "universal expositions" in 1878, 1889, and 1900 brought millions of visitors to Paris to see the latest innovations in commerce, art, and technology.
The city was a thriving centre of artistic activity that provided unparalleled conditions for the exchange of creative ideas during the first half of the 20th Century. Writers, philosophers and artists flocked to the neighbourhoods of Montmartre and later Montparnasse.
Montparnasse, c1900
Paris was at the cutting edge of Modernism up until the second world war, with artists travelling from other European and overseas countries to form what became loosely known as the École de Paris - or the School of Paris.
Artists working in Paris around 1900 included (to name just a few) Claude Monet, Pierre Auguste Renoir, Berthe Morisot, Edgar Degas, Paul Cézanne, Mary Cassatt, Georges Seurat, Vincent Van Gogh, Paul Gaugin, Henri de Toulouse - Latrec, Paul Signac, Susan Valadon, Henri Matisse, André Derain, Maurice de Vlaminck, Raoul Dufy, Émilie Charmy, Georges Braque, Pablo Picasso, Albert Gleizes, Jean Metzinger, Sonia Delauney, Robert Delaunay, Fernand Léger, Juan Gris, Marie Laurencin, Marie Vorobieff, Pierre Bonnard, Marc Chagall, Romaine Brooks and Amedeo Modigliani, James McNeil Whistler and John Singer Sargent. These artists, in particular, were keen to develop new ways of looking at, and presenting, the world.
However, not all artists and art institutions saw themselves as part of the avant- garde. In both France and England academic conservatism continued to attract a large body of artists focused on traditional subjects and techniques.
Pablo Picasso, Woman in White, 1923
After World War I, there was also a revival of classical artistic techniques and subject matter (known as Return to Order). Many artists, some of whom had previously worked in avant-garde styles, sought to return to painting representational figures and calm, balanced compositions. For example, Pablo Picasso, who had been a leading figure in Cubism, began to paint large neo-classical works such Woman in White, 1923.
Art Styles in England 1890 - 1940
Whistler, Sargent
New English Art Club
Post Impressionism
1910- 1940
1840 1870 1880 1890 1900 1910 1920 1930 1940
Surrealism
1930 - 1945
Abstract Art 1910 -
Bloomsbury Group
1910 - 1940
Symbolism &
Art Nouveau
1860 -1900
Realism
1870 - 1940
Corwall Schools
1870- 1940
Aesthetic
Movement
Fauvism & Cubism
1910 - 1940
British Impressionism
1880 -1910
Vorticism & Futurism
1910 - 1930
Grosvernor School
1926 - 1930
British Surrealist Group
1936 - 1950
Camden Town Group
1911 - 1913
England and Modernism
Despite their close proximity, artistic developments in France and England had differed through the 1800s and into the early 1900s.
British art had been fairly isolated from the radical developments that had been taking place in Paris, perhaps due in part to the political upheaval, and therefore relative isolation, of France, although Impressionists artists such as Monet, Pissarro and Sisley took refuge in England as a result the Franco-Prussian War of 1870, the fall of the Second Empire and the Paris Commune. However, in the 1870s French Impressionism was still in its infancy.
The turn of the century was a time of cultural change in England, following the death of Queen Victoria in 1901. For a short period up until World War One (WWI), known as the Edwardian age, there was a relaxing of the strict repression of Victorian society. King Edward VII created an atmosphere enabling greater social change and modern art, without the restrictions of moralistic approaches, to expand and flourish.
During the first two decades of the 20th century of a number of new groups, or movements, were created. They were often short-lived, generally for no more than two or three years. Artists were often associated with one or more such associations simultaneously. Some published dynamic manifestos, others simply assembled as exhibition groups.
One group, the Camden Town group, which was founded in 1911, would create truly avant-garde movements such as Vorticism in 1914.
Although at the time of the Group’s founding, British art was fairly isolated from the radical developments such as Cubism that had taken place in Paris, members had a shared interest in common urban subjects, the streets and people of London, everyday scenes, sometimes mundane, sometimes extraordinary.
