This was an exhibition at the Geelong Art Gallery from 1 April to 9 July 2023. We visited on the 14th of June. Here’s a picture of Clarice which greets visitors to the gallery along with a brief overview of her career. Born in Casterton in 1887, died in Beaumaris in 1935 (from pneumonia caught while out painting). From 1919 she lived in Beaumaris which features in many of her works which were all/mostly painted en plein air. She was recognised by Max Meldrum as one of the finest exponents of his controversial theories of tonality. However as with the work of other tonalist artists of this era, her work was little appreciated during her lifetime and rarely sold. The Age art critic in 1924 noted the dreariness which characterises her paintings.
Nevertheless she persisted! As well as participating in group exhibitions she held annual solo exhibitions between 1923 and 1933 each displaying up to 80 works. She expressed her artistic aims at the 6th Annual Exhibition of the Twenty Melbourne Painters in 1924 as to give a sincere and truthful representation of a portion of the beauty of Nature, and to show the charm of light and shade, which I try to give forth in correct tones so as to give as nearly as possible an exact illusion of reality.
After her death her father and sister put together an exhibition of her work in 1936 but after that she was largely forgotten until rediscovered in the early seventies by Dr Rosalinde Hollinrake who found some 1200 of her paintings stored by her sister in rural Victoria – unfortunately in a rat infested barn open to the elements. However enough could be salvaged and exhibited – to the acclaim she did not receive in her lifetime – from 1971 onwards. The Australian National Gallery of Australia, most state and many regional galleries now hold examples of her work. There’s a novel about her life, Night Street by Kristel Thornell (2010) and an authoritative non-fiction book, Clarice Beckett: The Artist and her Circle by Rosalind Hollinrake if you are interested in reading more about her. [Information from Geelong Gallery notes and Odd Roads to be Walking: 156 Women Who Shaped Australian Art, Paul Finucane / Catherine Stuart).
Two paintings were used in the publicity material for the exhibition. This is Evening Landscape c. 1924, acquired by the National Gallery of Australia in 1974, not long after Beckett was rediscovered. Very illustrative of her work – soft colours of dusk, a winding road, leaning trees, street lights and telephone poles. A note on another painting is relevant to this and all of her work. Despite its apparent simplicity its compositional motifs and painterly effects are carefully orchestrated to evoke an atmosphere of silence to heighten its emotional impact and mood. Its power lies in its evocation of feelings, in its suggestion of things intangible and unseeable that can create in the quiet, intuitive viewer an intense encounter with something familiar and simultaneously strange.
And this is Evening, St Kilda Road c. 1930, purchased in 2013 by the Gallery of New South Wales. Probably one of her best known works, at least it’s familiar to me. It demonstrates that in Beckett’s art of the momentary, what lingers is an enduring sensation of being in the world. Here, the receding taillights of traffic invite the eye to travel through the moment and connect with the sensations of her works. This painting is pigment rich and medium poor. She used little binding agent resulting in the sparseness of the paint layer, the hazed matt finish, and elusively defined forms. This gives her oil paintings the feel of watercolour washes and carries the sense of transience that comes with it.
I loved all of the paintings and took a lot of pictures! I’ve tried to whittle them down to the very best, but it’s been hard. She liked to group her paintings by theme. The Geelong exhibition combined chronology and themes as best they could. I will start with the paintings held by galleries, including when they acquired them as I think that’s interesting. Often followed by works depicting the same subject held in private collections. It’s hard to avoid grouping the works by theme as there are so many depicting the same thing or view but at different times of day and in different weather. It’s interesting to see the variations.
The National Gallery of Australia owns Beaumaris Seascape c. 1923, purchased in 1971, as soon as she was rediscovered. Beckett’s familiarity with locale sharpened her focus and informed her painting … the suburb’s streets, residences, and gardens, were the inspiration for many of her works painted in various light conditions. Asked about travelling abroad she said: Why would I wish to go somewhere else strange. I’ve only just got the hang of painting Beaumaris.
Another work in the NGA is Collins Street, evening 1931, also purchased in 1971 – the Gallery was quick off the mark in acquiring Beckett paintings.
The National Gallery of Victoria has Beach Road after rain (Street scene) c. 1927, acquired as part of a bequest in 1984.
