Identity, Community and Australian Artists, 1890-1914

Paris, London and Further Afield

Kate R. Robertson

• Publisher: Bloomsbury Visual Arts
• Year: 2019
• ISBN:
  9781501332852
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Art
• Subtopic: History of Art

An irresistible call lured Australian artists abroad between 1890 and 1914, a transitional period immediately pre- and post-federation. Travelling enabled an extension of artistic frontiers, and Paris – the centre of art – and London – the heart of the Empire – promised wondrous opportunities. These expatriate artists formed communities based on their common bond to Australia, enacting their Australian-ness in private and public settings. Yet, they also interacted with the broader creative community, fashioning a network of social and professional relationships. They joined ateliers in Paris such as the Académie Julian, clubs like the Chelsea Arts Club in London and visited artist colonies including St Ives in England and Étaples in France. Australian artists persistently sought a sense of belonging, negotiating their identity through activities such as plays, balls, tableaux, parties, dressing-up and, of course, the creation of art. While individual biographies are integral to this study, it is through exploring the connections between them that it offers new insights. Through utilising extensive archival material, much of which has limited or no publication history, this book fills a gap in existing scholarship. It offers a vital exploration re-consideration of the fluidity of identity, place and belonging in the lives and work of Australian artists in this juncture in British-Australian history.

1

An Edwardian Excursion?: Identity, Community and Australian Artists Abroad, 1890–1914

Do you not feel it essential that we in Australia do all in our power to widen the circle of art out here where we are so far away on the map from all other countries and their work?–

Hilda Rix Nicholas (1922).¹

Between 1890 and 1914, many Australian artists heeded the call to travel abroad, lured by the overwhelming urge to engage with their artistic and social histories in the Old World, which they felt that they knew intimately, but yearned to feel a part of, despite the distance that separated the lands. The processes of travel and interaction shaped their search for belonging during this period, one of particular significance in British-Australian history, spanning the years leading to and following Federation, which saw the six self-governing colonies unite as an independent nation. The Federation movement and the efforts to create a new nation inevitably informed the movement of artists between Australia and Europe and their understandings of their place in the world. This study has been limited to artists who had arrived in Europe by the early-twentieth century, focussing on those who maintained a connection with Australia while living abroad long term. It concludes at the outbreak of the First World War in 1914, when Australian artists negotiated a transformed world. The primary concern is not personal biographies, but rather the connections between artists as part of a broader juncture in British-Australian history.

The Australian artists who chose to live abroad in the years pre- and post-federation were well-known during the early-twentieth century, though the reputations of many waned after their lifetimes. Some have been researched in thorough monographs, such as Emanuel Phillips Fox, George Lambert, Hugh Ramsay and Hilda Rix Nicholas. Others who were well-known at the time have been more neglected in recent scholarship, like George Coates, John Longstaff, Dora Meeson and James Quinn. This book pulls together strands of the lives of Australian artists abroad, considering their relationships, communities and the extent to which they both assimilated into, and distanced themselves from, European and colonial worlds. They developed networks based on a common connection to Australia, while also interacting with a broader international creative community, especially through participating in schools like the popular Académie Julian in Paris, clubs like the Chelsea Arts Club in London and artist colonies including St Ives in Cornwall and Étaples in France. These communities encouraged a sense of belonging, allowing artists to assume various roles: colonial and British, professional and bohemian, and local and traveller. Their practices of crossing and exchange trouble the assumption that an authentic identity – and by extension, art – must be centred in a circumscribed place.² For Australian artists, significance has been placed on works reflecting national identity. Yet, expatriatism endorsed an extension of creative frontiers; it allowed for contact with other artists, viewing important works of art in person and receiving what most artists, from Europe, the United States and especially colonial societies, deemed to be superior training in Paris. For ambitious Australians, travel was essential, with an engagement with the European art world disrupting their status as peripheral artists. This book rethinks the fixedness of the identity of Australian artists, revealing how through living abroad, in Paris – the centre of art – and London – the heart of the Empire – artists negotiated a complex nexus of place, travel and relationships.

