in Australian Art Dogs Australian in Dogs in Australian Art looks at Australian art through the lens of painting, showcasing Dogs in over 150 masterworks that illustrate the deep bond between Australians and their best friends. Australian Steven Miller’s whimsical text argues that all the major shifts which occurred in art, Art and which have traditionally been attributed to the environment or historical factors, really occurred because of dogs. His book is also a study of how the various dog breeds have been depicted from colonial times until the present. STEVEN MILLER STEVEN

ISBN 978-1-74305-017-0

9 781743 050170 Steven Miller COVER by Lahn Stafford Design, Adelaide Dogs in Australian Art A New History of Antipodean Creativity

Steven Miller is head of the Research Library and Archive of the Art Gallery of . He has published widely on art, with his book on Australian culture between the two world wars (Degenerates and Perverts) winning the NSW Premier’s Australian History Award in 2006. He lives in and is the proud owner of Finbar, a Welsh . By the same author

Degenerates and Perverts: The 1939 Herald Exhibition of French and British Contemporary Art The Face — Brent Harris The Sydney Camera Circle The Art and Life of Weaver Hawkins Dogs in Australian Art A New History of Antipodean Creativity

Steven Miller Wakefield Press 1 The Parade West Kent Town South Australia 5067 www.wakefieldpress.com.au

First published 2012

Copyright © Steven Miller, 2012

All rights reserved. This book is copyright. Apart from any fair dealing for the purposes of private study, research, criticism or review, as permitted under the Copyright Act, no part may be reproduced without written permission. Enquiries should be addressed to the publisher.

Cover painting by David Welch (see page 45) Inside cover artwork by Ron McBurnie (see page 139) Title page artwork by Geoff Harvey (see page 119) Designed by Lahn Stafford Design, Adelaide Printing and quality control in China by Tingleman Pty Ltd

National Library of Australia Cataloguing-in-Publication entry Author: Miller, Steven. Title: Dogs in Australian art: a new history of antipodean creativity / Steven Miller. ISBN: 978 1 74305 017 0 (pbk.). Subjects: Dogs in art. Dogs--Australia. Dewey Number: 743.69772 FOR RHONDA

The wolf lived two years at Gubbio; he went familiarly from door to door without harming anyone, and all the people received him courteously, feeding him with great pleasure, and no dog barked at him as he went about. At last, after two years, he died of old age, and the people of Gubbio mourned his loss greatly; for when they saw him going about so gently amongst them all, he reminded them of the virtue and sanctity of St Francis.

The Little Flowers of St Francis ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

