WEBVTT 1 00:00:00.560 --> 00:00:03.600 Part one of the second Number of Art in Australia, 2 00:00:03.839 --> 00:00:09.279 nineteen seventeen. This is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings 3 00:00:09.279 --> 00:00:12.919 are in the public domain. For more information or to volunteer, 4 00:00:13.119 --> 00:00:18.480 please a visit LibriVox dot org. Edited by Sidney or Smith, 5 00:00:18.839 --> 00:00:24.559 Bertram Stephens and C. Lloyd Jones. Published by Anguson Robertson Limited, 6 00:00:25.160 --> 00:00:31.440 eighty nine Castlereagh Street, Sydney, nineteen seventeen. One thousand, two 7 00:00:31.519 --> 00:00:36.359 hundred and fifty copies of this edition have been printed forward. 8 00:00:37.560 --> 00:00:40.200 The cordial reception of the First Number of Art in 9 00:00:40.240 --> 00:00:43.479 Australia by the press on the public justifies as in 10 00:00:43.520 --> 00:00:46.560 the belief that a publication of this kind was wanted. 11 00:00:47.719 --> 00:00:50.560 It seems to have been generally recognized that art and 12 00:00:50.640 --> 00:00:54.119 the artists in Australia will benefit by the circulation of 13 00:00:54.159 --> 00:00:58.200 a journal devoted to Australian work and reproducing it well. 14 00:00:59.280 --> 00:01:05.439 Our first was printed in difficult circumstances during the coal strike. Nevertheless, 15 00:01:05.719 --> 00:01:09.480 the quality of the publication received high praise from artists 16 00:01:09.519 --> 00:01:12.959 and others competent to judge, and we are encouraged to 17 00:01:12.959 --> 00:01:16.760 go on. We were also very pleased to receive a 18 00:01:16.840 --> 00:01:20.000 letter from mister Howard Hinton of Sydney, stating that the 19 00:01:20.120 --> 00:01:23.879 article in Art in Australia on the Hilda exhibition had 20 00:01:23.879 --> 00:01:26.760 induced him to present to the New South Wales National 21 00:01:26.840 --> 00:01:30.480 Gallery a collection of twelve watercolors by J. J. Hilda. 22 00:01:31.359 --> 00:01:33.920 Not only is each of these a charming example of 23 00:01:34.000 --> 00:01:37.439 Hilda's art, but the panel represents the whole course of 24 00:01:37.519 --> 00:01:41.480 his development from nineteen hundred and seven to nineteen sixteen. 25 00:01:42.640 --> 00:01:45.239 This was not the first of mister Hinton's gifts to 26 00:01:45.280 --> 00:01:48.640 the New South Wales Gallery, which has not hitherto benefited 27 00:01:48.719 --> 00:01:53.799 much by private donations. One friendly critic suggested that we 28 00:01:53.840 --> 00:01:57.719 should have included the older and better known Australian artists 29 00:01:57.840 --> 00:02:03.280 before young men. Where is life Ambert? What about Ford Patterson, McCubbin, 30 00:02:03.719 --> 00:02:08.879 with us Davis, Phillips, Fox and the rest Our idea, however, 31 00:02:09.120 --> 00:02:12.439 was not to make this a chronological record of Australian art, 32 00:02:12.919 --> 00:02:16.000 nor to begin with all the stars of first magnitude, 33 00:02:16.280 --> 00:02:21.280 but to represent the earlier and younger artists concurrently. In 34 00:02:21.360 --> 00:02:23.840 time we hope to cover the whole field of artistic 35 00:02:23.879 --> 00:02:28.159 efforts in Australia that is worth attention. We might mention 36 00:02:28.439 --> 00:02:31.680 that without the support of our advertisers, we could not 37 00:02:31.879 --> 00:02:34.680 publish at all. While the cost of production is at 38 00:02:34.680 --> 00:02:38.599 the present high rate. It is hardly necessary to say 39 00:02:38.639 --> 00:02:41.879 that we do not represent any school or society and 40 00:02:41.960 --> 00:02:44.680 are concerned only with the work done by anyone in 41 00:02:44.759 --> 00:02:49.240 Australia that is of sufficient artistic merit. We shall be 42 00:02:49.280 --> 00:02:52.560 glad to consider short articles on subjects of interest to 43 00:02:52.639 --> 00:02:57.280 local artists or art lovers. All communications should be addressed 44 00:02:57.280 --> 00:03:03.520 to the editors Art in Australia twenty before Bond Street, Sydney, 45 00:03:04.360 --> 00:03:13.439 end of Part one, Part two of the second number 46 00:03:13.479 --> 00:03:18.560 of Art in Australia, nineteen seventeen. This LibriVox recording is 47 00:03:18.599 --> 00:03:24.400 in the public domain. Some recollections of Charles Conder by 48 00:03:24.479 --> 00:03:29.520 Julian Ashton, illustrated by the Farm Richmond, New South Wales, 49 00:03:30.199 --> 00:03:35.400 oil Painting in the possession of Julian Ashton, Esquire, Sydney. 