John Elder Moultray History Painter Or Historical Journalist?
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John Elder Moultray (1865-1922) History Painter or Historical Journalist? A Trooper of the Wanganui Cavalry attacked by the Hau-hau, 1892 (Canberra, NLA). Marilyn Edwyna Park A thesis submitted to the Victoria University of Wellington in fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts in Art History Victoria University of Wellington 2012 TABLE OF CONTENTS Abstract i Acknowledgements ii Abbreviations iv Introduction 1 Chapter 1: Biographical Sketch of J. Elder Moultray 13 Chapter 2: History Painting as a Genre 32 Chapter 3: Art History according to J. Elder Moultray 52 Chapter 4: History Painting within Moultray‘s Larger Oeuvre 69 Chapter 5: Critical Reception: Then and Now 87 Conclusion 103 Bibliography 108 List of Illustrations 122 Illustrations 126 Appendix I: ‗The Art Galleries of Europe‘, 1897 174 Appendix II: ‗Through the Hauhau Country‘, 1896 234 Appendix III: List of J. Elder Moultray‘s Paintings 252 i ABSTRACT This thesis was undertaken to investigate J. Elder Moultray‘s history paintings, his broader artistic oeuvre and journalistic output, and to place him in the context of nineteenth-century New Zealand art, journalism and the history painting genre generally. It is also intended to fill a lack of previous art-historical scholarship surrounding Moultray and his history paintings. Moultray‘s own diaries and published articles, as well as newspaper reports about him, provide a biographical sketch of his life and his own views on art history. A discussion of the development of the history painting genre, a detailed analysis of his history paintings and comments on his paintings from critics, both during his lifetime and after, leads to a number of conclusions. These suggest that Moultray‘s diminished reputation as an artist has resulted from a number of factors, including changing fashions in artistic styles, poor documentation in the referencing of his works, and a changing political climate which has desired to leave behind uncomfortable images of the New Zealand colonial wars. The latter is related to both his contemporary marginalisation and the deterioration of many of his paintings in the public domain. Unpicking the layers of Moultray‘s history paintings reveals their relevance to contemporary art-historical issues. In addition, Moultray‘s resistance to modernism and continuation of a nineteenth-century academic art practice into the twentieth century provides today‘s art historians with considerable insights. By exploring a body of Moultray‘s paintings, in tandem with his writings about art, the thesis reveals a significant contribution to New Zealand art history. ii ACKNOWLEDGMENTS Researching an artist from an earlier era requires the art historian to be a historical detective. The reward of discovering unknown facts and paintings, and of forming a complete picture of an artist who was previously a shadowy figure, is immense. Such has been my journey of discovery of John Elder Moultray. This journey has been made easier by a number of people who have answered innumerable questions, even when busy. These include the staff of the Alexander Turnbull Library, Auckland Art Gallery library, National Library of Australia and Taranaki Museum, who all answered requests for information and supplied me with copies as requested; Gordon Maitland and the library staff of Auckland Museum for access to Moultray‘s works; and Victoria Boyack at Te Papa Museum Library who went out of her way to source material. Special thanks are due to my supervisor, Roger Blackley, to whom I owe an immeasurable debt, for help and support outside the call of duty, and the supportive staff and postgraduate students at VUW Art History department, especially John Finlay for reading my final draft. Thanks also to Lucy Clark of the Hocken Library for supplying me with information and images, Greg Moyle for willingly giving me access to works by Moultray and welcoming me to see his collection, David Harrop for his Ginterest and supportive emails, and Vivienne Hill who kindly lent me copies of Moultray‘s diaries and volunteered information, making this thesis all the richer. As Moultray‘s writings are an integral part of this thesis, his series on art galleries in Europe and on his own history paintings are included as appendices, with links to many iii of the paintings he discussed. As these images are available in the public domain on the world-wide web, the owners of the art works are acknowledged but not the source of any particular image. Wikipedia, Web Gallery of Art and Virtual Uffizi were the main sources used and the details were checked with ARTstor from VUW Library. iv ABBREVIATIONS In footnote references, untitled newspaper articles have been given a title from the first few words; titles with the same name have been given an explanatory title from the first few words of the article in square brackets [ ] after the initial title. References to books and articles are