ARTICLE BY: Nevin Hurst

Fine Art and Federation in Tasmania

How strange and mysterious. What well-guarded secret did Van Diemen’s Land hold that drew so many of the colonial artists to our shores? Perhaps it was our oh so English climate or the ease with which the great sailing ships enjoyed sweeping around the southern latitudes, then to point their bows into the wide Derwent estuary with a favourable following wind. Suffice to say that they did arrive, and in greater numbers here than did their counterparts in Sydney Town, our earliest and most substantial settlement.

European artists contributed to the recording and interpretation of our culture in a variety of ways. Pre-settlement artists such as Augustus Earl, de Sainson, Le Breton and William Ellis recorded events either from the confines of the ship or as members of landing parties in a foreign and often uncharted land. Others came as early settlers or were forced to come as convicts. Among the early convict artists most valued are Thomas Bock and Thomas Griffiths Wainewright. Both were portrait artists and, along with WB Gould, they recorded for posterity images of the landed gentry, merchants and art patrons of the day.

Toward the middle of the century many talented artists began to arrive. Among them was the towering figure of landscape, John Glover. Others included the major portrait artists of the time Benjamin Duterrau and Robert Hawker Dowling who, as well as capturing images of the landed gentry and other notables, left us with many fine images of the indigenous aborigines. William Duke was a painter of theatre sets and whaling scenes, while Henry Gritten focussed his talent on homesteads and coaching scenes. John Skinner Prout was the watercolourist landscape artist and lithographer who introduced lithography to Tasmania. These artists, together with their convict counterparts, Knut Bull, Joseph Lycett, Charles Henry Theodore Costantini and others, ushered in a golden age of painting not surpassed to the present day.

Several of the governors of the time encouraged the arts. Governor Franklin (Governor from 1837-1843) and his wife Lady Franklin were noted for their patronage of Tasmanian artists, in particular Bock, Gould and Chapman. As well Lady Hamilton, the wife of Governor Hamilton, formed a popular sketch club and literacy association in the 1880 ‘s.

Prior to the Victorian gold rush in 1851 many artists visited Tasmania, no doubt drawn by tales of its pure light, breathtaking natural beauty and Georgian architecture. These enduring aspects of Tasmanian culture continue to draw artists to our state today. Some, such as Eugene von Guerard and Ludwig Becker, were important national figures who visited Tasmania and left behind fine examples of their craft in the collections of the landed gentry, merchants and other patrons.

Australia’s first professional landscape artist, William Charles Piguenit, was born in Tasmania in 1836 and, unfortunately, departed for New South Wales in 1880. Piguenit had contributed much to the recording of the Tasmanian landscape and was often assisted by his friend Frank Dunnett. Both were employed by the Tasmanian Lands Department. Piguenit had initially resisted the vibrant colour, dash and verve of the Impressionist Movement but in the end he became a convert.

The loss of Piguenit was in part made up for by the arrival of Haughton Forrest in 1876. His contribution to our artistic heritage was a prolific quantity of finely detailed land and seascapes. Did Piguenit, Haughton Forrest or some other local artist encourage the next wave of artists to visit Tasmania? Arthur Boyd (senior) and his wife, Emma Minnie, paid yearly visits to Tasmania in the 1890’s. Perhaps they passed on the word to their mainland colleagues. In any event, they came in force.

As the late colonial era drew to a close and the end of the century and Federation became the topic of the day, yet another exciting art movement was silently and unobtrusively taking place. Artists of the now famous Heidelberg Impressionist School were frequenting Tasmania during the late 1890’s and into the early part of the twentieth century. Their initial choice of landscape was the then breadbasket of Hobart Town, the New Town and Moonah area. Cooley’s Hotel offered accommodation, hearty meals and a convivial atmosphere. All this was advertised as being just a short pony ride from the wharf. Artists from this period included Federick McCubbin ((1855-1917), Julian Rossi Ashton (1851-1942), Albert Henry Fullwood (1863-1930). At a later stage Sir Arthur Streeton (1867-1943), Harold Herbert (1892-1945) and others followed these artists.

