Denis Adams was an Australian artist who had a passion for the sea. Born in Sydney in 1914, he grew up in the country – but visits to Sydney led him to the docks and the romance of sail, as he watched the few remaining sailing ships pass Sydney Heads for distant ports. His father was a retired seaman, and his head was full of his tales of life on board the ‘Last of the Windjammers’.
He was studying art at the Julian Ashton Art School in Sydney, but really wanted to head off to London to study at the Royal Academy of Arts. His decisive moment came when he enrolled as crewman on one of Finnish ship owner Gustaf Erikson’s regular fleet of windjammers which loaded grain for Europe on the Yorke Peninsula of South Australia. He finally achieved his goal, as an ‘able-bodied’ passenger, meaning he was willing to work as needed on the voyage – but still paid 6 shillings a day! In 1935, he left for England, to study Art in London – and made good use of his time onboard, sketching & painting the everyday events of life on a sailing ship. Returning in 1939, he joined the war effort: along with other artists, he was part of the ‘camouflage squad, designing military camouflage – and in 1942, was sent to the Pacific as an official war artist. After the war, his artistic career continued, mainly as a maritime artist. He taught art at the East Sydney Technical College.
His art, which came to include bronze sculpture, is represented throughout Australia, with a multitude of public sculpture commissions for various war memorials, including many examples of bronzes & oils in the Australian War Memorial in Canberra.
Dhokra is the term used for the Eastern Indian techniques of bronze working, using ‘Lost Wax’ casting as well as ‘Hollow Casting” to produce bronze items.
It originated in India over 4000 years ago in the India Valley culture. The name ‘Dhokra’ is taken from the Dhokra Damar tribes of Eastern India (Jharkhand, West Bengal, Odisha), where the metal casting tradition was a part of their culture.
‘Lost Wax’ refers to the use of bee’s wax to make the intended form, which is then encased in clay; when molten metal is poured in, the wax is ‘lost’ and the bronze takes its place.
‘Hollow Casting’ refers to the usage of a clay core to make the bulk of the form, with wax used on the outside to define the intended bronze work; when molten metal is poured in, the wax is replaced, often with the clay core still evident inside.
Dihl et Guérhard, Paris Porcelain manufacturers 1781-1828
The firm of Dihl et Guérhard was initially established in 1781, under the patronage of the duc d’Angoulême – even though he was only 5 at the time! This Royal Patronage was essential, as the Royal Decree of 1766 had given the monopoly of Gold & Colour decoration to porcelain to the Royal factory of Sèvres. However, any concerns with Royal Patrons were exempt from the restriction. When the Ancien Regime was swept away in the Revolution a decade later, the firm engaged with the new wealth of the French Republic, producing a superb quality range of luxurious porcelain that rivalled the State-owned Sèvres factory.
Christophe Dihl was a German ceramics expert, and Antoine Guérhard was his French partner with the money. His wife Louise-Françoise-Madeleine was the brains who kept things running. When her husband died in 1793, she ran it alongside Dihl, and 4 years later they were married. She went on to out-live him, and the factory; it found it hard to survive in the age after Napoleon, and went out of business in 1828. Dihl died 1830, Louise in 1831.
Below: Large French bisque porcelain group, depicting Astraeus (Dusk) with the Anemoi (his children, the four winds), attributed to Dihl et Guérhard, circa 1790
Edward Goodwyn Lewis (1827-91) was a British artist, most noted for his portraits. He was active in Britain from the 1850’s, and built up a good reputation for his portraiture.
He came to Australia for a few years in the 1880’s. His immediate family, three siblings, step-mother & his father, had migrated to Australia in the 1850’s, so he was ‘visiting family’ – but he also received a good number of commissions as a ‘celebrity visiting artist’.
Among them was the Melbourne Mayor, Cornelius Job Ham (mayor 1881-2) a magnificent large 3/4 length portrait now in the ‘City of Melbourne Art and Heritage Collection’. Their documentation states
“E. Goodwyn Lewis (1827-1891) may have been a travelling artist, perhaps touring the colonies. All that is known about him is that he exhibited in the Victorian Academy of Arts Annual Exhibition in 1884 and 1885. Many of the works exhibited were studies made on location in Egypt and the Middle East.”