One of many works depicting roads in all sorts of weather. Here’s the same road in a private collection, Bus stop, Beach Road, sunset c. 1927.
I think this work may have been of the same road, but from a different direction. Perhaps, otherwise just another road with telegraph poles. The horse and cart seems as though it’s from a different era already. The first sound c 1924, from a private collection.
The NGV also has one of Beckett’s many paintings of the Yarra river. Across the Yarra c. 1931, purchased in 1985.
The year before, she painted this one, which looks to me like a practice run at capturing lights across the water. Lights across the Bay 1930, from a private collection.
One of many scenes of water at dusk or sunset is Sunset across Beaumaris Bay c. 1930-31 which is part of the Bayside City Council Art and Heritage Collection, purchased in 2014.
Which looks very much like the view captured in Sunset on the Bay n.d. from a private collection. I love the shapes of the trees, the colour of the sky, the round moon. We are there in the moment.
Which in turn is similar to the view depicted in Saturday n.d. from a collection owned by Russell Crowe. I knew from twitter that Russell was a fan of Clarice, he loaned some of his works to an exhibition of her work put on by the Gallery of South Australia February – May 2021 which I would have liked to have seen. I was pleased to see one of his paintings here.
New South Wales in addition to Evening, St Kilda Road, seen above, has one of the Bay Road paintings, purchased in 2021. This is Bay Road, smoke haze / Bay Road, foggy morning c. 1932
The Art Gallery of South Australia has a large number of Becketts and as already noted mounted a major exhibition in 2021 which displayed 130 paintings, thematically displayed around shifts in time that chart the chronology of a day. Another indication she is hard to curate I reckon. This is Luna Park 1919, an early work The accompanying note says Beckett’s grounding in drawing and her powers of observation mean that in two or three painterly marks she conveys the rush of a red-coated woman crossing the street outside Luna Park. It asks the viewer to note the artist’s idiosyncratic eye for composition, here as if capturing a scene from her peripheral vision.
Summer fields 1926 is one of a number of paintings Beckett made at Naringal Station, a Western District property owned by a friend. She worked there for about five months in 1926 during which she produced a body of work that was radically different from the prevailing approach of Australian artists to the landscape. Art critic Ian Burn said in 1990 that these Naringal works remain unique within Australian art. Fred Williams, seeing this painting in 1971, forty-five years after it was painted, recorded in his diary: She really was ahead of her time. The accompanying note describes a shimmering mirage activated by the setting sun across an open field is a complex register of subtle tonal shifts in a composition with an absorbing depth of field.
Most of these seem to be in private collections including The three trees 1926.
And Naringal landscape 1926. There were more than these displayed and I liked them all.
Another in the Art Gallery of South Australia is Motor lights 1929. The automobile was a new and exciting innovation at the time Beckett was painting and it’s not surprising that it’s depicted in many of her paintings. This vehicle became very familiar motif for Beckett.
Here are some other works, in the hands of private collectors depicting motor cars. First, another early work, Rainy evening, city c. 1919
She painted them at different times of day and in different weather. Here’s another work in a private collection depicting a familiar road and vehicle, Bay Road, Beaumaris c. 1927.
The Art Gallery of South Australia was gifted Wet Day at Brighton c. 1928 in 2019. Another curving road, poles and hastily drawn figures, this time hurrying through inclement weather. A splash of colour on a vehicle – maybe a bus.
Geelong Art Gallery has another wintry scene in Rainy day 1930, purchased in 1973 shortly after Beckett was rediscovered. While empty winding roads are a repeated, psychologically charged subject in many of Beckett’s works, here her solitary, umbrella-covered figure walking by a cart lends pathos and loneliness to the quiet visual narrative.
It’s appropriate for the Art Gallery of Ballarat to have some Becketts given she went to school at Queen’s College in that city. Misty evening, Beaumaris 1930 was a bequest of Maud Rowe in 1937, a year after Beckett’s death. You can feel the stillness of the water. I’m not sure that without the title I would have recognised it was evening. I love the calmness it evokes.
Also included in that bequest to the Ballarat Gallery in 1937 is The beach c. 1930. Beckett loved the water. The solidity of the colour of the beach strikes me as unusual in her work.