David Bomberg, Figure Study (Racehorse), c 1914
Robert Upstone, curator of Modern British Art at the Tate wrote;
“With their pulsating colour harmonies and urban subject matter, the Group were consciously identified as modern but they occupied a comfortable — and perhaps quintessentially British — middle ground between tradition and the truly avant-garde” v.
England didn't generally begin to embrace Modernism until British art critic Roger Fry (together with art critic Clive Bell) organised the first Post-Impressionist exhibition at London’s Grafton Galleries in 1910.
The exhibition was officially titled Manet and the Post-Impressionists. It featured Édouard Manet, Paul Cézanne, Paul Gauguin, and Vincent Van Gogh as well as Henri Matisse, Pablo Picasso, André Derain, Georges Seurat and Maurice de Vlaminck. It was a major commercial success, attracting over 25,000 visitors over the two months it was on display. (The term Post Impressionism was coined by Fry and later became generally accepted.)
Australian artist Thea Proctor, who had moved to London in 1903, stated;
"We had the Post-Impressionists’ exhibition ... another thrilling experience ...it was rather a shock, because I had been trained to draw the figure realistically,and of course, with the Gauguins, the form was very simplified ...But the colour was thrilling".vi
Both Proctor and fellow Australian artist George Lambert were persuaded by Fry’s view that formal design was more important than naturalistic representation in art. Lambert also became convinced that artists should adopt an ‘almost cubic construction’ and ‘reduce nature’s complicated design to a definite form’vii .
This approach also influenced George Bell’s modernist teaching principles in his art school in Melbourne during the 1930s and 40s. Bell had also been in London in 1910 at the time of Fry’s exhibition.
Another feature of Fry’s principles relating to art was that it should be ‘decorative’, which although not clearly defined, related to the aesthetics of art and ideas of a formalist approach to composition.
Roger Fry, Still life- jug and eggs, 1911
Margaret Preston, Native flowers, c 1927
One Australian artist who responded to this approach was Margaret Preston (Rose McPherson), who had initially travelled to Europe in 1904 with Bessie Davidson, studying for three years in Munich and Paris.
Fry held a second Post Impressionist exhibition in 1912, together with other members of the Bloomsbury group - a circle of artists, writers and intellectuals in the first half of the 20th century, originating in the Bloomsbury home of Virginia Woolf and her sister Vanessa Bell. The Bloomsbury artists were strongly influenced by and responsive to the European movements of their day, especially Post-Impressionism, Cubism, as well as artworks from Africa and Asia. Their previously conservative artistic styles changed dramatically after they viewed works by Picasso, Matisse, and Cézanne during a 1909 visit to Paris.
According to the Tate Gallery, the 1912 exhibition is still the most comprehensive survey of post-impressionist art that has been displayed in England viii. For many young British artists this was their first encounter with post-impressionism, and led to them experimenting with colour and abstraction.
Key British artists in the early 20th Century included Augustus John, Walter Sickert, Paul Nash, Frank Brangwyn, Henry Moore, Barbara Hepworth, Stanley Spencer, Tristram Hillier, Gwen John, Spencer Gore, William Orpen, Walter Sickert, Graham Sutherland, Edward Burra, Glyn Philpot, Stanhope Forbes, Vanessa Bell, Duncan Grant, Claude Flight, Edward Burra, Dod Procter, Percy Wyndham Lewis, and Laura Knight, Frederick Brown, Christopher Wood, Wilson Steer and Henry Tonks.
Life and Study in England
Doora Meeson, Members of the Queen Mary's Army Auxiliary Corps: At Work in the Cookhouse, Royal Air Force Camp, Charlton Park, 1919
Perhaps the most popular area for Australians living in London was Chelsea, which like St John’s Wood and Bloomsbury, was known for its creative and somewhat bohemian lifestyle, and its proximity to artistic and educational institutions, such as the Royal College of Art. Artists were also attracted to Chelsea because of its history, site on the Thames, and its reputation as an artist’s and writer’s community ix.
