Impressionists Down Under
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A rare exhibition brings together over 250 works of Australia’s peak artistic period. T.V. PADMA
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Photos: Courtesy National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne
National treasures: “Shearing the Rams” by Tom Roberts (1890), oil on canvas on composition board, Felton Bequest, 1932 and “The Purple Noon’s Transparent Might” by Arthur Streeton (1896); oil on canvas, Purchased, 1896.
Visitors to Melbourne have a delightful treat in store till July 8: the rare exhibition of Australian impressionist paintings that opened on March 31 at the National Gallery of Victoria’s (NGV) Ian Potter Centre is drawing record number of visi
tors. NGV, with its 60,000 art works, is one of the oldest public galleries in the world and home to the largest collection in the southern hemisphere.
The NGV also offers a unique blend of modern science and century-old art, as conservators combine latest scientific techniques with painstaking skills and enormous patience to restore some of the old paintings to their original form.
The term “Australian Impressionism” has its roots in “en plein-air” — French for “in open air” — movement in Europe. Impressionism originated in France in the late 19th century when painters drew outdoors instead of in studios, trying to capture nature’s beauty. The artists tried to capture their “impressions” of the landscape, with nuances of its light and colours, on the spot. Impressionist artists used short, thick paint strokes, and did not blend or mix colours. Instead they used strokes of unmixed colours next to each other to create an optical illusion of mixing of colours. Impressionist artists also placed wet paint on wet paint, without waiting for the previous coat to dry, to create illusions of mingling colours.
National identity
NGV’s “Australian Impressionism” brings together over 250 works covering Australia’s peak artistic period of 1883 to 1897. These include works of five leading Australian impressionist painters: Charles Conder, Fredrick McCubbin, Tom Roberts, Arthur Streeton and Jane Sutherland. The period marks what many consider the beginning of a strong expression of Australian national identity that coincided with a rise in economy, increasing cultural sophistication and leisure time activities, as well as 100 years of European settlement. In the case of Australia, national identity translated into the bush and bush life increasingly seen as unique to the country. Art, literature and popular culture, therefore, began to focus on stories from the bush and bush life.
During the late 1880s, Roberts, McCubbin, Streeton and Conder set up the first artist bush camps outside Melbourne and Sydney, at Box Hill, Mentone and Eaglemont. Most of their sites were close to Melbourne or Sydney and accessible by rail, and their paintings were done with a thick sticky oil paint on canvas or board.
“The Impressionists formed the first significant art movement in Australia,” says Terence Lane, senior curator at NGV. “Although they were city dwellers, an evolving nationalism led to these painters to focus on the landscape to distil the essence of Australian way of life.”
Since 1891 the leading Australian impressionist painters were also known as “Heidelberg” school though they did not really belong to any single formal school. At best, Streeton, Roberts, Conder and McCubbin shared a good friendship and Streeton, Conder and Roberts spent two summers at Heidelberg farmhouse outside Melbourne, which perhaps inspired the title.
In August 1889, the four artists first opened an exhibition of 183 paintings, which they called “9 by 5 Impression Exhibition” — the name was inspired by the size of their paintings (nine inches by five inches). A catalogue by the artists says: “An effect is only momentary; so an impressionist tries to find his place. Two half hours are never alike, and he who tries to paint the sunset on two successive evenings, must be more or less working from memory. So in these works, it has been the object of the artist to render faithfully, and thus obtain first records of effects that widely differing, and often of very fleeting character.” Many of the original 183 works were done on cigar box lids!
Scathing critics
Not all viewers were impressed by the new ideas or the sketchy quality of the work. One scathing critic, James Smith (also one of the trustees on NGV), said four-fifths of the paintings were a “pain to the eye”, almost as if a paint pot had been accidentally spilt over a nine-by-five inches panel, or a small boy apprenticed to be a house painter made his first sketches. The painters promptly put up Smith’s review in front of the exhibition, inviting people to see dreadful stuff for themselves. The strategy worked and, today, the five are household names in Australia.
NGV has tried to recreate the “9 by 5” exhibition in its latest display. Public galleries around Australia lent their works to be displayed at NGV, and over 60 of the original 183 are now reunited at the exhibition.
The majority of the paintings are landscapes, though some are still portraits of city life, and scenes of the harbour. Blue predominates with ochre and dark brown; a few pleasant paintings have shades of pink, mauve and white. But overall, the impression is of dark and sombre shades, and there are few light and cheery tones. Some of the masterpieces on display, including Tom Roberts’ national treasure “Shearing the Rams”, have had a fresh lease of life, thanks to NGV’s painstaking conservation efforts.
The first process of any restoration is pre-treatment documentation, says Michael Varcoe-Cocks, chief conservator at the Ian Potter Centre. The conservator makes observations using a microscope and high-resolution digital photography to document these observations in detail. This is often augmented by technical examination to establish the painting’s condition and guide the treatment strategy.
Once analysed and documented, the paintings are ready for restoration. Modern conservators rely on a knowledge of chemistry and painting, using a variety of chemical agents to dissolve and remove specific surface layers that are traditionally very difficult to remove safely from original surfaces.
One such treated piece is “Shearing the Rams”, which was first painted in 1890 and restored about 80 years ago. But the natural resin used for restoration gradually degraded and the painting lost its cover over the decades. “With Tom Roberts ‘Shearing the Rams’, I began with a variety of imaging techniques (infrared, X-ray, spectral imaging, and ultraviolet digital photography and photo-microscopy) that identified changes in the composition made by the artist as well as later changes made by restorers,” says Varcoe-Cocks. These techniques can help establish the authenticity of a painting or identify later additions to an original painting. “Depending on the complexity and size of the treatment, it can take days or even years to complete,” he adds.
Fascinating insights
This kind of examination also gives fascinating insights into how the artist composed the masterpiece, sometimes abandoning original ideas or brush strokes and replacing them with fresh ones. For example, NGV’s examination of “Shearing the Rams” showed how Roberts had originally painted the central shearer differently, but changed his mind and painted over it. An x-ray of Arthur Streeton’s “The Purple Noon’s Transparent Might” reveals two areas flanking the main composition that were painted differently and seemingly later to the centre section.
“In the early stages of composition development, it is common for landscape painters to leave a void where they will later add in the foliage. This void, later painted in, is what is seen in the x-ray,” explains Varcoe-Cocks.
Amazingly the technical evidence is supported by Streeton’s own account (written late in his life) of how when he was painting on location the trees that were partially concealing his view were chopped down by a somewhat over-enthusiastic local. If only this person knew that he was creating the view that, once captured on canvas by Streeton, was to become what is often stated as the pinnacle of Australian landscape painting, says Varcoe-Cocks.
Even so, NGV conservators’ painstaking efforts not only allow us to see the paintings in their original form but also tell us the story of how every sheep, brook and tree was painted!
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