This book could not have been written without the support of the many artists featured. Not only did they allow their work to be reproduced, they also showed great enthusiasm for the whole project. My first thanks goes to them. I hope that the book will contribute to an increased interest in their work. I would also like to thank the galleries which represent them. As I am no expert on dog breeds, I often had to rely on those who are when researching this book. I am indebted to them for the assistance they gave. Any errors or ambiguities are my own. Early on in my research I realised that dog breeders are experts in their area and that I would need to take care with what I wrote. One example will suffice. When I contacted the Borzoi Club of Victoria to ask about the dog in Violet Teague’s Cynthia and Count Brusiloff, I was told that the National Gallery of Victoria must have made a mistake with the titling of the work, as the dog was known as General not Count Brusiloff. I was also given the dog’s entire pedigree. I would also like to thank friends and colleagues for their ideas and support. Special mention should be made of those who read the text, or various parts of it. Gillian Varley in was a great help in focusing and correcting early versions of the book. Here in Sydney I am particularly grateful to my sister Christine, my colleague and regular co-author Eileen Chanin and to Vi King Lim. Finally, I would like to acknowledge the Australia Council. This book would not have been finished without the support of the Council. During 2007 I was the B.R. Whiting Fellow in Rome. Although it had not been my intention to work on this book during the residency, much of it was in fact completed over a few glasses of Italian red, overlooking the rooftops of Trastevere. The Untold Story of Australian Art 1 Contents AiredALe 26 Mervyn Napier Waller Christian Waller with Baldur, Undine and Siren at Fairy Hills 1932 American Cocker Spaniel 28 William Dobell Self portrait 1968 American Foxhound 30 Terry Batt Double Happiness: The Year of the Dog 2006 American Pit 32 Cherry Hood Daisy 2005 34 Hilda Rix Nicholas The fair musterer 1935 36 Clifton Pugh Rounding sheep 1968 Australian Shepherd 38 Louise Hearman Untitled # 820 2001 Australian Terrier 40 Lucien Henry Australian Terrier on a packing crate in garden 1890 Basset Hound 42 Rachel Fairfax Basset pups 2007 Beagle 44 David Welch The artist’s dog 2010 46 Adrienne Doig Hamish and Max 2005 Bichon Frisé 48 Gabrielle Martin Celeste and Lenny 1999 (Miniature) 50 Arthur Murch Suzanne Crookston 1935 Blenheim Spaniel 52 William Dexter Lady’s pet 1855 Border Collie 54 Eric Thake The weekly train departs, the dog goes back to sleep 1971 56 Joanna Braithwaite Diggers 2005 Borzoi 58 Violet Teague Cynthia and Count Brusiloff c. 1917 60 Louise Hearman Untitled # 999 2003 Brussels Griffon 62 Joanna Braithwaite The ancestors 2005 Bull Terrier 64 Peter Booth Painting c. 1977 Canaan Dog 66 Cherry Hood Bedouin Canaan Dog (No. 6) 2002 Cavalier King Charles Spaniel 68 Melissa Egan The wife of Bath in her new hat 2006 Chihuahua 70 Anne Leisner Brutus 2006 Chinese Crested 72 Justin Spiers and Yvonne Doherty Andrea, Tristan, Valentino & Tatiana 2006 Chow Chow 74 Basia Sokolowska Manchuride and Manchuhill 2008 Collie 76 Kristin Headlam Burns family portrait 2007 Corgi (Pembroke) 78 Rew Hanks King Billy Waiting for the Missing Monarch and King Billy Fetch Me My … 2003 Dachshund 80 Stephanie Monteith Young Sausage Dog 2005 Dalmatian 82 William Casey Devil dog 2006 84 Lin Onus Michael and I are just slipping down to the pub for a minute 1992 English Bulldog 86 Grace Cossington Smith Krinkley Konks sleeping 1927–28 English Cocker Spaniel 88 Harold Septimus Power Cocker Spaniels c. 1935 English Foxhound 90 George Stubbs A couple of Foxhounds 1792 English Pointer 92 George Perrottet Bookplate for Carlyle S. Baer 1934 (Smooth) 94 Rupert Bunny Mrs Bunny and her terrier 1902–05 Fox Terrier (Wire Hair) 96 William Dobell Conversation piece 1941 French Bulldog 98 Margaret Preston Nude with dog 1925 German Shepherd 100 Chris Bruce Rex 2003 German Short-haired Pointer 102 Graeme Drendel The temptation and The players 2008 Golden Retriever 104 Matt Kelso Flying dogs over the Murrumbidgee River, NSW 1978 Gordon Setter 106 Arthur Streeton Brace of Gordon Setters 1892 Great Dane 108 Ivor Hele Woodley 1955 Great Swiss Mountain Dog 110 Viola Dominello Dog 2007 Greyhound 112 Tim McMonagle Cheese and Pickles 2005 Hungarian Puli 114 Janet Tavener Hungarian Puli 2006 Husky 116 Petrina Hicks Lambswool 2008 Ibizan Hound 118 Geoff Harvey Boris 1999 Irish Red and White Setter 120 William Strutt Dogs with flowers and game 1850s 122 Ron McBurnie Tobias and the angel 2009 Irish Wolfhound 124 Tom Roberts Blue eyes and brown c. 1887 Italian Greyhound 126 Rosslynd Piggott Dark sun, Tuscany 1993 Jack Russell 128 Noel McKenna Jack Russel 2001 Kangaroo Dog 130 Unknown artist Wallaroo and dog c. 1840 King Charles Spaniel 132 Norman Lindsay Dogs for comfort 1937 Komondor 134 Fred Cress Debate 2008 Labrador Retriever 136 Euan Heng Oskar welcomed 2005 138 Ron McBurnie Professional dog show 1983 Löwchen 140 Nicholas Chevalier Waiting for the ferry, Manila 1881 Maltese Terrier 142 James Guppy Between us 1991 Miniature Pinscher 144 Marshall Claxton The Dickinson family 1851 Newfoundland 146 W.E. Kelly Nelson 1901 Papillon 148 Emmanuel Phillips Fox The green parasol 1912 150 Douglas Fry My best friend 1910 Pekingese 152 Helen Stewart Portrait of Treania Smith Pharaoh Hound 154 Edwin Russell Tanner Dog c. 1958 Poodle (Standard) 156 Gabrielle Martin Kate and Harry 1998 Poodle (Toy) 158 Richard Read Snr Julia Johnston 1824 Pug 160 Norman Lindsay Rose on ‘Bobs’ c. 1912 Pyrenean Mountain Dog 162 Robert Dowling Mrs Adolphus Sceales with Black Jimmie on Merrang Station 1855–56 Saluki 164 Fred Cress Too few lovers 1989 Schnauzer (Miniature) 166 Jim Birkett Max and the Boys 2006 168 May Gibbs Scotty 1941 Soft-Coated Wheaten Terrier 170 Peter Spilsbury Böcklin 2001 (White) Spitz 172 Benjamin Edwin Minns The blue hat 1918 Staffordshire Terrier 174 J.M. Crossland Staffordshire Bull Terrier belonging to Rev. John Gower 1851 Weimeraner 176 Mclean Edwards Martin Browne 2007 178 Adrienne Doig Finbar with Vi King and Steven 2006 West Highland Terrier 180 Jeff Koons Puppy 1995 Whippet 182 Vicki Varvaressos Portrait of Frank Watters 1994 184 Neil Evans Wilkie (Romantic Fool) Collins 2004