Artists Dora Meeson and her husband George Coates established themselves in Chelsea in 1906. They became members of an extensive circle of Australian expatriate artists and the couple provided strong support for fellow Australian artists, with their studios being venues for social and political functions. Their circle included Tom Roberts, George Lambert, Fred Leist, Bess Norris, Ruby Lindsay and Will Dyson. Meeson was a suffragette, and as women were excluded from the Chelsea Club and other male only networks, she went to great lengths to make welcome and support women artists, developing her own extensive networks, and championed the rights of women to be included in artistic activities.
Other Australian artists living in Chelsea included Thea Proctor, Marion Jones and sculptor Margaret Baskerville. Baskerville described Chelsea as “the great students’ district, corresponding to the Latin Quarter of Paris”x.
London c 1900
Dora Meeson, On a Chelsea Balcony, 1912
Academies and Schools
Not surprisingly, because of its ties with colonial Australia, England was often the first choice for artists travelling overseas around the turn of the century.
London offered formal study at the very traditional and academic Royal Academy, which was founded in 1768, and the Slade School, which opened in the 1870s.
The establishment of the Royal Academy was in part due to events in Europe. British artists had sought inspiration by travelling to European museums to view the masters first hand, but during the French Revolution, and the Revolutionary wars in the late 19th century, British artists were unable to travel to Europe. Until the late 1800s, almost every important artist in Britain was associated with Royal Academy, either as an elected member, or by displaying work at its annual exhibitions.
Australian artists such as Nicholas Chevalier, Tom Roberts, John Longstaff, Rupert Bunny, Arthur Streeton, E Phillips Fox, Margaret Preston, Agnes Goodsir, Jessie Traill and William Dobell were educated, and/or exhibited and subsequently gained reputation through the RAxi . George Lambert become an Associate of the Royal Academy.
Arriving in London in 1919, sculptor Daphne Mayo attended the Royal College of Art briefly and worked as an assistant to the sculptor John Angel, before entering the Sculpture School of the Royal Academy of Arts in 1920. She was awarded Royal Academy of Arts medal (gold) in 1923.
However, by the early 20th century, as the art world was adapting to new movements, the Royal Academy was ceasing to be at the centre of British art, although for many, the Royal Academy's annual summer exhibition remained an important event.
Writing to Tom Roberts, Arthur Streeton describes the Royal Academy as having, “an inartistic atmosphere” and claims he “hasn’t the least desire to go again”xii .
Arthur Streeton, Corfe Castle, 1909
Agnes Goodsir, Girl on a Couch, c 1915
The Slade offered female students an education on equal terms as men, making it attractive to Australian artists, although the fees made study there prohibitive, with many artists choosing to attend classes in France instead. A number of British artists studied there before training in Paris (where it was not only much cheaper but also generally less academic).
Tasmanian born Derwent Lees (1885-1931) left Melbourne to enrol in the Slade in 1905 under Frederick Brown and Henry Tonks, where he was soon regarded as the outstanding student of the time. 15 of Lee‘s 19 drawings won prizes there in 1907, and in 1908 he received First Prize in Life Drawing. He was immediately appointed to the staff as drawing master and remained at the Slade until 1918, during which time he taught a generation of English modernists including Roger Fry, Vanessa Bell and Paul Nash. Lees was considered a progressive teacher and was held in high regard. He exhibited with the New English Art Club from 1911 to 1917 and Vanessa Bell‘s Friday Club from 1911 to 1916, where his work was hung beside many of his former studentsxiii .
Lees travelled widely in Europe during this time and his paintings of landscapes and figures were made using pure strong colours.
Unfortunately, in 1918 Lees was committed to an asylum in Surrey, suffering from schizophrenia and he remained there until his death in 1931.
The techniques and colours in some of his landscapes are evoked in the paintings of Elioth Gruner after his travel through Europe from 1923. Although Gruner responded to the works of Paul Gauguin and Paul Cézanne that he had seen in London and Paris, his use of colour and technique are similar to many of Lee’s works. Gruner made a living from sales and commissions while overseas, which included time spent walking and painting in France and Italy, with trips to Paris, Rome, Naples and Capri and an extended stay in St Tropez in 1924xiv .
