Brought to Light Australian Art 1850-1965

ART FOR THE BOURGEOIS DREAMERS OF PARIS Rupert Bunny Bathers Mark Pennings I n the history of Australian art Rupert Bunny's place as one of its most . successful expatriate artists during the first decade of the twentieth century is assured. Artist and teacher George Bell considered this idealistic, charming and sophisticated man to be one of Australia's greatest artists, and if European success had been the sole criterion of talent Bunny would undoubtedly have held a much more esteemed place in Australian art circles before the Second World War. The painting Bathers 1906 (Queensland Art Gallery) is a fine Edwardian example from Bunny's Parisian years.1This is an important work in the sense that an understanding of the various contexts of its production tells us much about the artist, his oeuvre and Salon taste during La Belle Epoque. The painting exemplifies the middle period of Bunny's development (broadly 1900 to 1911) when he began to specialise in images of women at leisure. Bathers is a work that also reveals his integration of impressionist style and more subtle and complex tonal methods. On a cultural level this image of 'Edwardian Luxe' involved the strategy of idealising bourgeois women as both sexual and maternal figures. Moreover, Bunny responded to the art market, to existing forms of patronage and to future taste makers, all of which he hoped to impress in order to gain commissions.2 Bunny belonged to a generation of conservative Anglo-French painters who came to maturity during the late 1880s. Although these artists incorporated a range of sources, they remained primarily aligned to academic traditions and French teaching methods. Bunny was an urbane man who loved music and theatre as much as he loved art, and he mixed with notable cultural celebrities in Paris and London. Eclectic cultural interests informed his attitude towards art making. Bunny was not a superficial appropriator; rather he was an artist of osmosis who absorbed traditional and contemporary styles which served as points of departure for his own inclinations, such as his love of colour, the decorative, the theatrical, and the luxurious.3Consequently, Bunny's work demonstrated an admirable breadth of influences, from Tiepolo to the Nabis, Velázquez to Edouard Manet, and from Ford Madox Brown to Pierre Puvis de Chavannes. However, these influences did not always affect his choice of subject matter. Classical mythology, women at leisure, pastoral dances and landscapes were themes that sustained him throughout his career. In particular, Bunny concentrated on the depiction of intimate indoor, outdoor and balcony scenes of women at leisure. These paintings have a strong sense of bourgeois grandeur and seek to flatter the sources of patronage he was keen to impress at this time. Endormies (Sleeping women) c.1904 (National Gallery of Victoria) is one of the first fully formulated examples from this period. Like Bathers it is a luxurious rendition of women reclining next to water, and its languorous setting is enhanced by strewn roses and graceful swans. This decorative effect alludes on the one hand to the graceful neo-classical ambience of English painter Edward Poynter. On the other hand, while sustaining allusions to a feminine Arcadia, the work depicts a contemporary setting in order to heighten its appeal. Bunny presents an image of the bourgeois woman as a transcendent symbol of charm and elegance. This civilising interpretation of bourgeois leisure is also evident in Summer Time c.1907 (The Art Gallery of New South Wales, exhibited at the New Salon in 1907); a group of women enjoy the wistful pleasures of a summer's day, lounging inside a shaded pavilion, smelling roses and drinking iced tea. What Summer Time shares with Bathers is the presentation of an intimate genre scene on the grand scale of academic and Salon painting.4 Bathers is set in an interior where nude and partly clothed women are gathered around a bathing pool. In the foreground a mother and child form the central element. The mother looks piously into the distance while the child she clasps to her side reaches towards two ascending yellow butterflies. On the right side of the mother and child is a draped standing bather, and, to the left, two reclining women smoking cigarettes. Dispersed around this group are still-life objects including fans, fruit, roses, a tray, and tea or coffee cups. In the background of the composition is a central pool with another five women. In the upper left background two of these women are clothed and stand in front of a dressing screen, while the others are either standing in the pool or sitting along its edge. The painting contains a profusion of allegorical and art historical allusions and Facing page Rupert Bunny Australia/France 1864-1947 Bathers 1906 Oil on canvas 229.2x250cm Purchased 1988 Queensland Art Gallery 98 BROUGHT TO LIGHT: Australian Art 1850-1965