An Australian Woman's Impression and Its Influences
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NOTE: Green underlined artist names indicate that a detail biography is provided in Dictionary of Australian Artists. Page 1 Copyright © 2019 David James Angeloro “ An Australian Woman’s Impression and Its Influences ” David James Angeloro “( A More Complete Picture )” by David James Angeloro was born and raised in Syracuse, New York and graduated from Columbia University ( New York City ) and (Excerpt of Draft January 2019) Hobart University ( Geneva ). In 1971, he immigrated to Australia where he has worked as a management- technology consultant for commonwealth-state-local government organisations and large corporations throughout Australasia. David’s interest (obsession) with fine arts started while attending university in New York City. In Australia, he earned a Masters of Art from Sydney University for his thesis Sydney’s Women Sculptors: Women’s Work in Three Dimensions [ 1788-1940 ]. His passion for art extends to art history with particular interests in women artists (his two daughters are well-known artists of mashed-up video works), sculptors and painter-etchers. The Angeloro family collections have been nearly fifty years in the making. David’s collecting philosophy focused on affordable second tier artists, who were generally well- known in their day, but have been ‘forgotten’ by art historians and curators. David has followed the world-wide trend of reassessing the position and value of pre-1940 painters, illustrators, printmakers and sculptors, especially marginalized women artists. Why I’m Selling The Collection ? I’m selling my collection because after nearly fifty years, I’m returning to New York and I don’t want these Australian treasures to be lost and unappreciated. It’s time for other art lovers and collectors to appreciate and cherish these artworks. [999] bracketed numbers preceding the name of an illustrated painting is related to the corresponding Lot Number in Davidson’s Auction Catalogue. [NAS] indicates that the painting is “ Not Available for Sale ”; while it was once part of the Angeloro family collection, it has moved on to a new owner. Enquires: [email protected] {TOC A MORE COMPLETE PICTURE} NOTE: Green underlined artist names indicate that a detail biography is provided in Dictionary of Australian Artists. Page 2 TABLE OF CONTENTS (TOC WITH HOT LINKS) “ AN AUSTRALIAN WOMAN’S IMPRESSION AND ITS INFLUENCES (A MORE COMPLETE PICTURE) ” PREFACE INTRODUCTION Characteristics of Impressionist Pictures WHAT IS IMPRESSIONISM ? Australia’s Plein Air Sketching Clubs and Teachers [from 1845] AUSTRALIAN IMPRESSIONS OF LANDSCAPES Outdoor Sketching AUSTRALIAN IMPRESSIONS OF SEA / HARBOUR / RIVER-SCAPES Artists Camps in Australia AUSTRALIAN IMPRESSIONS OF CITYSCAPES Impressionism in Victoria AUSTRALIAN IMPRESSIONS OF PUBLIC PARKS AND PRIVATE GARDENS 9 by 5 Impression Exhibition AUSTRALIAN IMPRESSIONS OF DOMESTIC INTERIOR-EXTERIORS Melbourne School of Art [1893 – 1901] AUSTRALIAN IMPRESSIONS OF PORTRAITURE, LIFE-STUDIES, MINIATURES Summer School [1894-1901] at Charterisville AUSTRALIAN IMPRESSIONS OF STILL-LIFE AND FLOWER ARRANGING Artists’ Camps in Victoria AUSTRALIAN IMPRESSIONS OF THEATRE, ARTS AND LEISURE Australian Impressionists Who Painted in Victoria POSITIONING WOMEN ARTISTS AMONG AUSTRALIA’S IMPRESSIONISTS Impressionism in New South Wales STATUS OF WOMEN ARTISTS AT END-19TH AND EARLY-20TH CENTURIES Artists’ Camps in New South Wales WOMEN ARTISTS BAND TOGETHER Australian Impressionists Who Painted in New South Wales WHY WERE AUSTRALIA’S WOMEN IMPRESSIONISTS ‘ FORGOTTEN ’ ? Impressionism in Western Australia THE ‘ FORGOTTEN ’ AUSTRALIAN WOMEN IMPRESSIONISTS Impressionism in Queensland, South Australia and Tasmania INFLUENCES ON AUSTRALIAN IMPRESSIONISM Australian Impressionists who Painted in Queensland INTERNATIONAL INFLUENCES ON AUSTRALIAN IMPRESSIONISM Australian Impressionists who Painted in South Australia Australian Impressionists who Painted in Tasmania {TOC A MORE COMPLETE PICTURE} NOTE: Green underlined artist names indicate that a detail biography is provided in Dictionary of Australian Artists. Page 3 PREFACE Let me start by saying that I won’t argue who is Australian, This (excerpt) of An Australian Woman’s Impression and Its American, English, etc and I’ve considered an artist to be Australian if Influences (A More Complete Picture) is a cutdown-version of a he/she was born in Australia and/or painted for a time in Australia. If much larger draft manuscript to be published in the early-2020s (if all not ‘Australian’, then I have used the country in which the person was goes well). It has been one art lover-collector’s obsession and passion born and/or raised. There is no international ‘standard’ and the subject that has