Brought to Light Australian Art 1850-1965

St Leonards remains far from the tropical lushness of this scene. See Tom Silver Fine Art, Australian Heritage Exhibition, 1830-1980 [catalogue], Tom Silver Fine Art, Melbourne, 1985, no.3. The title, Weary at Funchal, Is suggested by the present author. 9 Chevalier exhibited only once more at the Royal Academy, in 1895 (a large oil of Cap Glraõ, Madeira), his poor health finally forcing him to give up painting and live quietly In retirement In Sydenham from that year. He died there in 1902, aged 73. 10 A reproduction of the painting is used to Illustrate Annabel Farjeon's biography of Eleanor Farjeon and the story of her father is related by Eleanor in her own reminiscences. See Annabel Farjeon, Morning Has Broken: A Biography of Eleanor Farjeon, Julia MacRae, London, 1986, p.5, and Eleanor Farjeon, A Nursery in the Nineties, Oxford University Press, London, 1960, pp.27-31. 11 Treuherz, p.10. 12 James Dafforne, 'The works of Nicolas Chevalier', Art Journal, July 1879, p.121. 13 Caroline Chevalier, letter to Georgiana McCrae, 5 September 1875, Bateman Papers. 14 In Victorian England, 'sentimental' meant 'expressive of refined or tender emotion; appealing to the higher or more refined feelings'. The issue of 'sentiment' Is also discussed by Treuherz, p.12. CONTINUING TRADITIONS William Barak Corroborée pp.36-39 1 The best preserved example of a possum-skin cloak Is the magnificent Lake Condah cloak, collected In western Victoria In 1872 and now In the Museum of Victoria, Melbourne. 2 Peter Beveridge, The Aborigines of Victoria and Riverina, M. L. Hutchinson, Melbourne, 1889, p.138. 3 Barak dictated an autobiographical fragment 'My words', which Is preserved In the La Trobe Library, State Library of Victoria, Melbourne. 4 Barak's genealogy was recorded by the anthropologist A. W. Howitt, Howitt Papers, Box 1053/26, La Trobe Library, State Library of Victoria, Melbourne. 5 Marie H. Fels, Good men and true: The Aboriginal police of the Port Phillip District, 1837-1853, PhD Thesis, University of Melbourne, Melbourne, 1986. 6 The story of Coranderrk and official attitudes towards It are most comprehensively studied In D. Barwlck, 'Coranderrk and Cumeroogunga: Pioneers and policy', In Opportunity and Response, edsT. S. Epstein & D. H. Penny, C. Hurst, London, 1972. 7 Anne Fraser Bon, 'Barak, an Aboriginal statesman', Argus, Melbourne, 28 November 1931. 8 G. W. Torrance, 'Music of the Australian Aboriginal (Songs by W. Barak)', Journal of the Anthropological Institute of Great Britain and Ireland, XVI, 1887, pp.335-9. 9 Argus, 12 February 1887; Age, Melbourne, 4 March 1887; Telegraph, Melbourne, 4 March 1887. 10 Argus, 25 March 1886. 11 Arthur Baessler, 'Belm König William Barak In Coranderrk (Victoria)', in his Südsee-Bilder, G. Reimer, Berlin, 1895. 12 Baessler, pp.183-4. 13 Baessler, p.184. 14 Bon, Argus. 15 See Andrew Sayers, Aboriginal Artists of the Nineteenth Century, Oxford University Press In association with the National Gallery of Australia, Melbourne, 1994, Ch.2 & pp.113-14. 16 Lin Onus, Foreword, in Sayers, pp.ix-x. TASTE AND THE LATE-COLONIAL BRISBANE RESIDENCE Artist unknown Stained glass window pp.40-45 1 J. B. Fewlngs, quoted in Arcadian Simplicity: J. B. Fewings, Memoirs of Toowong, ed. Helen Gregory, State Library Board of Queensland, Brisbane, 1990, p.56. 2 At the time of demolition, the stained glass window was dismantled, packed and stored until its 'rediscovery' some four decades later by historian Beverley Sherry. On her recommendation the window was presented to the Queensland Art Gallery and subsequently restored to Its former state minus an arch-shaped section at the bottom depicting a duck-hunting expedition (letter to General Manager, Australian Broadcasting Corporation, Brisbane, 23 January 1986, artists files, Queensland Art Gallery, Brisbane). 3 David Paul Crook, Aspects of Brisbane society In the 1880s, BA (Hons) Thesis, University of Queensland, Brisbane, 1958, p.21. 4 The earliest known reference Is in the Queenslander where it refers to 'a large stained glass window representing Australian hunting, shooting and agricultural scenes', 20 June 1891, p.1162. 5 Letter from J. B. Fewlngs, 1890, In Gregory (ed.), p.105. 6 'Queensland notable men', Pugh's Almanac, 1896, p.139. See also Leslie E. Slaughter, Finneys: 90 Years of Progress, 1864-1954, Finney Isles & Co., Brisbane, 1954, 68pp. 7 Queenslander, 3 January 1891, p.35. 8 Pugh's Almanac, p.139. 9 Ronald Lawson, Brisbane in the 1890s: A Study of an Australian Urban Society, University of Queensland Press, St Lucia (Qld), 1973, p.115. 10 Following the death of his first wife in 1866, Finney had married Sidney Anne Jackson. The three-acre site on which Sidney House was erected In 1882 was purchased by Sidney Anne Finney on 12 May 1881. When she died the following year, the property came Into the sole possession of Thomas Finney (Slaughter, Finneys ..., p.8). 