He is well documented in the UK, where he can be seen in the British Museum and National Portrait Gallery.
He had spent ‘about 10 years’ travelling the Middle East, and it is interesting to note that his studies done while there were exhibited at the Victorian Academy of Arts Exhibition in 1884-5. This work may well be one of those studies.
Two other works from this period were sold at Bonhams in 2020:
https://www.bonhams.com/auctions/17048/lot/26/
Tuesday 11 March 1884 ‘The Herald’ reported:
LADIES’ COLUMN
FOURTEENTH EXHIBITION OF VICTORIAN ACADEMY OF ARTS.
A great improvement is noticeable in this
exhibition upon those of former years, and
Mr Goodwyn Lewis’s advent as an exhibitor
must be source of pleasure to all interested
in the progress of art in Melbourne. He for-
wards six paintings, amongst them the
wonderful sketch of the Lord’s Supper,
mentioned in a description of his studio recently
given in The Herald.
An exhibition was mounted in Ballarat in 1884, ‘The Fine Arts Exhibition’ in the Town Hall. Lewis was a contributor with a number of oils & watercolours – and when the success of the exhibition led to the forming of a committee to create a permanent public art gallery in Ballarat, Lewis announced he would donate one of his most popular images, a portrait of Queen Victoria.
This interesting female ceramic artist is local to our Geelong premises, with the castellations of the Gordon Technical College always on the skyline outside our front windows. Born in 1874 in Geelong, she took up china painting in the early 20th century, and by 1910 was teaching it at The Gordon. She received multiple prizes for her works at local exhibitions. In 1924 she embarked on an international tour of the ceramics industries of America and England. The art potters of this period were fond of lustre finishes, and she brought this concept, along with many other design influences back with her. Australiana themes were her point of difference, including Art Deco stylized kangaroos, koalas, and flora. She was elected a member of the British Association of Ceramic Art and invited to exhibit ‘two or three…vases of Australian design’ in the British Empire Exhibition at Wembley in 1924. Several of her works were sold by us to the Geelong Art Gallery at the dispersal of the ‘Morongo Girls School’ collection late last century.
The Russian porcelain factory of Francis Gardner is fascinating; he was an Englishman, and set up a factory near Moscow in 1765. This became incredibly successful, and a rival for the Imperial Russian factory. Indeed, the Gardner firm produced some services for the Imperial family. French style was a major influence, although he cleverly attracted the Russian wealthy’s interest by producing ‘table figures’ of local tradesmen, peasants, and soldiers.
Henry Salt was an important figure in the history of Egyptology, being responsible for kindling the British public interest in ancient Egypt by bringing a large number of artifacts back from Egypt for the fledgling British Museum.
Born in Lichfield in 1780, he originally trained as a portrait painter and went to London in 1797 to study under Joseph Farrington, RA, and subsequently to John Hoppner, RA.
He produced a series of large aquatints, the result of his travels during 1802-1806, as secretary and draughtsman with George Annesley, Viscount Valentia. They embarked on a major tour of ‘The East’, visiting India, Ceylon, Abysinnia and Egypt. Salt’s drawing skills were utilised, being used as the basis for illustrations in his employer’s publication, ‘Voyages and Travels’. They were published in 1809 as an accompanying folio, titled “Twenty-four views taken in St Helena, the Cape, India, Ceylon, the Red Sea, Abyssinia & Egypt”.
He went on to become British Consul-General in Egypt in 1815, where excavated extensively, procuring a large number of antiquities for The British Museum and for his own collection. He sent a large collection of antiquities to The British Museum in 1818. Many other pieces were sold to private collectors, the most notable of these being the sarcophagus of Sety I purchased by Sir John Soane and still to be seen in his house museum in London today.
He was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society, London, but spent most of his life in Egypt. He died at Desuke village, near Alexandria, 30th October 1827.
John Kenny (1920-2002) was an Australian collector of fine objects, particularly Asian , but including European & Ancient items as well. Usually selecting either Ceramics or Glass, he was a longtime member of the Ceramics and Glass Circle Australia. They host an annual lecture in his memory.
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