spanned nearly fifty years. I would have loved to collect the is a minefield whereby important artists are claimed by national groups Top-Tier of Australian Impressionists, but finances and life prevented with the flimsiest of hooks. I also know that the United Kingdom is part this. Spending hundreds-of-thousands or even tens-of-thousands of of Europe, but in the world of Australian art the distinction can be dollars on a Streeton, Roberts, Conder, etc was simply beyond my important. budget. My subtitle “( A More Complete Picture )” is a response to the Instead, I collected more affordable paintings and researched the 1992 exhibition and book, Completing the Picture: Women Artists Second Tier of Australian Impressionists (for most of their lives and the Heidelberg Era. Don’t get wrong, I consider this exhibition- practiced as professional artists who exhibited extensively; most book a groundbreaking piece of art research, history and curation. being well-known and respected in their day). I also collected the Third However, it gave the impression that this was the last word and the list Tier of Australian Impressionists (largely talented amateurs), simply of Australian women impressionists was now ‘complete’. For starters, it ignored the women impressionists who painted in New South Wales, because the pictures were often exceptional. With Second and Third Queensland, South Australia, Tasmania and Western Australia and Tier Artists typically costing less than $10,000 and some less than even the Victorian list is incomplete. The list of male and female $1,000, it is a highly cost-effective approach to art collecting. Australian impressionists will be nowhere near complete, even after I One of the reasons I collected paintings of Second and Third Tier publish the complete manuscript of An Australian Woman’s Australian Impressionists has always been to use them as illustrations Impression and Its Influences at a future date. Even within the top in my future publications. Prior to the recent decade, acquiring images tiers of Australian Impressionists, new names are being added of largely undocumented or poorly documented Australian artists was including Sophie Steffanoni [1873-1906] in 2005, Llewellyn Jones extremely difficult (almost impossible); collecting was a way of [1866-1927] in 1998, and Robert Taylor Ghee [1869-1951] in 1995. The acquiring these images. Modern technology and especially digital second tier (primarily lesser known professional artists) is currently at imaging and the Internet have changed this. best sketchy and the third tier (primarily talented amateurs) has been With the digitizing of Australia’s newspaper archives and access barely started. to genealogy websites like Ancestry.com, researching a biography of In the mid-1990s, I published an art journal article A WOMAN’S an undocumented Australian artist is less complex and time- IMPRESSION: Australian Women Impressionist 1880s and consuming, but not necessarily easy. What I found most interesting is Beyond in an effort to more fully recognize Australia’s pioneering that many of Australia’s ‘forgotten artists’ were not only quite women impressionists from the omitted States and those who lived successful but were well-known during their lifetimes. The reasons for overseas, primarily in France. While being interesting for the mid- why they were ‘forgotten’ are interesting and a bit tragic, but it’s a topic 1990s, it only progressed our knowledge a short way. In 1995, more suited for a PhD thesis. However, after forty years of researching HERITAGE: The National Women’s Art Book was published, I am and discussing repeatedly the topic with other Australian art greatly honoured to have assisted Joan Kerr as a researcher and researchers and art lovers, I have developed my own opinions and I contributor of images from my private collection. At the time, art don’t really care if the art history establishment supports them. If this research regarding Australian women artists was progressed significantly, but there is still a long way to go, especially in relation to narrative starts a discussion, it has been worth my efforts. Australia’s women impressionists. {TOC A MORE COMPLETE PICTURE} NOTE: Green underlined artist names indicate that a detail biography is provided in Dictionary of Australian Artists. Page 4 “ AN AUSTRALIAN WOMAN’S IMPRESSION AND ITS INFLUENCES ” ( A MORE COMPLETE PICTURE ) INTRODUCTION Of all the international art movements, Impressionism has garnered one of the highest levels of attention since its inception in the second-half of the 19th century in France. While Impressionism gained popularity with French and International artists and art students, the contemporary art critics and the art establishment hated it. After viewing the (1874) “Exhibition of the Impressionists” held by