Arnold Jarvis (1881-1959) was born in Adelaide, South Australia.
Arnold Jarvis signature
He became known as a prolific professional artist, particularly rural scenes of farmland with massive ancient gumtrees.
However, his earliest career was as an ‘equilibrist’ – an acrobatic performer who could amaze with balancing & juggling acts. He travelled from Adelaide to Perth in 1900 to perform, and was well received as an entertainer.
Part of the act was ‘speed sketching’ – he would produce a finished painting – of a landscape or room interior – from a blank canvas to a finished work in under 3 minutes. It was this talent which took over and earns him a living as a professional artist.
Arnold Jarvis signature
Most of his work was done in watercolours, where he achieved a pleasing technique of detailed foreground interest – inevitably massive ancient gums – framing distant hazy hills, with perhaps a farm in the middle distance. They were actual locations, and are sometimes named on the back.
Arnold Jarvis (1881-1959) watercolour – Victorian Southern Coastal Scene
Some coastal views were also produced. From the titles recorded, it is possible to trace his travels – a few in South Australia, a few in New South Wales, but the vast majority in Victoria – around the Grampians, through the Western District, and along the southern coastline are the areas that appear multiple times.
Arnold Jarvis (1881-1951) watercolour, English thatch cottage & steamship, c. 1910
An anomaly is a small number of ‘Thatch Cottages’, which are very accurate depictions of classic English thatch houses in the style of Myles Brisket Foster. He was an earlier artist than Jarvis, dying right as Jarvis began to paint seriously, in 1899. Was Jarvis influenced by the earlier English watercolours that were popular at Australian art exhibitions of the early 20th century? Perhaps given it as a commission for a client after an original English Cottage Scene just like the popular – and expensive – Foster paintings. Or is this an indication that he travelled to the UK at some stage and painted while there? Nothing in the brief artist records indicate this, so the question must stay ‘open’.
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.
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.
Neville William Cayley is known as ‘Junior’ to differentiate him from his father, notable ornithologist and painter-of-birds, Neville Henry Cayley.
Cayley Junior was born in 1886, and went on to study art before receiving the commission to illustrate the first of many books.
Perhaps the best known is ‘What Bird Is That?’, first published 1931, becoming an all-time best seller in Australia and still in print today.
His love of birds was unescapable, following in his father’s footsteps; he was a council-member of the Royal Zoological Society of New South Wales (president 1932-33), the Royal Australasian Ornithologists’ Union (president 1936-37), the Gould League of Bird Lovers and the Wild Life Preservation Society of Australia, and was a trustee of the National Park in 1937-48. He also held several exhibitions of his paintings: in 1932 one was presented to King George V.
Above is a work in the stock of Moorabool Antiques, Geelong. It is interesting to compare this work with the later datable N.W. Cayley’s. His early style is described as ‘pretty’, his later as very accurate to life. In this example, there is a lot less detail, and a more naive charm. It is quite different to the life-like illustrations used in ‘What Bird is That?’.
The work has some of the earlier style seen in his father’s works, Neville Henry Cayley. We suggest this work is an earlier W. Cayley work, before the defining of his mature ‘accurate’ style.
Growing up in the shadow of his father, regarded as the best of the bird artists in Australia, must have been inspirational, and his obvious artistic ability must have made his father proud; perhaps this is a work of the young Neville Cayley when he was indeed ‘Junior’, before going to art school.
Portrait Photo of William Joseph Wadham, Adelaide Observer 1894
British born, the Wadham brothers William Joseph and Alfred Sinclair were the sons of a notable deaf & dumb painter, Benjamin Brassett Wadham (1816-1904) who was himself the son of a notable artist.
(A third brother, Benjamin T, is also mentioned in the 1894 ‘Adelaide Observer’ report below as an artist, but he didn’t come to Australia).
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.
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