given in full for first reference, with a shortened title for all subsequent references. Sources used to find newspaper articles include Papers Past (National Library of New Zealand) and Trove (National Library of Australia). The following abbreviations are employed in the text, footnotes and appendices: ATL Alexander Turnbull Library Argus Argus (Melbourne) AAG Auckland Art Gallery AIM Auckland Institute and Museum ASA Auckland Society of Arts AS Auckland Star AWN Auckland Weekly News BH Bruce Herald CSA Canterbury Society of Arts EP Evening Post Hocken Hocken Collections v NG National Gallery of London NGS National Gallery of Scotland NLA National Library of Australia NEM Nelson Evening Mail NZAFA New Zealand Academy of Fine Arts n.d. no date OAS Otago Art Society ODT Otago Daily Times ODT&W Otago Daily Times & Witness OW Otago Witness p.c. private collection Star Star (Canterbury) Te Papa Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa 1 INTRODUCTION The Dunedin painter John Elder Moultray belongs to a select group of New Zealand artists who published their views on art generally and on their own works in particular. In the nineteenth century J. Elder Moultray‘s history paintings made an important contribution to New Zealand‘s history painting genre. Today, these and his considerable journalistic output on a variety of subjects have been largely forgotten. Although no comprehensive study has been previously undertaken regarding his works or of the history painting genre in New Zealand art, a number of conclusions have been made in broader studies, both about him and the genre generally. Like contemporary newspaper reports, recent commentary has mostly focused on their historical component rather than on his artistic merits. This thesis explores J. Elder Moultray‘s history painting in the context of his broader artistic oeuvre, placing him in the context of nineteenth- century New Zealand art history, art-journalism and in the history painting genre. When J. Elder Moultray arrived in Dunedin with his family from Scotland in 1883, his father James Douglas Moultray had a reputation as a landscape artist that had preceded their arrival. This opened numerous exhibition opportunities for John Elder and his elder brother Henry, who was also an artist. J. Elder Moultray travelled widely around the country, sketching, photographing and painting a large number of landscapes. Wanting to make a name for himself he broadened his art from the landscapes in which his father and brother specialised, to include history paintings and some genre paintings. Seeing a need for documentary re-enactments of the New Zealand colonial wars of twenty years before, in order to capture the stories of the witnesses before they died, he 2 created a series of history paintings, based on his own research, including some painted especially for the Otago Daily Times and Witness Christmas Annual of 1898-99.1 In addition, he travelled to Europe and wrote a series of articles on art galleries he visited, went to the second Boer war as a war correspondent for which he wrote articles and made sketches, and later published some scenes from Māori mythology. Moultray also wrote short fiction, although it is unknown if any was published.2 With this varied output a contemporary historian may ask, was J. Elder Moultray a history painter or an artistic journalist? J. Elder Moultray built a notable public profile from both exhibitions and newspapers, which both he and his father exploited through reviews and advertising to help create an eager art market. Like other contemporary artists they contributed towards exhibitions by the Otago Art Society, Canterbury Society of Arts, New Zealand Academy of Fine Arts in Wellington, Auckland Society of Arts, international industrial exhibitions in Dunedin, Auckland and Melbourne, and had works published in the newspaper. They also exhibited in shop windows and held private exhibitions to which they invited prominent people, to ensure that their activities were reported in the paper. They held art unions and contributed to auctions, both of which were advertised either by themselves or the auction rooms. Following the pattern of the art societies, they published their own catalogues to accompany their private studio exhibitions. Most of Moultray‘s works have disappeared into private ownership and currently only two major art institutions in New Zealand hold any of his or his father‘s works, and most of these are landscapes. The Hocken Collections in Dunedin has two dozen paintings, including five history paintings, and Auckland War Memorial Museum has a landscape, a print of a landscape and several history paintings on loan from a private owner. Having established a reputation, J. Elder Moultray let it slip into obscurity. After the Boer War he never repeated the popular and profitable mode of earning extra income through writing newspaper articles. The reason is unknown, but ill health was probably a contributing factor. An enigma to today‘s art historians, he is placed on the 1 J.