DOI article:
Wood, T. Martin: The national gallery, Melbourne, and the Felton Bequest
DOI Page / Citation link:https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.21214#0238
The National Gallery, Melbourne, and the Felton Bequest
“THE rainbow” by JEAN CHARLES CAZIN
representatives. We sincerely hope that the
rumour of Sir Sidney Colvin’s resignation (on
account of the difficulties of the situation) is not
true, Sir Claude Phillips and Mr. Charles Ricketts
having earlier withdrawn from positions which
seem to have been rendered impossible.
It is pleasant to recall how well the Melbourne
Trustees have represented certain significant, if not
popular, modern masters.
The art of James Charles,
of which they have such a
fine example in Milking
Time, expressed at its
highest the last phase of
English nineteenth-century
landscape art. Three
artists — James Charles,
Mark Fisher, and Wilson
Steer—carried naturalism
to a refinement for which
there is no precedent, and
which, owing to change
of ideals, may never be
reached again. Their work
represents as characteristic
and important a chapter in
this country’s art as the
earlier school, of a purely
English idealism, which
stretches from Walker’s first
works to the last canvas
by Cecil Lawson. Sisley,
232
also represented in the
gallery, was an Englishman
brought up abroad, who
returned to England with a
French mind and a scientific
method which he applied
to scenes depicted in the
art of this country in an
altogether different, more
sentimental mood. Like
the Dutch landscape
painters, the English
seldom forget the human
associations of the scenes
they depict. A great deal
of the charm of Morland’s
art—and Morland is very
well represented at Mel-
bourne—is that it is hardly
possible to separate his
landscapes, as a class, from
his figure subjects, so sus-
tained is the feeling in all
his art of the intimate relationship of man and
nature.
But with Morland we find ourselves in the
eighteenth century, and it will be interesting to
turn to portraiture of that period among the
Felton purchases. There is a deeply characteristic
Raeburn, Admiral Robert Deans. The uniform
is not an admiral’s, but later the sitter became
“THE rainbow” by JEAN CHARLES CAZIN
representatives. We sincerely hope that the
rumour of Sir Sidney Colvin’s resignation (on
account of the difficulties of the situation) is not
true, Sir Claude Phillips and Mr. Charles Ricketts
having earlier withdrawn from positions which
seem to have been rendered impossible.
It is pleasant to recall how well the Melbourne
Trustees have represented certain significant, if not
popular, modern masters.
The art of James Charles,
of which they have such a
fine example in Milking
Time, expressed at its
highest the last phase of
English nineteenth-century
landscape art. Three
artists — James Charles,
Mark Fisher, and Wilson
Steer—carried naturalism
to a refinement for which
there is no precedent, and
which, owing to change
of ideals, may never be
reached again. Their work
represents as characteristic
and important a chapter in
this country’s art as the
earlier school, of a purely
English idealism, which
stretches from Walker’s first
works to the last canvas
by Cecil Lawson. Sisley,
232
also represented in the
gallery, was an Englishman
brought up abroad, who
returned to England with a
French mind and a scientific
method which he applied
to scenes depicted in the
art of this country in an
altogether different, more
sentimental mood. Like
the Dutch landscape
painters, the English
seldom forget the human
associations of the scenes
they depict. A great deal
of the charm of Morland’s
art—and Morland is very
well represented at Mel-
bourne—is that it is hardly
possible to separate his
landscapes, as a class, from
his figure subjects, so sus-
tained is the feeling in all
his art of the intimate relationship of man and
nature.
But with Morland we find ourselves in the
eighteenth century, and it will be interesting to
turn to portraiture of that period among the
Felton purchases. There is a deeply characteristic
Raeburn, Admiral Robert Deans. The uniform
is not an admiral’s, but later the sitter became