Surely there is a PhD in the making for one of our bright young fine art students to delve into this previously little known arena and write a fuller history of this important period in our history. Quite obviously these now famous Australian impressionist artists passed on many of their skills, ideas and techniques to a willing band of intrepid females who carried on as best they were able in a late impressionist style.

It was mainly a group of women, beginning with Louisa Swan and followed by Mildred Lovett, (her pupil Joseph Connor) Eileen Crow, Blanch Murphy, Edith Holmes and Dorothy Stoner who were the artists who helped guide Tasmania into the year 1901 and thereby into Federation. Their mentor at this time, Albert Henry Fullwood, was not only sharing a studio with Louisa Swan but also accompanying them on plein air painting excursions to the Queens Domain, Derwent and Huon valleys. Mildred Lovett went on to become the principal of the now famous Julian Ashton School, Sydney, New South Wales.

Unfortunately for Tasmania, two of our now most celebrated Tasmanian born artists had long before left the State. Fingal born artist, Francis John McComas, 1874, (his father was the local council clerk and his mother a Davies of the founding family of The Mercury newspaper) appears on the art scene in Sydney as a young man studying at the renowned east Sydney Technical College. He later was employed as an illuminator for the greeting card firm John Sands. The 1890’s found him painting with Sir Arthur Streeton and other impressionist artists around the shores of Sydney Harbour and the valley of the Hawkesbury River. Perhaps it was he who encouraged his contemporaries to visit inspirational Tasmania? Unfortunately he departed Australia in 1898 for California and became one of the leading artists west of the Mississippi. He was a founder member of the Monterey School. Gertrude Stein on viewing the murals he painted on the ceiling walls of the Hotel Del Monte stated they were the best art she had yet seen in America.

Derwent Lees was also born 1885 at Bellerive on the banks of the Derwent (hence the name). He appears shortly there after in Victoria — left Australia in 1905 and went on to make quite a name for himself in England. Both he and McComas were the only two Australian born artists to exhibit in the famous Armory Exhibition in New York in 1913 — perhaps the most influential exhibition ever held in America, heralding the arrival in America of post-impressionist art.

Both Rupert Bunny and Thomas Garrett also appear on the scene around this time. Neither stayed for long — both attended Hutchins School as young men, Bunny emerging in adulthood as a major post-impressionist artist and Garrett as one of our best ever watercolourists.

Perhaps things would be different if only they had stayed to share their talents with us. During the years leading up to the Federation, we had had an enormous gene pool of artists from a variety of countries - English, Austrian, Italian, Swiss, French, Norwegian etc - all visiting the new world, seeking fame and fortune. However, apart from the priceless legacy of their works of fine art, they left behind no progenies among us to carry on from their illustrious beginning.

Following Federation the art scene in Tasmania settled into a more organised and orderly pattern interrupted, of course, by two world wars.

Lady Franklin’s delightful miniature Greek Temple The Lady Franklin Museum became the head quarters of the Art Society. By their invitation, prominent artists, including the post-impressionist Emanuel Phillips Fox and the doyen of gum tree paintings, Sir Hans Heysen joined and inevitably other painting groups and societies have evolved over the past 50 years. The Tasmanian Museum & Art Gallery, thanks to those golden years and the generosity of their patrons, can now boast of housing a collection of pre-Federation colonial fine art second to none!

In this day and age, artists have the welcome benefits of University of Tasmania School of fine art scholarships, grants and ease of travel. The State newspapers afford a fairly comprehensive coverage of exhibitions and events relating to the arts and several of our artists have achieved success both at home and abroad.

Apart from the usual bickering and grizzles of discontent common to all art communities, the present Tasmanian scene is alive but not all that well financially. The Tasmanian Museum & Art Gallery never has had enough in the way of funding — a situation that will obviously worsen as our population stagnates and our collective wealth pales in comparison with our mainland counterparts.

Perhaps out of this adversity several great artists will once again rise to prominence and strut the international stage — only time will tell!



W. Nevin Hurst is Director of Masterpiece Fine Art Gallery, Hobart and a specialist in Australian paintings of all periods.