50 00:03:36.159 --> 00:03:39.479 Charles Conda came to Sydney in eighteen eighty five at 51 00:03:39.520 --> 00:03:42.680 the age of seventeen. He was sent out by his 52 00:03:42.759 --> 00:03:46.800 people in London to learn under an uncle, a trigonometrical 53 00:03:46.840 --> 00:03:50.120 surveyor in the Land's Department, the method of dividing the 54 00:03:50.159 --> 00:03:54.000 surface of New South Wales into rods, pools and perches, 55 00:03:55.080 --> 00:03:58.879 but a more alluring vocation. The quest of beauty filled 56 00:03:58.879 --> 00:04:01.919 his mind and stirred his senses, and in the following 57 00:04:02.000 --> 00:04:05.120 year he left his uncle's survey camp for good and 58 00:04:05.240 --> 00:04:09.520 came back to Sydney. Of medium height, rather heavy build, 59 00:04:09.800 --> 00:04:13.680 with a polite, even deferential manner. He had curious moods 60 00:04:13.680 --> 00:04:17.199 of abstraction, which marked him even in those early days 61 00:04:17.279 --> 00:04:21.519 as a dreamer of dreams. Upon the subject of painting, 62 00:04:21.680 --> 00:04:25.600 his interest never flagged, and his curiosity as to modes 63 00:04:25.639 --> 00:04:30.439 of procedure was indefatigable. He secured a small position upon 64 00:04:30.480 --> 00:04:34.160 the Illustrated Sydney News at a salary which sufficed his 65 00:04:34.240 --> 00:04:38.839 sturdy bohemianism. He was very careless as to what materials 66 00:04:38.879 --> 00:04:42.000 he used. Most of his work was done upon cigar 67 00:04:42.079 --> 00:04:46.839 boxes or any piece of cardboard coated with sighs. He 68 00:04:46.920 --> 00:04:50.040 had an extraordinary sense of color and tone, but his 69 00:04:50.120 --> 00:04:55.160 appreciation of form was most primitive. When I first visited 70 00:04:55.199 --> 00:04:59.120 his studio, he was living in William Street, Darlinghurst, where 71 00:04:59.120 --> 00:05:02.040 he enjoyed a care tell us existence, eating when he 72 00:05:02.079 --> 00:05:04.920 felt like it and working at all hours. As the 73 00:05:04.959 --> 00:05:09.319 mood took him dressed anyhow, with wisps of long hair 74 00:05:09.399 --> 00:05:13.079 hanging over his forehead and a cigarette forever drooping from 75 00:05:13.120 --> 00:05:16.120 the corner of his mouth. Charles Condor looked to the 76 00:05:16.160 --> 00:05:19.199 embodiment of one of the heroes of his favorite reading 77 00:05:19.279 --> 00:05:23.920 at that time, Mergise la vie de beauem Amid the 78 00:05:23.959 --> 00:05:27.319 disorder of his room, there was one hallowed corner within 79 00:05:27.399 --> 00:05:30.600 which were hanging from a nail, a stylish frock coat, 80 00:05:30.839 --> 00:05:34.720 vest and trousers, a top hat, gloves and a cane 81 00:05:34.800 --> 00:05:39.240 kept them in countenance. When he walked abroad clothed in 82 00:05:39.319 --> 00:05:42.680 these garments, he looked the man of fashion, doing the 83 00:05:42.720 --> 00:05:47.199 block and smiling on the fair. Condor loved pretty ladies 84 00:05:47.199 --> 00:05:50.920 in beautiful dresses, and afternoon tea with these attractions was 85 00:05:50.959 --> 00:05:54.000 for him a high feast, a sort of sacred colt. 86 00:05:55.240 --> 00:05:59.319 A few of us Fulward Mahoney, Mins Hopkins, and phil 87 00:05:59.439 --> 00:06:02.399 May had a weekly meeting for the purpose of drawing 88 00:06:02.480 --> 00:06:06.240 and talking over Australian arts and its future. When Min's, 89 00:06:06.560 --> 00:06:09.920 who shared Condor's rooms during his stay in New South Wales, 90 00:06:10.199 --> 00:06:14.360 brought him along to this symposium, he quickly made friends, 91 00:06:14.560 --> 00:06:17.759 for he was of a simple and affectionate nature. As 92 00:06:17.759 --> 00:06:20.240 he was the youngest amongst us, he looked up to 93 00:06:20.319 --> 00:06:23.199 us with humility, which is a form of flattery very 94 00:06:23.279 --> 00:06:27.959 difficult to withstand. So it was that Charles Conder began 95 00:06:28.040 --> 00:06:32.079 to bring his little nine by fives to our weekly meetings, 96 00:06:32.399 --> 00:06:36.120 and very charming many of them were. I remember that 97 00:06:36.199 --> 00:06:40.120 about that time Fulward took a craze for pallette knife painting. 98 00:06:41.360 --> 00:06:44.160 Of course Conder must try it, and it is curious 99 00:06:44.199 --> 00:06:47.839 to see in Sir Baldwin Spencer's excellent collection of Australian 100 00:06:47.879 --> 00:06:51.279 Pictures a small conda which was painted in that fashion. 