11 Lawson notes that, 'In 1891 the Queenslander reprinted an article on the progress of Australian business from the British Journal of Commerce, which took as Its example Brisbane's largest retail store, Finney Isles. This firm had, It reported: "recently erected ... a handsome pile [sic] of buildings which when completed will undoubtably [sic] be one of the finest of Its kind In the world ... Few ... would realize that this palatial structure and the gigantic business controlled In it, is the result of only twenty-five years business career... Selling almost every kind of article, It is aptly titled the 'Universal Providers' ".' As Lawson recognises, the new department store followed the International trend towards large-scale retailing for the masses rather than retailing for the classes (Lawson, p.47). 12 Toowong press clippings, John Oxley Library, Brisbane. 13 Gregory (ed.), p.42. 14 F. D. G. Stanley, the colonial architect who designed Sidney House after entering private practice in 1881, was well known for his adaptation of classical revivalism. His Queensland National Bank, Cooktown (1889) shares many similarities with Sidney House Including the large wraparound verandah and balconies with extensive wrought Iron balustrading used as a screen from the Intense sunlight of northern Queensland. The bank building Is illustrated In Janet Hogan, Building Queensland's Heritage, Richmond Hill Press, Richmond (Vic.), 1978, p.151. 15 Queenslander, 20 June 1891, p.1162. 16 F. E. Lord, 'Brisbane's historic homes XLVIII — Sidney House, Toowong', Queenslander, 29 January 1931, p.46. 17 L. E. Slaughter, 'Sidney House, Toowong', The Historical Society of Queensland Journal, vol.V, no.2, 1954, p.943. 18 R. E. N. Twopeny, Town Life in Australia, Elliot Stock, London, 1883. 19 Suzanne Forge notes the increasing availability of mass-produced Items at this time to 'produce the illusion of wealth' and describes the manuals produced as a guide to decoration of houses. In Victorian Splendour: Australian Interior Decorations, 1837-1901, Oxford University Press, Melbourne, 1981, p.20. 20 Margaret Maynard, 'Aspects of taste: Exhibitions of art In Brisbane 1876-1887', John Oxley Journal, vol.1, no.6, 1980, pp.16-19. 21 Quoted in Lawson, pp.336-8. 22 Forge, pp.11-26. On the significance of the copy in nineteenth-century homes see Alison Inglis, 'Art at second hand: Prints In European pictures in Victoria before 1870', Australian Journal of Art, vol.VII, 1988, pp.50-63. 23 'Sidney House and Middenbury', document archives, Australian Broadcasting Corporation, Sydney. 24 For a full description of the eagles and the statue see Slaughter, 'Sidney House, Toowong', pp.943-4. A photograph of the statue is published in Historic Buildings of Brisbane, press cuttings file, John Oxley Library, Brisbane. 25 Beverley Sherry, Australia's Historic Stained Glass, Murray Child, Sydney, 1991, p.40. According to Sherry, 'Themes of both the "old country" and the "new" appear in stained glass, sometimes as an amalgam of the two' (p.38). 26 For the most comprehensive description see Slaughter, 'Sidney House, Toowong', pp.944-5. 27 Lawson, p.57. 28 Lord, p.46. 29 Letter from J. B. Fewings, in Gregory (ed.), pp.89-90. 30 Diane Byrne, 'The art of stained glass in Brisbane 1889-1920', Arts National, 2, 1985, pp.90-96. 31 Lord (p.46) suggests that Finney organised the stained glass commission while on a business trip to Ireland In 1884. 32 In his 1989 conservation report, Mitchell Foley notes a number of original idiosyncrasies Including glass being inserted upside down or back to front and being cut off square. 33 Sherry (p.59) cites earlier examples of Images related to coursing and kangaroo shooting done In Victoria In the 1870s. 34 Terence Lane, The Kangaroo in the Decorative Arts [exhibition catalogue], National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne, 1979, unpag. As Lane points out, George Stubbs painted from the preserved skin of a shot animal brought back to England on the Endeavour. The painting was exhibited in 1773 and reproduced an as engraving In the same year in Hawkesworth's official account of the voyages. 35 All Round the World: An Illustrated Record of Voyages, Travels and Adventures in All Parts of the Globe, vol.2, ed. W. J. Ainsworth, Collins, London and Glasgow, undated; first volume published In 1875. 36 See Grass trees, p.291, for the stationary backward­ looking kangaroo and p.337 for the kangaroo­ hunting scene ( All Round the World ...). The kangaroo is described In these pages as 'an animal between the squirrel and deer, has five claws on Its fore paws and three talons on its hindlegs, like a bird, and yet hops on its tail' ( All Round the World ..., p.316). 'HJ SKETCHES THE SCENE' Harriet Jane Nevllle-Rolfe In Queensland pp.46-51 The author Is indebted to the previous research on Alpha by local historian Isabel Hoch. 1 Author unknown, quoted In Miriam Dlxson, The Real Matilda: Woman and Identity in Australia, 1788-1975, Penguin Books, Rlngwood (Vic.), 1976, p.8. 2 A. E. Gunther, Rolfe Family Records, Lltho Developments Ltd, London, 1962, p.68. 3 See Whitney Chadwick, Women, Art and Society, Thames & Hudson, New York, 1990, p.165. 4 Gunther, p.37. 5 Historian Isabel Hoch describes Alpha as a township that opened In 1884 as a point for collecting mail. As It had a good underground water supply, it eventually became a depot (conversation with the author 1996); see also Isabel Hoch, Alpha Jericho: A History 1846-1984, Isabel Hoch, Alpha (Qld), 1984, p.46. 6 The sketch Is probably by Charles William Neville- Rolfe. 7 Caroline Jordan, 'No-Man's Land? Amateurism and colonial women artists', Art and Australia, Autumn 1995, p.358. 8 Jordan, p.358 9 Gunther, p.127. ENDNOTES