Index of Artists 187 The history of Australian art is conventionally told with reference to a The Untold number of themes, such as the Australian landscape and its light, urbani- sation, technological innovation or the impact of European art and ideas. Story of There is one theme, however, which has been entirely overlooked and it is the subject of this book. Perhaps it has been overlooked because it seems too Australian commonplace to serve as a grand narrative of Australia’s artistic evolution. Yet history has shown repeatedly that great events are often the result of Art simple and unexpected causes. For centuries it was believed that the Roman Empire fell because of dynastic rivalry and barbarian incursions, until it Benjamin Duterreau (1767–1851) The Conciliation 1840. was suggested that the real cause was probably much simpler: lead in the Oil on canvas, 121.0 x 170.5 cm. drinking pipes. So it is with Australian art. The various stylistic shifts which Collection of the Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery, Hobart have occurred, the debates about abstraction and figuration, the rivalries between schools and cities are attributed to sociological, historical and per- sonal factors, when the real cause was all the while sitting under our table. The untold story of Australian art is the story of dogs and how they came to inspire and shape the art of a nation. The focus of this book is art since colonisation, and its dog subjects are principally introduced and domestic species. Yet there is a rich prelude to this story. Indigenous Australians believe that the Dingo came here with their ancestors. It has been a part of their life and art for at least 4000 years, featuring prominently in rock and bark painting. Early European efforts to picture Australia’s native dog show how disconnected Anonymous Canis familiaris dingo c. 1793. the colonisers were from their new environment. An anonymous watercolour Watercolour on paper, 20.5 x 31.8 cm. found among the manuscripts of Joseph Banks is probably the first attempt. This Banks MS34. Image courtesy of the Art Gallery of New Dingo, however, is almost unrecognisable, resembling more an oversized fox. South Wales Archive

1 Pioneer dogs

As is widely known, the First Fleet included a number of store ships, their decks crowded with animal pens. The official register lists ‘puppies’ along with Governor Phillip’s Greyhounds. These puppies and their offspring were traded with local Aborigines and eventually interbred with the native Dingo. Augustus Earle’s watercolour Australian Native in his bark hut shows a man with two such puppies. In the early years of European colonisation, dogs were one of the few things that Indigenous Australians took from the white settlers that did not enslave or kill them. Dogs are found everywhere in colonial art. Although their inclusion might at first appear incidental, a closer look will show that they often provide a key to interpreting the works. Alexander Schramm’s A scene in South Australia c. 1850 is said to represent an ideal of how settlers and

