Brought to Light Australian Art 1850-1965

and folding screens hung with oriental draperies. Art critics freely acknowledged, if sometimes condescendingly, the important role of Roth in bringing the benefits of the studio into the decoration of the home.34That the studio in The sitting also has Indian red walls and screens hung with oriental draperies shows some of the common period features of this luxuriant, decorating style. When a critic found Nerli in his studio engaged on a portrait painting, to be called 'The sitting' he predicted that the picture would be 'most popular' if it were sent to the next Art Society exhibition.35Critics viewing the 1889 Spring Exhibition indeed noted that The sitting contained more elaborate and carefully finished work than was customary for Nerli and that he had chosen subjects that were likely to be more popular than any earlier paintings he had sent for the public's attention.36He had previously shown major portraits of attractive, fashionable young women at the Society's exhibitions which earned the praise of critics for their originality, freedom of handling and unconventional subjects, though critics hinted that the flamboyance and sensuality of these images, such as Portrait c.1890 (QAG), perhaps ran ahead of conventional public taste. His Repose, exhibited in 1887, was a portrait 'à la Salomé ' of a woman, her expression coquettish and piquant, in a black satin costume against a saffron background. The following year he showed his Portrait o f Myra Kemble 1888 (National Gallery of Australia), the popular Sydney actress, whose smiling face, 'with the speaking eyes', was half-concealed behind a white ostrich feather.37The sensuality and coquettishness of these women gives way to the reserved feminine grace of the figure in The sitting. Variously described by critics as 'a graceful female figure' or 'a stately girl', the identity of the woman in The sitting remains unknown.38Portrayed in the rich ambience of the studio, the sitter becomes associated symbolically with the artist and his working environment.39This figure may be usefully compared with that seen in Nerli's undated picture, Portrait o f a young woman artist (Hocken Library, Dunedin), where Above Girolamo Nerli Portrait o f a young woman artist c.1889 Oil on canvas 61.2x40.6cm Hocken Library, University of Otago, Dunedin, New Zealand Right Girolamo Nerli Portrait c.1890 Oil on canvas 43.3 X 30cm Purchased 1980 Queensland Art Gallery the young artist, dressed in a painting smock and with palette and brushes in hand, sits on a studio couch laden with draperies, as if interrupted in the process of painting. (Interestingly, an island fan may be seen on the floor at her feet, in a similar position to the one in The sitting.)40 The relationship between Nerli and his portrait subject is here complementary: one of shared commitment and allegiance as artists. By contrast, The sitting is less concerned with the characterisation of the sitter than with demonstrating Nerli's artistic talents, especially his consummate skill at painting different textures. He departs from his usual practice in portraits of employing strongly contrasting figure and ground relationships, thus allowing more scope for his detailed treatment of the studio and its accessories. The sitting was generally well received by critics. None was more enthusiastic than the Sydney Mail writer who found in the representation of the studio the expression of Nerli's distinctive artistic personality: 'Show me a man's home and Iwill tell you his character' is emphatically true of an artist's studio. The visitor to Signor Nerli's realizes in the quaint surroundings the artist's leaning; originality, with a tincture of the grotesque, and an almost scorn for the conventional in art are evident; and powerfully these qualities assert themselves in 'The Sitting', where in the centre of the studio, with its Japanese draperies, vividly coloured fans, striking contrasts forced into close companionship, a gracefully dignified girl stands in a simple costume of the day. There are ease and refinement in the figure and pose, and the expression of the face is well revealed ... Every item in the picture is a study. The colouring may be too vivid and too nearly bizarre to please all, but the talent evinced is undeniable .41 The real subject of The sitting, as its title suggests, is 'art admiring art': the artistic process and its setting in which the artist's studio becomes an allegory of the creative imagination.42 Leigh Astbury lectures on Australian art in the Departm ent of Visual Arts, Monash University, Melbourne. 68 BROUGHT TO LIGHT: Australian Art 1850-1965