101 00:06:51.319 --> 00:06:55.199 For our weekly meeting. We all used to lecture him 102 00:06:55.199 --> 00:06:59.040 more or less seriously upon the necessity of more methodical study, 103 00:07:00.160 --> 00:07:03.079 but Condo hated method of any sort. And the only 104 00:07:03.120 --> 00:07:06.040 occasion upon which I ever knew him to apply himself 105 00:07:06.120 --> 00:07:09.519 seriously to the study of nature was when he stayed 106 00:07:09.519 --> 00:07:12.600 with me at an old inn just beyond Richmond Bridge 107 00:07:12.879 --> 00:07:15.519 for four or five weeks in the spring of eighteen 108 00:07:15.560 --> 00:07:19.560 eighty eight. I had persuaded him to join me to 109 00:07:19.560 --> 00:07:22.879 see the spring blossoms around Windsor and Richmond, and we 110 00:07:22.959 --> 00:07:26.759 settled upon this somewhat disreputable old house of call as 111 00:07:26.800 --> 00:07:31.480 our headquarters. Here Condor set himself seriously to tackle the 112 00:07:31.519 --> 00:07:35.800 problems of form, color and lights. For a month, a 113 00:07:35.920 --> 00:07:39.319 little procession started from the inn each morning, a girl 114 00:07:39.399 --> 00:07:43.000 leading a calf, and conder with his canvas and painting 115 00:07:43.040 --> 00:07:48.279 materials following the calf, which has so inconspicuous a place 116 00:07:48.319 --> 00:07:52.000 in the reproduction of his picture which illustrates these recollections, 117 00:07:52.399 --> 00:07:56.000 was a source of much irritation to Condor. When he 118 00:07:56.040 --> 00:07:58.920 had nearly painted it standing up, it would lie down 119 00:07:59.639 --> 00:08:01.879 when he had coaxed it up. Its head would be 120 00:08:01.920 --> 00:08:05.120 where its tail had hung. But the rest of the 121 00:08:05.160 --> 00:08:09.040 subject was not so intractable and gradually, for Condor was 122 00:08:09.079 --> 00:08:12.360 a very slow worker. The beautiful hills and sky, the 123 00:08:12.439 --> 00:08:15.800 lovely tones of the blossom, the painstaking drawing of the 124 00:08:15.839 --> 00:08:19.199 gnarled old fruit trees, and the warm and beautiful color 125 00:08:19.279 --> 00:08:23.040 of the foreground made up the only truly Australian picture 126 00:08:23.199 --> 00:08:27.040 I have known Condor to paint. We came back to 127 00:08:27.120 --> 00:08:30.600 Sydney together for a few months. He was often in 128 00:08:30.639 --> 00:08:33.360 our midst and at the end of that year eighteen 129 00:08:33.399 --> 00:08:36.840 eighty eight, he went over to Melbourne. After having lived 130 00:08:36.879 --> 00:08:40.960 in New South Wales for three years. In eighteen ninety 131 00:08:41.240 --> 00:08:44.360 he left Melbourne for Europe, and in nineteen hundred and nine, 132 00:08:44.679 --> 00:08:48.320 this greatly gifted colorist and designer, with his dreams of 133 00:08:48.440 --> 00:08:54.200 romance Saint Fete Gallants, passed beyond our view. Since then 134 00:08:54.600 --> 00:08:59.360 much has been written about Charles Conder in judicious admirers, 135 00:08:59.519 --> 00:09:01.480 in their desais desire to do honor to a very 136 00:09:01.519 --> 00:09:05.759 original artist, have published, with beautiful examples of his manner, 137 00:09:06.080 --> 00:09:10.639 some invitation cards, illustrations and lithographs, which injure his claim 138 00:09:10.720 --> 00:09:15.360 to fame. It is inexplicable that Condor the colorist could 139 00:09:15.440 --> 00:09:19.840 ever have been induced to attempt anything requiring draftsmanship, which 140 00:09:19.879 --> 00:09:23.480 is the very foundation upon which illustration or lithography must 141 00:09:23.559 --> 00:09:28.399 always rest. For color, harmony and a fanciful, if somewhat 142 00:09:28.480 --> 00:09:32.320 artificial sense of design. His taste was unerring, but his 143 00:09:32.480 --> 00:09:35.440 vague and capricious dreams had nothing in common with the 144 00:09:35.480 --> 00:09:39.440 severity and calculated beauty of form required in the work. 145 00:09:39.480 --> 00:09:43.759 He attempted to extol his genius for the fine things 146 00:09:43.799 --> 00:09:47.000 it gave us, as well to claim for that genius 147 00:09:47.039 --> 00:09:50.919 our admiration for qualities it never possessed, only injures it. 148 00:09:52.159 --> 00:09:54.879 This is but one way in which Conda has suffered 149 00:09:54.879 --> 00:09:58.320 in the hands of his friends. It is quite a 150 00:09:58.360 --> 00:10:02.039 common statement that he greatly indebted to Streeton for his 151 00:10:02.159 --> 00:10:08.039 artistic outlook. In truth, it was quite the other way. Condor, 152 00:10:08.200 --> 00:10:11.559 who only met Streeton towards the end of eighteen eighty eight, 153 00:10:11.919 --> 00:10:15.519 had at once a very powerful and easily recognizable effect 154 00:10:15.639 --> 00:10:21.279 upon the realistic treatment which marked the early work of Streeton. Realism. 