Augustus Earle (1793–1838) Indigenous Australians could live together harmoniously. It was a popular Australian native in his bark hut [1826?]. image, with a large number of copies being sold throughout Australia during Watercolour on paper, 18.1 x 19.4 cm. Collection of the National Library, Canberra the nineteenth century. It shows ‘Old King William’ and his family visiting a settler’s cottage on washing day. They are accom- panied by their seven dogs, an appealing group of various terrier and greyhound mixed breeds. The tethered settler’s dog (and cat), on the other hand, shows fear and aggression. This is not the only painting in which dogs function as a counterpoint to an intended message. English artist Benjamin Duterreau, who arrived in Van Diemen’s Land in the 1830s, included three dogs in the foreground of his large history painting The Conciliation. This work – thought to be the first ‘epic’ painting in Australia – shows George Augustus Robinson persuading the remaining Tasmanian Aborigines to cease warfare against the colonists and accept settlement on Flinders Island. The native wallaby and the introduced sheep dog in the lower right

2 corner are usually interpreted as symbols of conciliation. Their stand-off, sadly, seems rather to prefigure years of hostility and misunderstanding. The earliest artists in Australia were amateurs: convicts sentenced for forgery, surveyors and naval officers. The number of dogs they included in their illustrations and paintings is remarkable. They inhabit works which depict the progress of settlements and city life, they are in topographical Alexander Schramm (1814–64) A scene in South Australia c. 1850. views and in hundreds of portraits. Tasmanian artist William Buelow Gould is Oil on canvas, 25.7 x 31.8 cm. typical. He can appear self-conscious and inept when attempting landscapes Collection of the Art Gallery of South Australia, Adelaide. South Australian and history pieces in the grand manner, but his animal portraits are different. Government Grant 1982 (8212P30)

3 Mervyn Napier Waller (1893–1972) The Hunt c. 1925. Watercolour on paper, 34.5 x 62.0 cm. Private collection

Visitors to Napier Waller’s home in Melbourne recalled that the first sound AIREDALE heard there was ‘Baldur’s deep bark and the scuttering of claws on the pol- ished wood floor. And if, after he has tumbled in advance down the stairway that leads to the studio, all thought of Baldur disappears from your mind in the presence of what you find there, it will return later’. Baldur was one of the three pet Airedales belonging to Napier and Christian Waller. Like other artists of the 1920s, the Wallers were interested in theosophy and various forms of spiritualism; hence the esoteric names of their dogs: Siren, Undine and Baldur. Originally known as Waterside , Airedales are the largest of the terriers and were popular in the Aire Valley. Victorians, like the Wallers, were keen on the breed and it was in Victoria that the Club was formed in 1929, one of the first pure clubs in Australia. In this painting the three dogs are depicted together for the first time. The eldest had already been included in The Pastoral Pursuits of Australia,

26 Mervyn Napier Waller (1893–1972) Collection of the National Gallery of Christian Waller with Baldur, Australia, Canberra, purchased 1984 Undine and Siren at Fairy Hills 1932. (49895) Oil and tempera on canvas mounted on composition board, 121.5 x 205.5 cm.

a mural for the now-demolished Menzies Hotel in Melbourne. This portrait of his wife was Napier Waller’s only major easel painting. After the First World War, in which he lost the use of his painting arm, he confined himself to murals, mosaics and stained glass. He said that this was because he realised ‘that modern painting is disconnected with life – that it exists in an artificial hot-house … I sought for something that should touch life intimately’. Art made for public spaces gave him this opportunity, and his pet Airedales found themselves represented in various historical and allegorical works. With their elegant proportions and clear lines, they seem strangely suited to Waller’s art deco world. In time this portrait became a poignant memento for the artist. Only five years after it was done, his wife suffered a complete mental breakdown. Advised by pseudo-mystics like the American Father Divine, she withdrew from all human contact. In this portrait there is already a sense of her fragility.