This study sits adjacent to the seemingly well-trodden ground of Australian art history of the late-nineteenth and early-twentieth centuries. Scholarship on this era has been weighted towards art illustrating distinctly Australian subjects, notably by Heidelberg school painters like Frederick McCubbin, Tom Roberts and Arthur Streeton. This reflects the persistent interest in defining and expressing national identity through art, a concern which emerged in the 1890s and was further encouraged post–First World War. Yet, many Australian artists lived abroad between these years, including Streeton, who primarily resided in England from 1897 to 1923 and Roberts from 1903 to 1923. Indeed, many of the artists in this book are recognized for works made in Australia rather than those from their many years abroad, like Lambert’s bush scenes and Longstaff’s portraits of Australian personalities. Artists who engaged less robustly with Australian subjects are frequently less remembered, like Coates and Quinn. This book re-considers the role played by Australian artists abroad, re-inserting their work into the multifaceted narrative of British-Australian art history. It is informed by scholars who consider Australian art history as closely bound to the movements and histories of other countries. It explores how artists facilitated an interchange between Australia and Europe, and how the colonial art world was not wholly isolated and insular, or solely dictated by European trends. Expatriate artists did not forget their antipodean heritage, either deliberately or inadvertently, but maintained various and fluid connections to Australia.

1890–1914

In Europe, 1890–1914 were years of progress and prosperity, characterized by exceptional social, technological and cultural changes. In 1913, Holbrook Jackson recognized the distinctness and multi-faceted significance of the 1890s, describing the decade as electric with new ideas by a generation who felt as if it were ‘stepping out of the cages of convention and custom … into a wider freedom full of tremendous possibilities’.³ Changes continued swiftly into the new century, characterized by transformative developments like the motor car, which embodied the increasing pace of metropolitan life, and electric lighting, which altered the way cities were experienced. Bustling urban centres filled with growing crowds of locals and visitors, fantastic department stores, grand railway stations, and a pervasive haze that signalled progress. In France, the Belle Époque was an era of relative stability, wealth and progress spanning between conflicts – the Paris Commune in 1871 and the First World War in 1914. There was a similar sense of remarkable growth and change in England, through the late Victorian era and into the Edwardian. Though Edward VII reigned for less than ten years, from 1901 to 1910, the era lingered past his death, extending until the outbreak of war in August 1914. The Edwardian era is especially romanticized in British history as a brief halcyon interval of extraordinary affluence, splendour and indulgence, led by the notorious pleasure-seeking king. However, studies exploring the societal changes in these years reveal this was very much a period of uncertainty and disorder.⁴ Significant occurrences included scientific and technological advancements, the decline of religious observance, the second Boer War, political reforms like trade unionism and the suffrage movement and changes in the distribution of wealth, with increases in unemployment and the rise of the nouveau riches. Within this period of flux, there was a turn to the security of the past; in art, there was a revival of movements like Rococo, Chinoiserie and Grand Manner painting, especially the portraiture of Van Dyck and Velázquez.

In Australia, the last decade of the nineteenth century was defined by devastating economic depression, part of a worldwide financial crisis which was especially disastrous in Melbourne. Following the Barings Crisis in 1890, Australia was one of many places where foreign investments were withdrawn. Export prices for wool and wheat fell and many local banks and building societies collapsed, notably the Federal Bank on 30 January 1893. Australia was also devastated by drought between 1895 and 1902, losing half its sheep and cattle to famine, as well as destructive fires, floods and cyclones. Between 1891 and 1897, the population of Greater Melbourne dropped by more than 30,000.⁵ The city was slow to recover – between 1891 and 1901, its population grew by just 3,060, compared to Sydney’s increase of 102,000.⁶ With opportunities for a professional career stifled by the economic climate, artists had further impetus to travel abroad.