Another beach scene is held in a private collection. Ricketts Point (Even tide) n.d. Again I think you can feel the calmness of the scene.
Another contemplative work depicting water is Evening calm 1928, from a private collection. I would have guessed this was evening. I love the reflected mast.
Bendigo Art Gallery has The empty seat c. 1925, gifted to the Gallery in 1993. One work among many that reveals Beckett’s fine modulation of colour, form, and mood – here a mood of serenity, or perhaps melancholy.
I thought it similar in atmosphere to The solitary bathing box c. 1932 held in a private collection. In which the short throw of shadow cast by the sinewy ti-tree onto the structure suggests the sun is high in a summer sky. Natural and built forms are more clearly delineated in works Beckett painted in bright sunlight than those shrouded in the gloaming, hazes and mists of other subjects.
We visited Castlemaine’s Art Gallery in May and noted the absence of their Becketts which we were told were on loan for an exhibition. And here they were. This is Mist c.1923 which was gifted to the Gallery in 2013.
And here’s another watery scene. Boatshed, Beaumaris c. 1928 which came from the 1937 Maud Rowe Bequest that also benefited the Ballarat Art Gallery. The accompanying note says ‘reflections’ were often a feature of Beckett’s compositions. This is an image of clarity and quietude. Reflected in the calm waters of Port Phillip Bay, the boatshed’s solidity dissolves in a shimmering, fugitive mirror image.
Another work held in the Castlemaine Gallery is Wet evening c. 1927. Featuring the recurring theme of the motor car travelling on a wet road towards an uncertain destination.
Castlemaine also has one of Beckett’s paintings of the bay. Silver morning (Near Beaumaris) c. 1931, a gift from Clarice’s sister Hilda in 1936, the year she died. Saved from the barn.
Benalla Art Gallery is another that we visited this year to be disappointed their Beckett had been loaned for this exhibition, so nice to see it here. This is Spring morning c. 1925. I thought it was quite atypical for a Beckett painting. A painter friend of mine thought this work showed Beckett couldn’t paint in bold colours but I loved it. The accompanying note says here Beckett celebrates spring light, its shifting movement throughout a day, and she hints at the changing intensity of light through the seasons. The abstract patches in the foreground introduce a degree of ambiguity to charge what she sees with a sense of mystery: while real and observed, her shadows allude to the unknown, to things that can and cannot be seen.
I also thought this painting of chooks was atypical – certainly not what I think of when I hear the name Beckett. But I liked it a lot. End of the garden c. 1929, held in a private collection.
Bendigo also has Beach scene n.d. gifted to the Gallery in 1978.
So now to my final pictures, which I’ve grouped according to theme. Beckett painted two pictures of Princes Bridge. Both in 1930 but they are very different. Here is Princes Bridge c. 1930; a solidly depicted bridge from the State Library of Victoria’s Pictures Collection purchased in 2006. They are still researching the date it was painted – perhaps it was 1924-26.
And here is another, View towards Princes Street Bridge, Flinders Street Station and the APA Tower c. 1930 that was gifted to the Art Gallery of South Australia in 2020. Compare the two – very different. I think the second one looks almost unfinished.
And here is another bridge although the title suggest the artist’s focus was on the water, which is indeed very beautiful but so is the bridge. I love the reflection of the bridge in the water and the ghostly outline of the city. This is The Yarra, sunset c. 1930, owned by a private collector.
Whilst the exhibition is over you can still buy a digital catalogue from the Geelong Gallery for $10 linked to here. And you can still read about / experience (a bit high tech for me) the exhibition held at the Gallery of South Australia here. And whenever you visit a gallery it’s worth checking out whether they hold any Clarice Beckett paintings.
Pauline says
Beautiful exhibition. Love your line ‘just another road with telegraph poles.’ She really did like revisiting similar landscapes which at times seems to limit her subject matter.
Joe Burke says
Yes it was a pleasure to see so many of Clarice Beckett works in the one exhibition and to appreciate how hard she worked and how good she was in finding the “moment” in early mornings, night skies, water reflections, wet roads, car headlights and telephone poles.
And I appreciate the paintings of Princes Bridge even more now that I’ve learnt that John Monash did the structural work. Its a very handsome bridge.