This was an exhibition at the Art Gallery of Ballarat; on display until 15 October 2022 and it’s well worth a visit.
Max Meldrum established a painting school in Melbourne in 1916 at which he promoted Tonalism – a theory that flowed through the art world from the early to mid 20th century … identifiable by muted tones, ‘misty appearance’ and restricted colour palette and which was quintessential in the development of Australian modernism. Those quotes are from this review of the exhibition in Australian Arts Review.
The introduction to the exhibition tells us that Meldrum as both painter and teacher was adored and reviled in equal measure: his effusive personality and argumentative nature led to mud-slinging in the media and amongst his peers.
We start with paintings of flowers. Meldrum limited his classes to mostly still lifes, requiring students to use only five tones. Some of these flower studies were quite striking. I loved Alma Figuerola’s Still life, 1930. The Age arts reporter said the first impression conveyed by her paintings is one of color radiating from the numerous flower and still life studies ..(revealing)..an intimate sense of form and the relationship of the various elements, one to the other.
I also liked Harry Harrison’s Daffodils, 1917. According to Art in Australia, in 1919; His work is characterised by fine breadth of treatment, and accurate observation of relative tone-values.
Arnold Shore said of the classes: Up close as possible to the subject went our easels. Back twenty feet or more (six metres) we were led. Half close your eye. Compare the effect of the subject with your canvas. What do you see? … We were forbidden to look at the subject when close to it, all our observations must be made from our viewing point twenty feet away. This is Shores Still life with irises, 1920s.
This is Max Meldrum’s own painting, Still life, 1924. The quotes about these works included in the accompanying notes don’t give the impression of a hostile media. For instance the art critic for The Herald notes approvingly, a feature of Meldrum’s training is to make an exhaustive and analytical inquiry into the tonal and space relations between the items being painted.
One of Meldrum’s most well known, now at least after having been rediscovered, is Clarice Beckett. This is her still life, (Untitled – Gums and leaves) circa 1918.
There are three other Beckett paintings in the exhibition, given a wall of their own, as seen here.
They were very hard to photograph individually, but I gave it a go. This is Across the bay, 1931, one of a series of nocturnal paintings of the foreshore of Port Phillip Bay from Sandringham to St Kilda. Behind glass, so impossible to avoid reflections – of the opposite wall, and photographer! So hard to see here the influence of artist James McNeil Whistler in her restrained and moody paintings contrasting dark and light, using the moon, stars, car or street lights to illuminate her night scenes. You have to see this in the gallery. Quite beautiful.
No such problem with the other two, both beautiful. This is The beach, circa 1930. She only studied with Meldrum for a year, 1917, but his admiration for her work and her tenacity in exhibiting regularly meant that she became the target for Meldrum’s detractors who saw her as ‘a new and dangerous variety of Meldrumite’. He greatly valued her work, despite her ignoring his advice to not paint in shifting light, instead favouring painting en plein air. Like other Meldrumites and modernists she focussed on everyday subjects such as roads and beaches. Although her paintings capturing the atmosphere of foggy evenings seem to me to be distinctly hers. This painting is described as a typical Beckett work – a restrained image where the sea and sky are fused in a haze.
This is her Misty evening, Beaumaris, 1930. The accompanying note quotes someone not identified praising This pupil of Max Meldrum (who) has caught cliff and water in all moods and light and season, revealing there is not one Beaumaris Bay but a score. So the response to her work was not all negative at the time she was painting. Why then was she ignored for so long?
It’s interesting to compare Clarice Beckett’s Beaumaris painting to another Meldrum student, Colin Colahan, who the note tells us is emulating her distinctive colours and subject matter. Although in my view not so well. This is his (Untitled – Beaumaris) not dated.
There are a number of paintings set in and around Ballarat. Meldrum came to the city a number of times to give lectures and to hold an exhibition. Here is his Ballarat Gardens, 1923. These seem quite bold colours to me, surprising given his training focus on muted tones.
This is by Ballarat bornJohn Robinson, The Lodge, Bishops Court, Wendouree, 1930. He worked at the Ballarat School of Mines and his family say he was a student of Meldrum but little is known of his work. Which seems a shame, I like this a lot.
I also liked Colin Colahan’s Elizabeth Street, Melbourne, 1929. These depictions of the daily world, including cars and roads, is what made tonalism also a modernist movement.
Eltham has changed a lot since this painting by Edward Kimpton, The haystack, Eltham, 1929.
So has Mount Macedon, the area where Arnold Shore lived and painted from 1939 to 1947. This is Hillside farm, 1939. I found this very different from other tonalist paintings but the contemporary art critic thought The interest of whatever he does is enlivened by the brilliance and beauty of his colour. In his handling of colour lies the essential vitality of his work.
Meldrum’s Trees in the Dandenongs, 1930s, was painted in Olinda. According to Meldrum trees presented, were a challenge to artists in relation to the elements that make up a painting, in order of difficulty, tone, proportion and colour. They possess a bewildering range of colour, changing tones and differences in proportion and over the whole nothing harsh. The trunks are a harmony of shades and gradation that challenge a painter.
Bendigo born Carl Hampel moved to the mallee in 1914 and its landscape was an ongoing inspiration for him. This is A silvery vista, 1920s. A greener mallee with sturdier trees than I recall.
I particularly liked a couple of paintings by Percy Leason who was not a student of Meldrum but who supported his approach. He learned to paint in Nhill (I wonder how), spent time in Melbourne then Sydney and back to Melbourne. Later he moved to America, where I assume he painted this self portrait, In the studio, 1954.
He worked in Melbourne as a lithographic artist before moving to Sydney in 1917 to work as a cartoonist at the Bulletin before returning to Melbourne in 1924. According to the accompanying note to this work, Meldrum’s theory of tonal painting accorded with his own views. As reflected in these paintings. One of my first studies in Eltham, 1924.
And this one, Statue in garden pond, Eltham, circa 1930.
But I really liked this work which may have been painted in America to which he moved permanently in 1938 and where he started using high key colours despite Meldrum’s opposition to that approach. This is his Washing day, 1930s, one of my favourite paintings in the exhibition.
A number of portraits were of interest, as much for the stories behind them, as the paintings themselves. In addition to Percy Leason’s self portrait there is one by Arnold Shore. He looks a strong sort of fellow. He is celebrating his fortieth year so its called Four tens (Self portrait), 1937.
This portrait by Max Meldrum is of the Professor in Chemistry and Meallurgy of the School of Mines, commissioned by the School on his retirement after 41 years. But it was rejected as too modern. In 1934 over 50 individuals and businesses donated to enable its purchase, presumably by the Gallery. Mica Smith, 1923.
And this is included because it reflects the experience of so many women artists! The Violinist is by Dorothy Edwards and is not dated. The note says: Little is known of Dorothy Allen Edwards, other than she was a student of Max Medrum. We should know more.
An interesting little exhibition both for those who know a lot, and those, like me, who don’t. Well worth a look.
James Newton says
Hello
We have two oils by one of Meldrum students, August Corneils. Unfortunately we can find little about him so any further information would be appreciated. Both are competent floral studies. He seems to have vanished without a trace, perhaps deservedly so, but we do like these works.
John Wilkinson says
The Washing Day work by Percy Leason was painted at his home in Eltham during the 1930s. I went to the house when it was sold and placed the painting exactly. His studio is on the left.
Jenny Doran says
Thanks for that – I love the painting.