English born Ethel Carrick, who later married Phillips Fox, studied at the Slade in the early 1900s.
Dora Meeson was one Australian artist who studied at the Slade (from 1892-93) and had her work exhibited at the Royal Academy. She also studied at the Académie Julian in Paris and had her work exhibited at the Paris Salon. Meeson worked as a policewoman on night-duty in an ammunition factory during the war and painted a number of war-related subjects.
She later became a noted maritime painter. In 1919 she became the first Australian woman member of the Royal Institute of Oil Painters. She was also a founding member of the Society of Mural Decorators and Painters in Tempera.
Meeson’s style was initially influenced by Impressionism. She readily admitted her enthusiasm for Monet's 'brilliant light and colour' and wrote: “Neither did he (George Coates) understand my struggle to express light and colour, but always wanted me to lower my work in tone, whereas I would urge him to lighten his. But we went our separate ways quite harmoniously. The crampedness of painting and living in a studio drove me out to study the river and the multitudinous forms of water, and to try to give it weight and movement and glorious, ever-changing colour, while George concentrated more and more on figure painting" xv.
She lived not far from Whistler's home in London and her Thames views show his influence. She deliberately painted scenes of labour on the Thames embankments, and scenes of shipping on the river itself. Meeson insisted on going out on a boat on dangerously stormy days and painting during dangerous wind storms.
Some of her paintings show the impasto (thick painting) and rich colours of the Post Impressionists, demonstrating how Meeson experimented and developed her style during her career.
George Coates had travelled to Europe in 1897 on a National Gallery Travelling Scholarship. Initially he studied in Paris at the Académie Julian, where Meeson was a fellow student. In 1900, Coates moved to England where he became known principally as a portrait painter, as well as a war artist. Essentially, he remained faithful to his representative approach.
George Coates, A Russian Lady, c1920
George Coates, Australian official war artists, 1916–1918
standing l-r: John Longstaff, Charles Bryant, George Lambert, A. Henry Fullwood, James Quinn, Septimus Power, Arthur Streeton, seated back l-r: Will Dyson, Fred Leist, front: George Bell.
The Grosvenor School of Art, which opened in London in 1925, is an important part of Australian art history, as it offered printmaking classes in linoblock, linocut, lithography and etching, as well as tuition in life drawing, painting and composition. As the school had no entrance exams or fixed terms, students could attend for any period of time.
According to its prospectus, the school aimed to 'encourage students to express their own individual ideas rather than be forced to accept worn-out academic theories'
A key teacher at the school was Claude Flight, who had been influenced by Italian Futurist writer Marinettini. Marinettini had stated in his Futurist manifesto that ‘the world’s magnificence has been enriched by a new beauty: the beauty of speed xvii’. The early 1900s was a period when there were major advances in modes of travel, including motor cars and aeroplanes, as well as the speed of travel.
Natalia Goncharova,(Russian Futurist) Cyclist, 1913
Claude Flight, Brooklands, c. 1929
Particularly under Flight's tuition, a number of Australian artists such as Dorrit Black, Ethel Spowers and Eveline Symes perfected the art of linocuts, often adopting a Futurist style, including the avant-garde art movements of British Vorticism, Italian Futurism and Art Deco. They combined abstraction and dynamism with geometric elements to create the sense of rapid movement. These three artists went on to become leading printmakers in Australia from the 1930s.
Dorrit Black had attended Julian Ashton's Sydney Art School in 1915 where she adopted oils as her main medium, and soon showed the influences of both Ashton and Elioth Gruner. During the 1920s she was increasingly focused on 'modernising' her practice and in 1927 travelled to Europe in order to acquire "a definite understanding of the aims and methods of the modern movement and in particular - the cubists "xviii. Initially staying in London, she spent three months studying with Flight before moving to Paris.
