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Australian Art

A fantastic story is emerging from three small works purchased in 2022. Two are miniature landscapes of Australian bush scenes; the other is a similar scene, Trompe l’oeil style on a gum leaf, surrounded by Australian wild flowers.

All were in original, neglected frames, and the backs all had the same artist attribution, added in pencil along with the instruction ‘For Ron’:
‘Painting by Jessie L. Evans, of Heidelberg School’.

As is often the case with later attributions, this doesn’t make much sense when we look at her published works. She was very much an artist of the impressionistic school, like the other Heidelberg greats.
However, there is one very interesting clue visible: the gum leaf has a signature with the correct initials – ‘JLE’ – for Jessie Laver Evans.

This suggests that this piece at least is by her hand.
The other pair however have no visible signature. Only one thing to do: de-frame them and look at the back!
Nine times out of ten, there’s nothing of significance to be seen on the back of a de-framed picture. This is an example of when there is – not only a name for the artist, but also a date, and most excitingly, a direct link to Jessie L Evans!

This dedication, a few days after Christmas in 1885, shows a direct connection between Alfred William Eustace, a well-respected colonial painter of the Goldfields era, who was 65 when he met ‘Miss Evans’, aged 25. At this stage, Alfred Eustace was famed for his paintings on broad, flat gum tree leaves, and in the early 1880’s had several exhibitions of these very Australian works in Melbourne galleries.

Miss Evans attended Melbourne’s National Gallery of Victoria Art School 1880-91, so she no doubt came into contact with Eustace at one of his Melbourne exhibitions; the watercolour we are examining is the visual proof, as it is an accurate impression of his oil-on-leaf creations – with her own addition, the wildflowers that surround it. This is an early work, when she is just learning to paint and has yet to ‘find her style’. She did this in the following years, being taught at the Art School by Frederick McCubbin, E. Phillips Fox, and Tudor St George Tucker, having as her fellow students

More to come on this exciting piece of research, with a blog post dedicated to the story of Jessie ( her father wouldn’t let her be ‘commercial’ and sell her paintings as it would appear her father couldn’t support her …. but she still opened a gallery in central Melbourne!) and the remarkable tale of Alfred William Eustace, ‘Gumleaf-Painter to Her Majesty’ !

The Port Jackson Painter – in the style of….

Little-known artist Kit Turner has a fascinating tale to tell. Born in England, she studied art & copper smithing, travelled to NZ where she was an accomplished arts & crafts metal worker, married a fellow metalsmith, and moved to Melbourne where she lived at Eltham. There she became familiar with Walter Withers of ‘The Heidelberg School’. That’s his house, visible in the distance over the creek, beyond the chickens and the cows, in the oil above by Kit.

We also have a Walter Withers watercolour, painted from the other side looking towards where Kit would have painted this picture… and Walter depicts two ladies, one quite young, the other older…. Mrs Withers…. or could it be Kit?

Walter’s daughter, Margery, was also an artist; there’s a watercolour by Margery (in the Eltham Council’s collection) titled ‘Kit Turner’s House’. It’s a view from the place shown above, looking at a different angle: Kit Turner has painted her oil view literally just outside the door of her studio. On a recent information-gathering trip to Eltham, we were elated to discover her house – and studio – are still standing! No records or literature seem to note this. We have gathered a terrific lot of info on Kit Turner, metal-worker and painter in oils, including photographs of her in her studio.
In one of those moments of serendipity, at an auction in Melbourne, 2023, there was a Margery Withers oil portrait of a Woman – which is the clear, strong features of Kit Turner herself…..

More info to come on a special blog post on Kit & the Withers, including Australian Sterling Silver by Kit Turner and more works. If anyone has any other pieces, please contact us.

WJ Wadham

A fascinating story evolves from this large watercolour. The style is very unusual for the period, being a technique much used in the latter 20th century; however, the artist is a well documented English-Australian, who was active here in the 1870’s-80’s.

British born, the Wadham brothers William Joseph and Alfred Sinclair were the sons of a notable deaf & dumb painter, Benjamin Brassett Wadham (1816-1904).
W.J. had his first painting accepted by the Walker Art Gallery, Liverpool, aged 14. He migrated to Australia in 1885 – his brother followed in 1887. They had exhibitions in Melbourne in 1889 and 1895, which were well received. They settled in Adelaide, joining the South Australian Society of Arts.
They ran “Wadham & Sinclair’s Fine Art Institute” in Adelaide where they also gave lessons; travelling extensively, they were in New Zealand in 1896, Western Australia in 1897. Alfred returned to London in that year, and also in 1897 their works were well received at the London Exhibition of Dominion Art, attended by the Prince of Wales.
Joseph continued to travel, visiting & painting in South Africa and Canada as well as New Zealand and Australia. He helped found the Royal British Society of Artists which held their first exhibition in 1902. In latter years, he opened a commercial Art Gallery in Sydney, selling notable British artists including Birket Foster, Lord Leighton, Moreland, Wilkie, and the Pre-Raphaelite master, Sir John Millais.
He sold up the Gallery & moved back to England in 1923.

John F Norton

Australiana Silver

Here’s unimportant piece of Sporting Memorabilia…. particularly for Geelong residents who follow ‘The Cats’.