Brought to Light Australian Art 1850-1965

(1858-1937) and Dr J. W. Springthorpe (1855-1933) were also among his long-term supporters and were probably involved in the subscription fund. Other casts of Truth are now in the National Gallery of Australia, Canberra, and the Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney. 15 Robin Tranter points out that Mackennal took up the theme once more in The Truthseeker, Royal Academy, 1903. The theme of 'truth' was a typically symbolist subject and preoccupied a number of artists in the wake of the Dreyfus affair: for example, in Truth denied 1895 by Jules Dalou (Tranter, cat.22). Tranter also discusses in some detail the influence on Mackennal at this time of Gilbert and the New Sculpture. 16 Former pupil, Mrs Outhwaite, to Daniel Thomas; curatorial file, The Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney. AROUND THE STUDIOS Girolamo Nerli The sitting pp.64-69 I would like to thank the following people who helped with the research for this article: Terence Lane, Roger Collins, Margaret Maynard, Joan Kerr, Michael Watson, Bruce Eames, Kay Truelove and Lynne Seear. 1 Oncea Month, Melbourne, 1 January 1886, p.72, and 1 June 1886, p.560, cited by Roger Collins, 'Towards a Nerli chronology', in Peter Entwisle, Michael Dunn & Roger Collins, Nerli: An Exhibition of Paintings and Drawings, Dunedin Public Art Gallery, Dunedin (NZ), 1988, pp.42-3. 2 Table Talk, Melbourne, 27 August 1886, p.1. 3 Nerli's address is listed as Norwich Chambers, Hunter Street, in Sands Sydney Directories during the years 1887 to 1890, as well as in the exhibition catalogues of the Art Society of New South Wales during these years. 4 John Rothenstein, The Life and Death of Conder, Dent, London, 1938, p.9. Conder began exhibiting with the Art Society of New South Wales in 1887, the same year as Nerli. 5 Catalogue of the Spring Exhibition of the Art Society of New South Wales, no.30, The sitting, 105 pounds. 6 I am indebted to Terence Lane for identifying details of the picture. 7 For Roth, see Margaret Maynard, 'An untimely Aesthete — the artist Constance Roth in Australia', Australia 1888, Bulletin no.13, November 1984. 8 The sketch is probably Nerli's The Ascension c.1887, which is now known only by a colour transparency in the possession of the Auckland City Art Gallery. See Peter Entwisle, 'G. P. Nerli: Influences in Australia', in Entwisle and others, pp.33-4, 105-8. The Ascension is reproduced between pp.48 and 49, plate (i). 9 Ursula Hoff, Charles Conder: His Australian Years, National Gallery Society of Victoria, Melbourne, 1960, pp.8-9. Paradoxically, Whistler's own studio was described as 'plain almost to bareness, the lofty room is a veritable workshop' in Walter Dowdeswell, 'Whistler', Art Journal, London, April 1887, p.98. 10 See Ann Galbally, 'Aestheticism in Australia', in Australian Art and Architecture: Essays Presented to Bernard Smith, eds Anthony Bradley &Terry Smith, Oxford University Press, Melbourne, 1980. II Terence Lane &Jessie Serle, Australians at Home: A Documentary History of Australian Domestic Interiors from 1788 to 1914, Oxford University Press, Melbourne, 1990, p.39; Sally Webster, 'Oriental carpets', in Floorcoverings in Australia 1800-1950, ed. Scott Carlin, Historic Houses Trust of NSW, Glebe (NSW), 1997, p.61. 12 Melbourne Bulletin, 9 October 1885, p.6, cited in Lane & Serle, p.40. 13 Once a Month, 15 May 1885, p.394, cited in Lane & Serle, p.257. 14 Table Talk, 11 October 1889, p.6. 15 Table Talk, 11 January 1889, p.10; 15 February 1889, p.13. 16 For example, Table Talk, 26 April 1889, p.5, with reference to Tom Roberts's studio; or Table Talk, 11July 1890, p.5, with reference to Constance Roth's studio. 17 Table Talk, 23 August 1889, p.4. 18 See Mary Eagle, 'The Mikado Syndrome: Was there an Orient in Asia for the Australian "Impressionist" painters?', Australian Journal of Art, vol.VI, 1987, pp.48-9. 