27 When this painting by Hilda Rix Nicholas was shown in 1937, it was singled AUSTRALIAN out as ‘typically Australian in both subject and treatment’. By treatment, the reviewer probably meant the artist’s choice of colours and the way she CATTLE DOG applied paint. Ironically, these were influences of study in France and in the light-saturated world of North Africa. The subject of the painting, a pasto- ralist out among livestock, is more typically Australian. However, by casting a woman in this role the work departed from convention. Once again, Nicholas took inspiration from French models, where women working the land were routinely made a subject of art. As curator Tracy Cooper-Lavery has noted, the works of Hilda Rix Nicholas are unique, ‘because they approach the scenes from a female per- spective. Often the figures are portrayed close-up, giving an intimacy that is absent in masculine depictions of the landscape’. Like her male counterparts among artists and writers, Rix Nicholas was interested in constructing a mythology of the bush as a place where national identity is forged. Unlike them, however, she inserted women firmly into this context. Henry Lawson wrote of a ‘Land where gaunt and haggard women live alone and work like men/Till their husbands, gone-a-droving, will return to them again’. In this painting, it is the woman who has gone-a-droving and the atmosphere is one of affluence rather than hardship. Even the sheep seem contented. So much so that the cattle dog, which is normally pictured alert and at work, is shown resting. The model for The fair musterer was the governess on a property in southern New South Wales, where Rix Nicholas and her husband estab- lished themselves in 1928. She gave birth to her only child in 1930, when she was 46. This work was painted five years later. The ‘Blue Heeler’ was a working dog on the property. Developed in Australia as a herding dog, Australian Cattle Dogs have become a much-loved national breed, largely because of their stamina, intelligence and loyalty to owners. Cattle dogs, which occur in two colours, have a habit of nipping at the heels of stubborn sheep and cattle – hence their popular name of red or blue heeler.

34 Hilda Rix Nicholas (1884–1961) The fair musterer 1935. Oil on canvas, 102.3 x 160.4 cm. Collection of the Art Gallery, Brisbane (1:1178), purchased 1961

35 When she was not writing poetry, Dame Mary Gilmore was campaigning to AUSTRALIAN have the contribution which dogs have made to our national life recognised. She encouraged the Commonwealth Bank of Wagga Wagga to celebrate KELPIE sheep dogs with a sculpture by Bim Hilder and she asked the police to erect a memorial to Zoe: ‘We have no statuary to the dogs that did so much for us, that brought the cattle and the sheep home, found lost children, and died of snake bite saving the children they went out with, and, in the case of police dogs, helped safeguard society individually and as a whole.’ This was not entirely true. Dog memorials can be found scattered throughout Australia. The most celebrated is the ‘Dog on the Tucker Box’ at Gundagai. In the Western Australian town of Dampier, ‘Red Dog’ recalls a Kelpie who roamed the region hitching rides, erected by ‘the many friends made during his travels’. In Queensland there is a war memorial to the tracker dogs which supported Australian forces in Vietnam. Two rural sculptures record a dog rivalry between Victoria and New South Wales. Ardlethan is a small gold-rush town in the heart of the Riverina district of New South Wales. Its major claim to fame is that it was the birthplace of the Australian Kelpie. The Scottish immigrants who settled the area – the town’s name means ‘hilly’ in Gaelic – are said to have mixed strains of working Collies with the Dingo. To celebrate the event a Kelpie

Peter Corlett (1944–) Dog Festival is held each year, and in 1994 the town commissioned Charlie Casterton Kelpie 1996 (detail). Beltramie to create a commemorative sculpture for Stewart Park. Bronze. Casterton Town Hall. Two years later, however, the town of Casterton in Victoria’s Western Districts made a counter claim. Jack Gleeson, who had bred a number of working dogs near Ardlethan in the 1870s, had acquired an important bitch (whom he named ‘Kelpie’) from the family of George Robertson of Casterton. During Casterton’s 150th celebrations in 1996 the town celebrated its claim that it was ‘the birthplace of the foundation bitch of the Kelpie breed’ by commissioning Peter Corlett to make a statue for the front of the Town Hall.

36 Clifton Pugh (1924–90) Rounding sheep 1968. Oil on board, 121.0 x 90.3 cm. Private collection Image courtesy of the artist’s estate

37