Dorrit Black, The Pot Plant, 1934
Eveline Syme, who had been studying at art schools in Paris in the early 1920s, had discovered Claude Flight's textbook, Lino-Cuts (London, 1927), in Melbourne in 1928. This inspired her to enrol in his classes at the Grosvenor School in 1929, together with her friend, Ethel Spowers xix . She wrote;
“Here was something new and different, linocut no longer regarded as a base form of woodcut, but evolved into a distinct branch of 20th century art. I had seen nothing more vital and essentially "modern" in the best sense of the word than the reproductions in this book ... Soon after my arrival in England I became one of the pupils at the Grosvenor school ”xx.
In 1932 Syme wrote that ‘One can learn all the intricacies of any form of art at the Grosvenor School of modern art’xxi
Eveline Syme, San Domenico, Siena. 1931
After returning to Melbourne later in 1929 with an exhibition of contemporary wood-engravings from the Redfern Gallery, London, Syme became a cautious advocate of modern art.
The founder of the Grosvenor school was Iain Macnab, a progressive teacher who offered books of tickets for his classes. He focused on compositions, colour schemes and way of treating and symbolising forms. Macnab’s aim was;
‘Not so much to train students to paint what they saw as to teach them to isolate from nature the elements that are truly pictorial, and then to develop their own personalities. His ambition was to first make artists’xxii . He shared Flight’s focus on vitality and was also interested in ‘looking for repetition of lines and patterns and stressing them’ xxiii.
Other Australian students who studied with Macnab in the 1930s included Peter Purves Smith, George Bell and Nutter Buzacott.
From 1938 to 1940 Purves Smith painted in Paris and London, joining the British Army in 1940. Inspired by contemporary French painting his owed much to the organic imagery of the Surrealists, having viewed the International Surrealist Exhibition in London mid 1936. (He was also influenced by English artists Christopher Wood and Paul Nash, and French artists Amedeo Modigliani, Rousseau and Maurice Utrillo.
Back in Australia, he later studied with George Bell in Melbourne, together with his friend, artist William Drysdale. Unfortunately, Purves Smith died from complications from major lung surgery in 1948 in Melbourne, although he influenced many of his contemporaries with his modernist style during his short artistic career.
Peter Purves Smith, Burke and Wills, The Perish, 1937
Peter Purves Smith, Nude, 1937
The London School of Art was known as ‘Brangwyn’s’ after one of its founders, Frank Brangwyn. The School was soon regarded as a success, prompting The Studio to report in 1906 that it ‘had already made for itself a position amongst the leading institutions of its kind in London’ and two years later it had developed a reputation that extended beyond England and Europe, with a London correspondent for the Sydney Morning Herald reporting in 1908 that the School provided ‘the best tuition to be had in this part of the world’xxiv .
Brangwyn was a Welsh artist, painter, printmaker, illustrator and designer who worked across a broad range of artistic fields. He had been influenced by European Realists, the Arts and Crafts movement, Whistler and the Pre-Raphaelites and later Symbolism and Art Nouveau xxv .
He had worked for William Morris from 1882 to 1884, where he learnt the principles of design and decorative arts and at the age of just 17, Brangwyn exhibited his first painting at the Royal Academy Summer Exhibition, later becoming a full member.
During WWI, Brangwyn produced official war posters and made prints to raise money for the war effort, also serving as the President of the Royal Society of British Artists.
Kathleen O’Connor was one Australian student who studied with Brangwyn.
She recalled “He usually took up the brush & made an illustration to show his way of doing things. One girl I remember was trying to paint white tulips in water colours & he said don’t bother about the lights, just paint the shadows, in the shapes and low and behold the flower was there”xxvi .
Kathleen O'Connor, Still Life, Paris, Study in whites, 1936
Printmaker Jessie Traill was strongly influenced by Brangwyn. She studied at the school for several years from 1907, during which time she dramatically changed in her approach. Brangwyn worked with Traill directly in the production of her early plates, guiding her through the development and printing of individual printsxxvii. He taught her the formal principles and technical methods that underpinned his decorative concept of printmaking.