155 00:10:21.320 --> 00:10:25.120 At no time had any charm for Charles Condor color 156 00:10:25.159 --> 00:10:28.120 and decorative effects with the goals he strove to attain. 157 00:10:29.399 --> 00:10:32.120 It was from Condor that Streeton learned the value of 158 00:10:32.200 --> 00:10:35.960 decorative landscape, and through his influence he began to lay 159 00:10:36.000 --> 00:10:40.159 more stress upon selection and design. I do not doubt 160 00:10:40.320 --> 00:10:43.200 but that Arthur Streeton would be amongst the first to 161 00:10:43.240 --> 00:10:46.759 acknowledge his debt to this gifted friend of his early manhood. 162 00:10:47.840 --> 00:10:51.480 Poor Condor, his early death deprived the world of art 163 00:10:51.720 --> 00:10:55.919 of many beautiful examples of his fantastic and original genius. 164 00:10:57.000 --> 00:10:59.360 But it is pleasant to think that his five years 165 00:10:59.399 --> 00:11:03.279 sojourn in Australia laid the foundation for those color poems, 166 00:11:03.519 --> 00:11:07.679 those charming medalis of pearly blossom and azure skies upon 167 00:11:07.759 --> 00:11:11.120 which his claim to a place amongst the immortals must 168 00:11:11.159 --> 00:11:23.039 be based. End of Part two, Part three of the 169 00:11:23.080 --> 00:11:28.279 second Number of Art in Australia, nineteen seventeen. This LibriVox 170 00:11:28.320 --> 00:11:33.480 recording is in the public domain. W Hardy Wilson by 171 00:11:33.600 --> 00:11:38.440 John Lane Mullins, illustrated by Gray Staines, Prospect Hill, New 172 00:11:38.480 --> 00:11:44.000 South Wales and Newington, Parramatta, New South Wales. Pencil drawings 173 00:11:44.159 --> 00:11:47.679 for a projected book of drawings of Georgian architecture in 174 00:11:47.799 --> 00:11:53.399 New South Wales. William Hardy Wilson was born in Sydney, 175 00:11:53.639 --> 00:11:56.960 and in his early years gave indications of that benign 176 00:11:57.039 --> 00:12:02.000 influence which art exerts upon her voteries. By profession, he 177 00:12:02.080 --> 00:12:05.919 is an architect, and nature implanted in his soul power 178 00:12:06.000 --> 00:12:09.080 to discern form, and imparted to him the gift of 179 00:12:09.120 --> 00:12:13.360 appreciation of colour. He possesses a clear perception of the 180 00:12:13.399 --> 00:12:17.360 loveliest hues of the Australian atmosphere, and enjoys not only 181 00:12:17.399 --> 00:12:20.840 the visual power to discover them, but the manual dexterity 182 00:12:20.919 --> 00:12:24.159 to present them to our admiring gaze through the medium 183 00:12:24.240 --> 00:12:28.600 of pencil. The artist and architect are happily blended in 184 00:12:28.639 --> 00:12:31.960 a strong personality, and the problem for himself and his 185 00:12:32.080 --> 00:12:37.759 friends is to determine which predominates. Like Whittington, he went 186 00:12:37.840 --> 00:12:40.799 to London, and during a seven years course of study 187 00:12:40.840 --> 00:12:44.000 in that great centre, as well as by frequent visits 188 00:12:44.039 --> 00:12:46.759 to the continent and to the galleries of Europe, he 189 00:12:46.840 --> 00:12:49.759 made himself familiar with much of the notable work of 190 00:12:49.840 --> 00:12:54.480 great artists and architects. He profited in full measure by 191 00:12:54.519 --> 00:12:58.840 intimate converse with ripe intellects and the finest examples of 192 00:12:58.919 --> 00:13:03.039 ancient and modern art. Then he returned to his native 193 00:13:03.039 --> 00:13:06.879 city with a professional equipment that makes for mastery in 194 00:13:06.960 --> 00:13:10.960 the calling of architects upon which he entered. He has 195 00:13:11.039 --> 00:13:15.480 devoted particular attention to buildings of the Georgian type erected 196 00:13:15.559 --> 00:13:19.120 under Governor Lochlan Macquarie between the years eighteen ten and 197 00:13:19.200 --> 00:13:23.519 eighteen twenty one. Before the arrival of that governor, there 198 00:13:23.600 --> 00:13:26.519 was literally no structure of any magnitude in the city 199 00:13:26.559 --> 00:13:30.240 of Sydney. His reign was a period of great architectural 200 00:13:30.279 --> 00:13:35.440 activity in this young country. These perishing remnants of majestic 201 00:13:35.559 --> 00:13:40.360 thought furnished the earliest evidence of its age. They possess 202 00:13:40.519 --> 00:13:43.919 much inherent beauty of form, which the subsequent tones of 203 00:13:44.000 --> 00:13:48.600 age and rich Any harshness of outline is subdued by 204 00:13:48.639 --> 00:13:53.279 the same mellowing agency or the glory of their comparative 205 00:13:53.320 --> 00:13:58.039 antiquity and the softening effects of time. Are reproduced with skill, 206 00:13:58.279 --> 00:14:04.039 fidelity and imagination by Hardy Wilson. His technique is admirable. 