As the heart of the Empire, London was naturally where Australians visited and also emigrated to. London was the largest city in the world from the 1830s until after the First World War: in 1900, its population was over 6 million. People from across the world arrived at its ports seeking opportunities believed to surpass those of any other city, a view especially strong among members of the British Empire, which covered around 400 million people, or a quarter of the world’s population. In 1901, 135,000 Londoners were foreigners by birth, 33,000 of whom were born in British colonies or dependencies, including over 21,000 from Australian.⁷ Around ten thousand Australians arrived in England annually from the 1880s until the First World War.⁸ Paris also saw significant population growth, from 1.8 to 2.7 million between 1870 and 1900. This was a decisively international city; in 1890, only 30 per cent of the population had been born in Paris. Many of these arrivals were artists. Australians also worked at artist colonies with international communities, with Étaples in France and St Ives in England especially popular. The importance of these four destinations is highlighted in William Moore’s claim that Australian artists abroad ‘take a studio in London or Paris or settle down in the picturesque ports of Dieppe, Étaples and St Ives’.⁹ However, London had a deep significance for Australian artists, where they pursued success, and maybe, more importantly, a sense of belonging which was inextricably tied to their place in the British Empire.

Traversing the globe: Home, belonging and travel in the British Empire

For Australians, London was the centre of the world. It was felt to be implicitly known by its people, a place conjured through collective memories. Richard White has explored how this nebulous social memory was shaped from an early age through literature, especially childhood stories.¹⁰ This dream place was envisioned in Louise Mack’s An Australian girl in London (1902), where the protagonist effused

London! I see it every night. I have been there hundreds of times already. I see a great impossible mass, and grey smoke, smoke, smoke. What I see is so large that it would probably cover all England. But then London is large. There’s nothing in the world as large as London – to an Australian.¹¹

Mack wrote this semi-autobiographical novel while living in poverty in London after leaving her life in Sydney, including her job as a Bulletin journalist and her husband J.P. Creed. Her experiences reflect the struggles many endured, determined to live in the heart of the empire. The artist Bess Norriss also articulated how physically and psychologically immense London was in the colonial imagination, explaining

London is so big, so all. Just think of the world’s best, think a mighty thought of everything, and you may get an inkling of what it is. Yes, it holds all … It is like a splendid pageant, but the characters are real: the pride of possession in it; you must go to the centre of the Empire to understand.¹²

The idea of London as the place that ‘holds all’, brimming with inconceivable wonders, shaped the experiences of all members of the empire. It was encouraged by visual aids like maps, games and exhibitions which enabled imaginative travel, helping envision the metropolis and how its power stretched across the world.

Maps were integral to the process of travel, designating a ‘here’ and a ‘there’ and distinguishing between the known and unknown, but also crucially connecting the two. In charting regions across the globe, they allowed an assessment of where one was – or was not – tying the British Empire together physically and psychologically. Nineteenth-century maps were a tool for and reflection of the expanding empire, illustrating the occupation and colonization of foreign lands, usually coloured red-pink. Such visual coding conveys the desire for kno...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Halftitle Page
• Title Page
• Dedication Page
• Contents 
• Permissions to reprint material
• List of Colour Plates
• List of Figures
• Acknowledgements
• 1. An Edwardian Excursion?: Identity, Community and Australian Artists Abroad, 1890–1914
• 2. Widening the Circle of Art: The Voyage to Europe and the Melbourne National Gallery Travelling Scholarship
• 3. From Paris to London: Australians in Ateliers, Clubs and Societies
• 4. The Lure of London: Portraits, Performances and the Australian Brethren of the Brush
• 5. Performing Creative Identity: Bohemia, Self-portraits and Dressing-up
• 6. Women beyond Bohemia: Suffrage, Travel and Imagined Worlds
• 7. Flying Further Afield: Authenticity, the Bush and Artist Colonies in England and France
• 8. Epilogue: A Transformed World
• Appendix: Australian Artists Residing in Europe, 1890–1914
• Select Bibliography
• Index
• Imprint