In the late 1880s and 1890s the Heidelberg School painters painted the Australian scene with satisfying accuracy. NSW's National Art Gallery created an exhibition at Grafton Galleries in London in 1898. Expert art committees from 4 Australian states selected and vetted 371 works by the top Australian artists – famously Arthur Streeton, Frederick McCubbin, Charles Condor, Tom Roberts and Julian Ashton etc.
The Golden Summers Exhibition of 1985 heightened the nostalgia for that precious, short-lived span of painting, contrived en plein air. I loved the Golden Summers Exhibition. But Australian art of the first half of the C20th continued to grow, perhaps as a lesser period after the Heidelberg School.
Now Hans and Nora Heysen: Two Generations of Australian Art is the first major exhibition to bring together the work of father-and-daughter-artists Hans and Nora Heysen. The exhibition is at the Ian Potter Centre NGV, Federation Square Melbourne and will remain open until 28th July 2019.
Thanks to the NGV Magazine #15 for the following two biographies:
1. Born in Hamburg Germany, Hans Heysen (1877–1968) and his family moved to Australia in 1884. In 1892, 14 year old Hans left school, apprenticed to a saw-milling business near Adelaide, buying art materials with his wages and drawing when he could. In 1893, he enrolled in James Ashton’s Norwood Art School, where he was seen as a very talented pupil. A four-year scholarship in Europe followed in 1897, initiating further artistic growth.
By the turn of the century, the Australian bush had become an object for nostalgia, with most people living in urban centres. In the year he returned to Australia, Hans set up his own studio, won the prestigious Wynne Prizeand got married in 1904. In 1908 Hans Heysen staged a very successful exhibition in Melbourne, which established his reputation as Australia’s pre-eminent landscape painter. He was famous for his wonderful depictions of the Australian landscape, with van Gogh’s and Cezanne’s influences best seen in Flinders Ranges paintings.
His comfort and success in later life were hard-earned: he had overcome the traditional barriers of a young artist lacking funds and connections, and also the burden of anti-German prejudice, which saw him watched by Australian police during WW1. That he was able to regain his place among the most-loved Australian artists of the C20th is testament to both the quality of his work and his peaceable character. He won many awards, was knighted in 1959 and painted almost until his death in 1968.
Droving into the Light, c1915
Lord of the Bush, 1908
The Toilers, 1920
2. The fourth of Hans’ 8 children, Nora (1911-2003) was the only one to pursue an art career. Although not formally taught by her father, Nora observed his work, accompanying him on his painting trips. In 1926, at 14, she enrolled full-time at the North Adelaide School of Fine Arts. After selling her first painting in 1930, Nora began painting in a converted shed at the family home and over the next three years her works were acquired by national collections around Australia. From 1934-38 she studied in Europe, developing her style. She then moved to Sydney, which remained her home for the rest of her life.
The two generations of artists’ work spanned decades during which Australia and the world underwent major social, political and artistic transformations. In many ways, theirs was an archetypal C20th Australian story of migration, family life, wartime separation and a deep connection to place. Both artists travelled in Europe and their work demonstrated both international and Australian contemporaries’ influences. And while Hans preferred landscape, Nora preferred portraits and still lifes.
How easy it was to be the artist-daughter of a famous artist-father? Their letters showed a loving and artistically creative relationship between Hans and Nora, and into their wider concerns about C20th Australian art and society”. But there were notes of daughterly anxiety written, and some fatherly notes of warning.
Hans was recognised as one of the pioneers of Australian landscape painting, while Nora was an established portraitist and still life painter who in 1938 became the first woman ever awarded the even more prestigious Archibald Prize in Australia. This award goes annually to the best portrait of someone distinguished in art, letters, science or politics, painted by any artist resident in Australasia.
This is the first major exhibition including both their works, 270 works that included paintings, sketches and preparatory studies. And it is the most complete presentation of Nora’s career to date. And the exhibition includes her strong and sensitive self-portraiture and a wide selection of works produced during her commission as Australia’s first female official war artist in WW2. Serving from 1943-46, she was commissioned to document medical- and research-units around Australia, including wounded soldiers.
Spanning both World Wars and decades of important Australian history, the viewer sees Australian stories across half the C20th. Both artists travelled widely across Europe as part of their ongoing art education, and their work demonstrated a deep knowledge and appreciation of international influences, AND engagement with their Australian contemporaries.
Self Portrait, 1932
Still Life, 1930
Hans helped shaped the course of C20th Australian art, as did Nora (at least she did until the 1950s). Their shared veneration for the Natural World, seen in Hans’ evocative landscapes and Nora’s vibrant flower paintings, was part of their bond. Perhaps Hans’ work was stronger, but Nora’s work was more sensitive.
If I had been living abroad for the last 50 years and had never heard of Hans Heysen, I would love his landscape Driving into the Light c1915 in any case, and would instantly recognise the Australian bush. The NGV catalogue (2019) for this exhibition is excellent.