207 00:14:04.360 --> 00:14:08.759 There are no tricks in his treatment. Its simplicity is convincing. 208 00:14:09.159 --> 00:14:13.879 Every stroke is vibrant. All the impressive qualities the noble 209 00:14:14.000 --> 00:14:17.919 lines of the architecture are exhibited in his work. It 210 00:14:18.039 --> 00:14:22.240 is full of vitality. His correctness of vision and his 211 00:14:22.360 --> 00:14:26.000 dexterous management of the pencil enable him to draw things 212 00:14:26.000 --> 00:14:29.480 as he sees them. There is a complete absence of 213 00:14:29.519 --> 00:14:35.919 affectation or overelaboration. The whole effect is original, inexhaustibly agreeable. 214 00:14:36.919 --> 00:14:40.519 There are no finer examples of brick drawing in Australia. 215 00:14:41.600 --> 00:14:44.960 Note in the drawings reproduced, the weird light of the 216 00:14:45.000 --> 00:14:50.240 sun expressed by the conspicuous shadows across the steps. Examine 217 00:14:50.240 --> 00:14:54.960 the masses of foliage, their fullness, their interlacing, their transparency. 218 00:14:55.960 --> 00:15:01.960 Yet all is blended into a cloudlike harmony of shade. 219 00:15:02.240 --> 00:15:12.200 End of Part three, Part four of the second Number 220 00:15:12.279 --> 00:15:16.759 of Art in Australia, nineteen seventeen. This livery of Voctor 221 00:15:16.759 --> 00:15:22.480 recording is in the public domain. Arthur Streeton's Place in 222 00:15:22.559 --> 00:15:27.960 Australian Art by Lionel Lindsay, illustrated by Sydney Harbor and 223 00:15:28.159 --> 00:15:34.799 Kent Harvest, in the possession of Baldwin Spencer, Melbourne. Upon 224 00:15:34.879 --> 00:15:39.039 the beautiful landscape of Australia. Their rests neither the romance 225 00:15:39.159 --> 00:15:43.799 nor the burden of tradition. Our earliest painters brought their 226 00:15:43.840 --> 00:15:47.240 old world ways of thought and handling to its consideration, 227 00:15:47.679 --> 00:15:51.120 and even Louis Bouverlau, who came nearest to an Australian 228 00:15:51.159 --> 00:15:54.240 way of sight in his pool at Coleraine, is not 229 00:15:54.440 --> 00:15:59.000 free from the prevailing conventions of his day. The discoverer 230 00:15:59.320 --> 00:16:02.440 the first look into the heart of our landscape, as 231 00:16:02.519 --> 00:16:06.120 with the eyes of a child, and reveal its essential mystery, 232 00:16:06.399 --> 00:16:11.159 its truth, and its beauty, was Arthur Streeton. Consider for 233 00:16:11.240 --> 00:16:15.879 a moment what Australian landscape was before the advent of Streeton. 234 00:16:16.960 --> 00:16:20.159 The pioneer painters, though they had striven hard to render 235 00:16:20.200 --> 00:16:22.559 the forms of our landscape and the character of our 236 00:16:22.639 --> 00:16:26.919 trees were heavily handicapped by a working formula, while their 237 00:16:27.000 --> 00:16:29.879 vision had been already cast in a home country mold. 238 00:16:30.960 --> 00:16:34.480 In many cases they regretted their transposition, as all men 239 00:16:34.559 --> 00:16:39.639 regret the commonplaces of tradition once they are displaced. Visually, 240 00:16:39.720 --> 00:16:44.279 they were foreigners. The light flickered no longer upon deciduous foliage, 241 00:16:44.679 --> 00:16:47.639 so that the drawing master methods of fielding and harding 242 00:16:47.759 --> 00:16:52.320 availed them nothing. Aerial perspective was a new difficulty in 243 00:16:52.360 --> 00:16:56.799 the face of clear and delicate horizons, the flat masses 244 00:16:56.840 --> 00:17:00.320 of gum leaves, with their metallic luster and elusive grists, 245 00:17:00.759 --> 00:17:04.880 their sheen and shimmer of bronze with blue reflections. How 246 00:17:04.920 --> 00:17:08.759 could eyes accustomed to the rich, distinctive greens of England 247 00:17:08.960 --> 00:17:13.359 hope to render their difficult nuances. The problem could only 248 00:17:13.400 --> 00:17:17.799 be solved by a native born artist possessing the necessary genius, 249 00:17:18.039 --> 00:17:21.079 whose vision had never been disturbed by the schools of 250 00:17:21.119 --> 00:17:25.920 the old world. All artists pass through a period of initiation. 