Studio: international art (51.1911)

Henry Tebbitt, Australian IVater-Colour Painter

grandeur and vastness of the Australian Bush, that
his artistic career may be said to have begun.

It is questionable, in discussing a painter or his
work, whether it be better to do it through his
personality or through his work. In this case,
however, I think the two may be safely placed
together. Firstly, it is a great deal owing to his
personality, certainly as much as to his work, that
Mr. Tebbitt has succeeded by hard and determined
study in mastering the difficulties and intricacies of
Australian scenery. Let it be said that Mr. Tebbitt
is purely a student of Nature and a landscape and
marine painter.

To an artist coming directly from Europe to
Australia the differences in atmosphere, vegetation
and colouring are so enormous that it takes a few
years for him to overcome his feeling for English
foliage and herbage and to become temperamentally
acclimatised. Thus it happened that during the
first part of his life in New South Wales Mr.
Tebbitt contented himself by painting English
scenes, particularly of the Thames, which found
their way into the homes of many patrons who,
far away from the old country, were glad to have
some reminiscence of the land they might never
see again.

But gradually, when thoroughly reconciled to
this new and well-beloved country, he abandoned
all this and devoted himself with no less en-
thusiasm to portraying the magnificent largeness
and weirdness of the Australian land and river ;
and I may, without flattery or prejudice, say that

he has succeeded where many have given it up in
sheer despair.

I may give as an instance the Blue Mountains
of New South Wales. These have a distinct
colouring of their own. It is not so much the
intense blue of the distances, but a peculiarly
opalescent effect, which distinguishes this parti-
cular corner of Australia and makes it quite
unique, for it is unlike any other scenery in the
world. Many artists have attempted the study of
these mountains, but have given it up. To Mr.
Tebbitt’s lot it has fallen to be the first to have
mastered the difficulty. I might add that these
mountains are only in their “ blue beauty ” during
the very cold months of the year, and, their alti-
tude being considerable, the work of the artist
who essays to record their charms is both arduous
and onerous; but Mr. Tebbitt’s great merit is to
allow no obstacles to deter him from any given
object he has in view.

To study the forest land of Australia, which is
truly gigantic and sublime in its beauty, as well as
most intricate in its sub-tropical undergrowth, Mr.
Tebbitt has caused a studio to be erected in the
very heart of the trees he loves to depict. It may
be explained at this point that, unlike the trees of
Europe, which are in most cases distinguishable
by their foliage, the trees of Australia are mostly
named and recognised by the different colourings
of their trunks—hence the “ black butt,” “woolly
butt,” “ mahogany,” etc. The foliage also is
different, for the leaves, with some few exceptions,

“BALMORAL BEACH, SYDNEY HARBOUR” (WATER-COLOUR)
140

BY HENRY TEBBITT