19 Phil May, 'At the Sydney Japanese Village', Melbourne Bulletin, 1 May 1886, p.5; Constance Roth, 'Sketches at the Japanese Village', Illustrated Sydney News, 16 May 1887, p.20. 20 Dawn, Sydney, May 1889, p.25. 21 Table Talk, 11 October 1889, p.6. 22 Celia Betsky, 'In the artist's studio', Portfolio, vol.IV, no.1, January/February 1982, pp.32 & 34. See also Nicolai Cikovsky, 'Introduction', in Richard N. Gregg (organiser), The Artist's Studio in American Painting [exhibition catalogue], Allentown Art Museum, Allentown, Pennsylvania, c.1983. 23 'Around the Melbourne studios', Illustrated Sydney News, 1 August 1891, p.7. For an example of a contemporary Italian studio, see the photographs of Odoardo Gelli's studio, c.1880, reproduced in Portrait De L'Artiste: images des peintres 1600-1890, Haboldt & Co., Paris, 1992, p.171. Like Nerli, Gelli was a former student of Antonio Ciseri in Florence. 1owe this reference to Terence Lane. 24 Lane & Serle, p.217 and passim. Nerli's studio as represented in The sitting was generally praised in the press for its taste. 25 Australasian Sketcher, 17 May 1888, pp.71 & 78. See also Tim Bonyhady, Images in Opposition: Australian Landscape Painting 1801-1890, Oxford University Press, Melbourne, 1985, pp.18-20. 26 Sydney Morning Herald, 20 July 1889, p.7; 17 August 1889, p.7; see also Table Talk, 26 April 1889, p.5, which explains how the nest of studios in Grosvenor Chambers had given it 'the reputation of the artists' headquarters'. 27 Lane & Serle, pp.215-16. Descriptions of Roberts's studio in Grosvenor Chambers can be found in Table Talk, 27 April 1888, p.2; 26 April 1889, p.5; and Illustrated Sydney News, 1 August 1891, p.6. His earlier studio in William Street is described in Table Talk, 23 September 1887, p.11. 28 Table Talk, 22 June 1888, p.9. 29 For 'Studio Wednesdays', see Table Talk, 12 April 1889, p.13, and 26 April 1889, p.5. For visitors comparing the accessories in Roberts's studio with their representation in his picture, Jealousy, see Table Talk, 26 April 1889, p.5. For a comparison of the work of Conder's students with items in his studio, see Table Talk, 2 August 1889, p.7. 30 For a description of Conder's studio, see Table Talk, 5 April 1889, p.6. For his students, see Table Talk, 2 August 1889, p.7. The presence of the Nerli sketch in Conder's studio provides further evidence of their association. 31 Charles Conder, quoted in Rothenstein, p.26. Mrs Caffyn was the novelist, Kathleen Mannington Caffyn, who became well known for her novel, A Yellow Aster (1894). The suggestion made by Peter Entwisle in Entwisle and others, pp.35-6 & pp.117-19, that Nerli's The sitting might have been painted in Conder's Melbourne studio, can now be safely discarded. 32 Nerli also taught students during his first Sydney period. See the Daily Telegraph, Sydney, 8 October 1889, p.4, which remarks on 'a female head, very cleverly painted by Miss Mabel Jones, one of Signor Nerli's pupils' at the 1889 Spring Exhibition of the Art Society of New South Wales (at which The sitting was exhibited). Jones's Study of a head was also praised in Dawn, November 1889, p.6. 33 Sydney Morning Herald, 19 October 1889 p.7; 7 September 1889, p.7. 34 See, for example, Sydney Morning Herald, 3 August 1889, p.6, for an 'at home' held in Lionel Cowen's studio in George Street. See Table Talk, 11 July 1890, p.5, for a description of Roth's studio; and Sydney Morning Herald, 14 September 1889, p.7, for a discussion of her role as a decorator. 35 Sydney Morning Herald, 29 June 1889, p.7. See also Sydney Morning Herald, 1 September 1889, p.7, which mentions that Nerli had got The sitting 'well forward’ for the forthcoming Art Society exhibition. 36 Illustrated Sydney News, 31 October 1889, p.23; Sydney Morning Herald, 4 October 1889, p.5. 