Brought to Light Australian Art 1850-1965

A PAINTER'S SILENT PROTEST Peter Purves Smith The Nazis, Nuremberg Mary Eagle t the end of February 1938 / % Peter Purves Smith arrived in London from Australia to stay a couple of weeks before moving to Paris. (His destination, like that of almost every aspiring young artist, was a studio on the left bank.) He read the Times over breakfast at his sisters Mayfair flat the first day and was immediately engrossed by its account of events in Europe, where Hitler was busily redrawing the political map. During the first thirteen months in Paris there were weeks at a time when the newspapers provided his only conversation. Back amongst friends in London from May 1939, 'Pete was the only one of us who would hurry out each morning to get the papers, he couldn't wait to read the news, and would talk politics obsessively all the time', said Maisie Drysdale! In February 1938 the Times had the European political reports tucked away on pages 14 or 15 after the personal advertisements, obituaries, sporting results, Royal circular, and various congratulatory home events. Nonetheless, the newspaper gave discreet indications that it regarded the situation in Europe as serious. The columns about Austria that alerted Purves Smith had been written from reports sent from Vienna and other cities just a few hours before the paper was delivered, before breakfast, to half the United Kingdom. Purves Smith read about the meeting that had taken place between Hitler and Austria's Chancellor Schuschnigg in Berchtesgaden on 12 February (while he, Peter, had been cruising off the coast of Africa). He easily discerned that the subtext of Austria's 'Agreement' to officially recognise the Austrian Nazis was an enforced endorsement of the Nazi Party's call for the union of Austria and Germany. Day by day the papers detailed subsequent small events in Austria, and daily Purves Smith absorbed the story of an inexorable shift taking place within Austrian society, beginning with the release from prison of those Austrian Nazi party leaders whose one-time crimes against the state were no longer crimes, and the triumphant street marches and demonstrations by members of the Nazi Party rejoicing in their new role. In the first days of March there was talk of a revolution at Graz, the Styrian capital and a Nazi stronghold since early days. The Austrian government lifted its ban on a 'German Day' that the Austrian Nazis had planned for Linz, capital of Upper Austria — not far from the birthplace of Hitler — and the celebration, with a new date of 27 March, was expanded to include Vienna and all Austrian provincial capitals. It became clear that Germany's call for a powerful union of the German race had strong support within Austrian society. Many officers in the Austrian army elected to reveal their sympathy with the Nazi cause. Official permission was given to citizens to fly the German swastika flag alongside the Austrian colours on special occasions such as the visit of eminent leaders from the Reich. This edict was widely interpreted as a recommendation and by the first week of March the swastika was 'everywhere to be seen ... leading to an atmosphere of dangerous tension? The ban on 700 Austrian associations of the German Athletic League, imposed in 1934, was also lifted, giving unhampered freedom to the 41000-strong Hitler Youth in Austria. The new phrase 'all German' was increasingly heard in the mouths of those Austrians who were falling into line with the notion of union with Germany. The voices of other Austrians, the Jews and non-Aryans, were not heard. The period's style of reporting could have seemed to an anxious reader to ignore the significance of what was taking place, even to endorse the German cause. Assailed day after day with these and many other circumstantial details of the Nazis flexing their muscles in Austria, Purves Smith responded with a small group of political paintings. The first, an angry caricature, The Nazis, Nuremberg 1938 (Queensland Art Gallery), was produced in the aftermath of the Anschluss, during Purves Smith's first months in Paris. 'I haven't spoken since I left England ... & out of this misery came the accompanying masterpiece', he wrote Maisie in mid-May 1938 — most probably referring to the first stages of this painting.3 He worked with the expensive brushes (recommended by Russell Drysdale) which had been Maisie's farewell present at the George Bell School in Melbourne a few months before. The artist set a stage of German traditional Kultur. For the background he painted steep blue hills and the silhouetted, wildly curving baroque pediments of buildings whose windows, reflecting the sky, look like empty windows in a lifeless town. In the foreground he imagined a town square Facing page Peter Purves Smith Australia 1912-49 The Nazis, Nuremberg 1938 Oil on canvas 71.4x91.4cm Purchased 1961 Queensland Art Gallery 148 BROUGHT TO LIGHT: Australian Art 1850-1965