251 00:17:26.680 --> 00:17:30.039 They fasten upon the masters of their choice and paraphrase 252 00:17:30.119 --> 00:17:35.319 their divinity. Streeton's earliest predilection. I have been unable to 253 00:17:35.359 --> 00:17:39.160 discover but that he found himself at an astonishingly early 254 00:17:39.200 --> 00:17:42.640 age is evidenced by some of his earliest oils, painted 255 00:17:42.680 --> 00:17:46.240 upon the cedar of cigar boxes, in which his characteristics 256 00:17:46.279 --> 00:17:51.599 are easily discernible. Belle reeve his birthplace in Victoria may 257 00:17:51.640 --> 00:17:55.240 still preserve his earliest efforts, but it was not until 258 00:17:55.279 --> 00:17:59.000 he became a lithographer at Trudle's in Melbourne, having started 259 00:17:59.039 --> 00:18:01.440 life in a wine and space sir its store, afterwards 260 00:18:01.440 --> 00:18:04.920 serving in a soft goods establishment, that his career was 261 00:18:05.000 --> 00:18:10.279 really determined. Here he worked for several years painting landscape 262 00:18:10.319 --> 00:18:13.039 in his hours of freedom, and working at night with 263 00:18:13.160 --> 00:18:16.799 McCubbin and Longstaff in the life classes of the National Gallery. 264 00:18:17.880 --> 00:18:21.759 All art needs, at intervals the stimulus of shock, something 265 00:18:21.839 --> 00:18:25.000 coming from without that disturbs the convention of the hour 266 00:18:25.319 --> 00:18:29.519 and liberates the trammeled spirit upon a new path. This 267 00:18:29.720 --> 00:18:33.279 quickening came to Streeton and Condor when Tom Roberts returned 268 00:18:33.279 --> 00:18:36.839 from Paris, bringing the glad tidings of a new technique 269 00:18:37.000 --> 00:18:42.000 broken color, the tints mixed to no even consistency, but 270 00:18:42.160 --> 00:18:45.640 laid in its place finally with the square brush, the 271 00:18:45.680 --> 00:18:49.000 fresh gospel of Impressionism, with light as the god of 272 00:18:49.079 --> 00:18:52.960 the machine, and all the complaisant orthodoxes swept to the 273 00:18:53.000 --> 00:18:57.440 limbo of the forgotten. The dauntless three settled in an 274 00:18:57.440 --> 00:19:00.680 old house at Eagle Mount, near Heidelberg, and for three 275 00:19:00.759 --> 00:19:05.119 years worked out their salvation in that beautiful, undulating country 276 00:19:05.319 --> 00:19:08.599 through which the yarrow wanders quietly in the security of 277 00:19:08.599 --> 00:19:13.599 her woody banks. Their labors and discoveries in landscape created 278 00:19:13.640 --> 00:19:17.400 a revolution in Australian art. When they held their Impressionist 279 00:19:17.440 --> 00:19:22.279 exhibition of eighteen ninety two. That year is Our eighteen thirty, 280 00:19:22.839 --> 00:19:26.480 the fetters of convention were irreparably broken, and the first 281 00:19:26.519 --> 00:19:32.000 note of nationalism struck in Australian art. Reactionaries objected, but 282 00:19:32.160 --> 00:19:35.440 their objections were vain and doomed to extinction. For the 283 00:19:35.480 --> 00:19:39.319 revolutionaries had light and truth for their battle cry, and these, 284 00:19:39.599 --> 00:19:45.400 in all great causes, must ultimately prevail. Streeton's lovely pastoral 285 00:19:45.680 --> 00:19:49.400 still glides the stream and shall for ever glide, which 286 00:19:49.519 --> 00:19:52.200 was bought at the instigation of Julian Ashton for the 287 00:19:52.200 --> 00:19:56.000 Sydney Gallery, is the masterpiece which crowns this period of 288 00:19:56.000 --> 00:20:00.200 his work. It lays its quiet spell upon us ever 289 00:20:00.279 --> 00:20:03.599 more surely because its poetry is inherent in the faithful 290 00:20:03.599 --> 00:20:08.440 and delicate rendering of failing lights. In the year following, 291 00:20:08.799 --> 00:20:12.559 street and Condor and Roberts migrated to Sydney and settled 292 00:20:12.599 --> 00:20:15.559 in their Mossman camp, all traces of which have long 293 00:20:15.599 --> 00:20:21.000 since been obliterated by suburbia. Streeton's art was now fixed, 294 00:20:21.319 --> 00:20:25.039 and the coming years but saw him develop it. His 295 00:20:25.200 --> 00:20:30.200 colour always refined, became richer and more harmonious, his observation 296 00:20:30.480 --> 00:20:35.039 surer and more profound. New subject matter he opened up 297 00:20:35.240 --> 00:20:38.160 in fires On by the treatment of the open face 298 00:20:38.240 --> 00:20:40.799 of the range. A blaze of light in the summer 299 00:20:40.839 --> 00:20:45.119 sunlight with trees and hillside receding into the palpable blue 300 00:20:45.160 --> 00:20:48.519 of the sky, marks the furthest step in this treatment 301 00:20:48.599 --> 00:20:52.599 of light in Australia until Hasten matured his wonderful art 302 00:20:53.839 --> 00:20:58.039 in his two renderings of the Hawkesbury. Streeton displays absolute 303 00:20:58.160 --> 00:21:00.799 genius in the way he has handled the great stretch 304 00:21:00.839 --> 00:21:05.480 of countryside until the distance is closed by the Amethysteine hills. 