Jessie Traill, The roadside, Flanders, 1907
etching on zinc24.8 x 19.9 cm Inscr. lwr left ‘F. B. Printed by Brangwen, J. Traill’s plate’
Inspired by Whistler’s etchings of Venetian façades and boat yard interiors, The Charing Cross Bridge, London etching shows Traill’s interest in fusing the lessons of Brangwyn with her regard for Whistler.
She interrupted her career to work as a voluntary nurse in France during WWI, later raising funds for and revisiting war-torn Europe.
When she returned to Australia Traill's prints displayed complex arrangements of light and shade as well as aggressive mark making. These characteristics led to a tonal aesthetic and created a ‘pleasing decorative rhythm ’xxviii in her work. In addition to being one of the most important printmakers in Australia in the 20th century, Traill helped popularise the medium. She mentored the next generation of artists in printmaking. including Arthur Boyd, Fred Williams and Franz Kempf.
In 1910, the London School of Art was amalgamated with the New Art School in Logan Place, run by poster artist John Hassall, where it reopened as the London and New Art Schoolxxix .
St John’s Wood Art School (subsequently the Anglo-French Art Centre) established the pattern of inviting famed artists of the day to criticise the students’ work in a relaxed atmosphere, and to present prizes.
Thea Proctor studied there briefly in 1903, before taking private lessons with Australian artist George Lambert, who would become a close friend and mentor.
George lambert, Miss Thea Proctor, 1903
While in London, Proctor’s artistic circle included William Orpen, Augustus John, Wilson Steer and expatriate Australians Charles Conder, Arthur Streeton and Tom Roberts xxx . She was as equally absorbed by the sleek figures of contemporary fashion (such as those featured in the pages of the newly launched Vogue magazine) as she was by the silken-mysterious beings in Conder’s fan compositions xxxi.
After living in London for 18 years, Proctor returned to Sydney in 1921 and taught at Julian Ashton’s art school.
Charles Conder, The New Moon Fan, 1896
Norah Simpson studied at the Westminster School of Art with Walter Sickert in 1912.
With ties to painters such as James McNeill Whistler and Edgar Degas, Sickert strengthened the artistic connections between Britain and France. Unlike the majority of the Camden Town Group, Sickert gained a reputation as one of the most influential figures in twentieth-century British art.
In 1883, he had travelled to Paris and met Edgar Degas, whose use of pictorial space and emphasis on drawing would have a powerful effect on Sickert's work. Degas encouraged Sickert to tackle a wide range of subject matter, portraying urban scenes in Paris and Dieppe, including forms of entertainment such as music-halls and the circus. From here he developed his personal version of Impressionism.
Edgar Degas, Four Dancers, c1899
Walter Sickert, Wellington House Academy, 1914
Walter Sickert and Edgar Degas
Working with Sickert, Norah Simpson gained an insight Into French impressionist theories and practises. This was followed by a visit to Paris, where she closely studied Impressionist paintings, and through introductions to dealers and collectors, viewed works by Cézanne, Gauguin, van Gogh, Matisse and Picasso.
Simpson left for Australia in 1913 but by 1915 she had returned to London, before moving to Glasgow in 1919 and on to France in 1920.
When the Camberwell School of Arts and Crafts first opened in 1898 Camberwell under the, it offered day and evening instruction across a wide range of subjects from Architecture, Furniture Design, Life Drawing and Stained Glass Work to Dressmaking, Pottery and Typography.
Margaret Preston had returned to London in 1912 with Gladys Reynell, where she saw the second post-Impressionist exhibition organised by Fry in 1912.
Preston and Reynell lived in Paris and Brittany in 1913-14, where Preston furthered an interest in Japanese printing processes and principles of design, and responded to the work of Cezanne. It was during this time that Preston recognised ‘a picture that is meant to fill a certain space should decorate that space ’xxxii.
Returning to London at the outbreak of war, Preston exhibited at the Royal Academy, the New English Art Club and the Society of Women Artists. In 1916, she enrolled at the Camberwell School of Arts and Crafts as a student of pottery, at the same time developing her interest in fabric printing and dyeing, basket weaving and printmaking, for which she was to become best known in her career after returning to Sydney in 1919.
