Brought to Light Australian Art 1850-1965

worn. The hem of her pinafore is frayed and her velvet dress with its frilled cuffs seems likely to be a cast-off; the brim of her straw hat is broken. Beside her is a large basket of vivid flowers, white-yellow, mauve and red-orange. She has loosed her grasp on a small bunch of these flowers, and her other hand rests on a rude wooden crutch. One foot rests on this cmtch. She has no coat or jacket, only a shawl, but beyond her, buffeted by the wind and separated from her by more than physical distance, small groups of warmly dressed people walk by the sea, with frolicking children and pet dogs. Close to the next shelter, an invalid-chair has been turned away from an approaching sudden shower. Each element in the painting is very clear, even to the decorative mouldings of the shelter's roof, and the graffiti carved on the bench-back (the artist's signature is 'carved' into the platform of the shelter). The dogs, the figures, the second shelter, and even the castle ruins are all easily deciphered and satisfyingly proportioned. The orientation of the cliffs and the sea lies north to south, with the timbers of the shelter being lit by the rays of a setting sun whose lingering but illusory warmth is suggested by the faint pink of the clouds of the background. Despite this accumulation of detail, the main clue to this 'episode' lies with the basket of flowers. No doubt Chevalier was aware of the symbolic language of flowers, very popular in Victorian times, where violets, for instance, signified modesty and primroses were for early youth and sadness; the ferns, ivy and bramble, also visible in this picture, stood for sincerity, fidelity and lowliness, respectively.2But these particular flowers have not been depicted here arbitrarily, nor are they included for their aptness in expressing the character of the child, however nicely they carry out this function. In fact, they are all wildflowers of spring, which can be found blooming particularly early along the chalky cliffs of coastal Sussex. Violets, for example, have a very short season from February to April, and the primroses that carpet woods, banks and seacliffs often start to flower in midwinter in the south.3The length of the Above Nicholas Chevalier Waiting for the ferry, Manilla 1881 Oil on canvas 126x75cm Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery, Hobart Right Nicholas Chevalier Weary at Funchal c.1884-94 Oil on canvas 121x90cm Private collection sun's rays and the blustery, squally weather, together with the seasonableness of the flowers, would suggest that Chevalier painted this picture in March or April, in time for the Academy exhibition in May. The episode at St Leonards can thus be explained: the artist, out taking the air, has come across a flower-seller asleep in a shelter. Progress must have been difficult for her, trying to manage an unwieldy basket and her crutch. The basket is still full, and the flowers have not wilted. Has the child become exhausted gathering these flowers herself — and, by falling asleep, has she missed the chance of making sales? The late hour means the promenaders will soon have retreated indoors. Where will she go when it is dark? What if someone unscrupulous should encounter her? The relatively low viewpoint and the closeness of the artist (and the viewer) to his subject bring about a curious unease in the observer. The little girl looks so defenceless and vulnerable, there is a sense of invasion of privacy, even of voyeurism, to the scene. With Weary: An episode at St Leonards Chevalier is joining a substream of artists whose paintings protested against some of the appalling social conditions that existed throughout Queen Victoria's reign.4 In a subtle and unostentatious manner, Chevalier is expressing his concern, and drawing attention to the plight of this child, and to that of thousands like her in late-Victorian England. There was then no safety-net of social security: destitution, malnutrition, disease, and sexual exploitation were very real cankers in contemporary society, and children were, of course, especially at risk. It was a situation that Charles Dickens, drawing from his own experiences in the blacking factory, explored in literature (one remembers Oliver Twist, and Little Nell, Pip from Great Expectations and Florence Dombey). At the same time, members of the so-called 'social realist' school of painting, such as Luke Fildes, Frank Holl and Hubert Herkomer, had struck at the consciences of the well-to-do with graphic pictures of the poor queueing for a bed at the workhouse (Luke Fildes, Applicants for admission to a casual ward 1874) or burying 32 BROUGHT TO LIGHT: Australian Art 1850-1965