305 00:21:06.440 --> 00:21:09.920 Here we have his peculiar ability at its finest, the 306 00:21:09.920 --> 00:21:13.400 power of laying value, colour and character with a stroke 307 00:21:13.480 --> 00:21:16.839 of the brush, so surely that the atmospheric impression is 308 00:21:16.880 --> 00:21:21.599 secured without artifice. This faculty could only be acquired by 309 00:21:21.680 --> 00:21:25.279 years spent out of doors. It is no studio art 310 00:21:25.359 --> 00:21:29.279 of sources and tricks. Painted entirely in the open. There 311 00:21:29.279 --> 00:21:33.480 rests upon it the benediction of the sky. Lyrically, it 312 00:21:33.559 --> 00:21:36.720 affirms the gift of life, the sovereignty of the sun. 313 00:21:37.960 --> 00:21:42.359 Such pictures are adorations, veritable hymns to Apollo, the one 314 00:21:42.400 --> 00:21:46.839 and only god of all true landscape painters. In eighteen 315 00:21:46.920 --> 00:21:50.480 ninety six, Streeton left us for the Old World, where 316 00:21:50.480 --> 00:21:54.880 he has exploited the picturesque in Venice, Posilipo and Cairo 317 00:21:55.319 --> 00:21:59.119 Chepstone Corf. The beautiful reaches of the Thames and the 318 00:21:59.119 --> 00:22:02.799 mystery of London fog have in turn attracted his brush, 319 00:22:03.079 --> 00:22:06.759 and to their characteristics he has added his inimitable grace, 320 00:22:07.119 --> 00:22:10.759 but has suffered the loss of that intimacy. This is 321 00:22:10.799 --> 00:22:14.039 the fate of all tourist art, which is embodied in 322 00:22:14.079 --> 00:22:18.839 the local soul of things understood from boyhood. In the 323 00:22:18.880 --> 00:22:22.319 center of the Empire, Streeton's eyesight is still his own, 324 00:22:22.880 --> 00:22:26.000 his impressionism as faithful to things seen, as in his 325 00:22:26.079 --> 00:22:30.920 Australian days in a Kent's Harvest, and as Sussex Idol, 326 00:22:31.119 --> 00:22:35.200 he returns to his Australian manner and achieves two exquisite 327 00:22:35.240 --> 00:22:41.000 masterpieces of all his English work, the most convincing and beautiful, 328 00:22:41.079 --> 00:22:44.680 but in Windsor, the Royal Barge at Eton KrF Castle, 329 00:22:44.960 --> 00:22:48.480 the chalk Pit, and all the heavier machines. I feel 330 00:22:48.519 --> 00:22:50.960 that there are other influences at work, and that the 331 00:22:51.000 --> 00:22:55.319 gay and exquisite impressionist has become a picture builder, availing 332 00:22:55.440 --> 00:22:58.359 himself of the formula of the masters, and that he 333 00:22:58.400 --> 00:23:03.079 has forsworn his birthright. Night upon two return visits to 334 00:23:03.119 --> 00:23:07.960 Australia Street and painted Australia Felix and the Fine Sydney 335 00:23:07.960 --> 00:23:11.640 Harbor across Cremawne, which was acquired by one of Streeton's 336 00:23:11.640 --> 00:23:17.200 most generous patrons, Sir Baldwin Spencer. Here he submits himself 337 00:23:17.240 --> 00:23:20.119 again to the charm and virtues of his native land, 338 00:23:20.440 --> 00:23:24.599 forgetting the recipes he had acquired abroad. In the Sydney 339 00:23:24.640 --> 00:23:27.960 Harbor panels of this period, he plays again with color 340 00:23:28.119 --> 00:23:31.160 like a magician, and if upon a louder and less 341 00:23:31.200 --> 00:23:34.720 delicate scale than in his earlier harbor pieces, still with 342 00:23:34.799 --> 00:23:39.799 the bravura that is rich and brilliant. Undoubtedly, the loss 343 00:23:39.799 --> 00:23:43.599 of Streeton to Australia is a heavy and irreplaceable one, 344 00:23:43.759 --> 00:23:46.319 for his art, as fresh and natural as the song 345 00:23:46.359 --> 00:23:49.720 of a bird, has revealed our country to us. But 346 00:23:49.880 --> 00:23:52.880 perhaps ours is the blame that, in the lean years 347 00:23:52.960 --> 00:23:56.319 following the Bursted Boom, he was forced to leave us 348 00:23:56.359 --> 00:24:00.200 for a handful of silver. But our permanent gain is 349 00:24:00.200 --> 00:24:03.160 that he matured his talents before he left us, in 350 00:24:03.240 --> 00:24:07.119 a series of masterpieces that began with Golden Summer and 351 