37 Repose is described in the Illustrated Sydney News, 26 January 1888, p.15. The portrait of Myra Kemble is discussed in the Sydney Morning Herald, 18 September 1888, p.5. At 145.5 x 79.3cm, it is slightly larger than The sitting (117 x 75 cm) and when exhibited at the 1888 Art Society of New South Wales exhibition, Nerli asked 105 pounds for it, the same price he was to ask for The sitting the following year. Michael Dunn in Entwisle and others, p.108, suggests that The portrait of Myra Kemble was commissioned by J. F. Archibald, editor of the Bulletin. 38 For contemporary press reviews of The sitting, see Sydney Morning Herald, 4 October 1889, p.5; Daily Telegraph, 8 October 1889, p.4; Sydney Mail, 12 October 1889, p.812; and Illustrated Sydney News, 31 October 1889, p.23. None of these reviews mentions the identity of the sitter, which critics usually did in the case of portraits of well-known people. This would appear to preclude the possibility of Constance Roth being the sitter, along with the fact that the sitter does not closely resemble her. For contemporary images of Roth, see Illustrated Sydney News, 14 November 1889, p.20, and the Bulletin, 3 September 1892, p.8. 39 Ronnie L. Zakon, The Artist and the Studio in the Eighteenth and Nineteenth Centuries, Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, 1978, p.26. 40 Michael Dunn, 'The art of Girolamo Nerli 1860-1926', in Entwisle and others, pp.16-17, and Peter Entwisle, in Entwisle and others, p.36 & pp.118-19. Entwisle suggests that the artist in the Portrait of a young woman artist might be either Constance Roth or the New Zealand artist, Grace Joel. On the grounds of physical resemblance, the artist is unlikely to be Roth (see note 38 above). It may possibly be a portrait of Grace Joel to whom it bears some resemblance. However, if it is a portrait of Joel, it is extremely unlikely to have been painted during her first period as a student at the National Gallery School in Melbourne from mid-1888 until the end of 1889, nor is it likely to have been painted in Conder's studio in Melbourne as Entwisle suggests. Joel does not appear to have visited Sydney during this period, thus also excluding the possibility that she is the sitter for Nerli's The sitting. For Joel, see R. D. J. Collins, 'Grace Joel and Australia', Bulletin of New Zealand Art History, no.14, 1994. Contemporary photographic portraits of Joel are reproduced in Collins, 'Grace Joel and Australia', p.31 ; Peter Entwisle, William Matthew Hodgkins & His Circle [exhibition catalogue], Dunedin Public Art Gallery, Dunedin (NZ), p.117; and Anne Kirker, New Zealand Women Artists: A Survey of 150 Years, Craftsman House, East Roseville (NSW), 1993, p.37. 41 Sydney Mail, 12 October 1889, p.812. 42 Doreen Bolger Burke, 'Painters and sculptors in a decorative age', in In Pursuit of Beauty: Americans and the Aesthetic Movement, ed. Doreen Bolger Burke, Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, 1986, p.326. A possible local precedent for Nerli's choice of subject exists in two watercolour drawings by George Ashton, Before the sitting and After the sitting, exhibited at the 1888 Spring Exhibition of the Art Society of New South Wales. The pictures are described in the Sydney Morning Herald, 19 September 1888, p.12, as 'both sketches in an artist's studio' and the treatment of the bric-à-brac of the studio in After the sitting is praised. OUT IN THE OPEN: Australian Pleinairism and the Heidelberg School Arthur Streeton, Walter Withers, Girolamo Nerli pp.70-75 1 The phrase, 'beginnings of art in Australia', was used by Streeton as the subtitle to the article he wrote to mark Melbourne's centenary; see Arthur Streeton, 'Eaglemont in the 'eighties: Beginnings of art in Australia', 'Souvenir of a Century of Progress' supplement, Argus, Melbourne, 16 October 1934, p.49. 2 Sidney Dickinson, 'Two exhibitions of paintings', Australasian Critic, vol.1, no.10, 1 July 1891, p.240. ENDNOTES 303