00:24:07.240 --> 00:24:10.839 still glides the Stream, and ended with fires On and 352 00:24:10.880 --> 00:24:15.759 the Hawkesbury. These are our proud possessions and the cornerstones 353 00:24:15.799 --> 00:24:19.839 of Australian landscape. In them, faithful to the mood of 354 00:24:19.880 --> 00:24:23.440 the light, with no romantic instinct to clothe the facts 355 00:24:23.519 --> 00:24:26.960 with the ideal character of a vision, Streeton has revealed 356 00:24:26.960 --> 00:24:30.400 the native beauty of our country, its light, its gaiety, 357 00:24:30.680 --> 00:24:34.000 and its charm of color, with the incomparable style which 358 00:24:34.079 --> 00:24:38.640 is genius. In that revelation, he has raised his own 359 00:24:38.759 --> 00:24:52.440 most enduring monuments. End of Parts four, Part five of 360 00:24:52.480 --> 00:24:57.319 the Second Number of Arts in Australia, nineteen seventeen. This 361 00:24:57.400 --> 00:25:02.759 Libri vopt recording is in the public domain. David Lowe 362 00:25:02.960 --> 00:25:08.319 by Bertram Stephens, illustrated by pencil caricatures of F. McCubbin 363 00:25:08.480 --> 00:25:14.400 and Backsmeldrum by David Lowe. While a boy in New Zealand, 364 00:25:14.720 --> 00:25:19.400 David Lowe proved himself to be a facile portraitist. In line, 365 00:25:19.559 --> 00:25:23.079 the ability to capture a recognizable likeness in a rapid 366 00:25:23.119 --> 00:25:27.480 sketch is not common, and few artists anywhere have displayed 367 00:25:27.519 --> 00:25:32.440 such skill in portraiture as Loaded. While a youngster, time 368 00:25:32.519 --> 00:25:37.200 brought him greater ease and more insight into character. His 369 00:25:37.319 --> 00:25:41.680 book of Caricatures, published in nineteen fifteen, includes nearly four 370 00:25:41.759 --> 00:25:45.240 hundred figures and is the best portrait gallery of notable 371 00:25:45.240 --> 00:25:51.119 Australasian citizens that we possess. As a caricaturist, Low knows 372 00:25:51.160 --> 00:25:55.359 how to exaggerate humorously the external features of his subject, 373 00:25:55.680 --> 00:26:00.160 but is seldom grotesque. He lacks the moudants power of 374 00:26:00.200 --> 00:26:03.400 will Dyson, who in many cases has given a subtle 375 00:26:03.440 --> 00:26:08.319 and relentless interpretation of the soul of his victim. Low's 376 00:26:08.359 --> 00:26:12.880 cartoons and illustrations have always had humor in the actual drawing, 377 00:26:13.519 --> 00:26:17.839 and in his social sketches he depicts admirably the insussients 378 00:26:17.960 --> 00:26:22.119 flapper and the blatant cannut. They look as if the 379 00:26:22.240 --> 00:26:25.720 artist really enjoyed himself while at work upon them, which 380 00:26:25.720 --> 00:26:29.559 I am sure was really the case. Low takes his 381 00:26:29.759 --> 00:26:33.400 art seriously enough and spares no pains to secure the 382 00:26:33.440 --> 00:26:36.720 effect he desires, but he has come to regard his 383 00:26:36.839 --> 00:26:41.240 fellow men as material for laughter or derision. Life has 384 00:26:41.279 --> 00:26:44.519 been to him a more or less comic pageant, providing 385 00:26:44.559 --> 00:26:48.920 plenty of material for his pencil. For that reason, none 386 00:26:48.920 --> 00:26:52.160 of his drawings has touched the note of pathos, the 387 00:26:52.240 --> 00:26:55.480 tears mixed with laughter, which makes so much of the 388 00:26:55.559 --> 00:27:00.200 value of Phil May's sketches. Low's early cartoons would draw 389 00:27:00.200 --> 00:27:03.480 on one plane only they had the precision and a 390 00:27:03.519 --> 00:27:08.039 little of the coldness of a geometrical design. As a draftsman, 391 00:27:08.279 --> 00:27:10.559 he had something to learn when he began to work 392 00:27:10.599 --> 00:27:14.079 for the Bulletin in nineteen eleven. He soon learned it, 393 00:27:14.319 --> 00:27:17.920 and now he draws with depth and spirit. No longer 394 00:27:17.920 --> 00:27:20.880 do his pages depend upon the clean and vigorous line. 395 00:27:21.240 --> 00:27:25.799 They are more artistically composed. His observation has become keener, 396 00:27:26.000 --> 00:27:29.039 and he yets more bite and force into his portrayal 397 00:27:29.200 --> 00:27:34.119 of a political situation by patients, industry and incessants. Study 398 00:27:34.400 --> 00:27:39.160 Low has developed amazingly during the last six years. Now, 399 00:27:39.319 --> 00:27:41.880 at the age of twenty six, he has a fine 400 00:27:41.920 --> 00:27:46.440 achievement behind him, but as with Rabbi ben Ezra, the 401 00:27:46.440 --> 00:27:58.480