Evening (Mt Coot-tha from Dutton Park) 1898 (illustrated) is an accomplished work of a painter aware of the work of his Australian contemporaries Tom Roberts, Arthur Streeton and Charles Conder. FJ (Frederick James) Martyn Roberts, born in 1871 was 27 at the time he completed Evening using the Australian impressionists broad-brushed technique to depict the landscape looking toward South Brisbane with Mt. Coot-tha in the distance.
Dutton Park, an inner southern suburb is bordered by Highgate Hill, Fairfield and Woolloongabba, and is only 3kms from Brisbane’s CBD. Development in the suburb was relatively slow because of difficult terrain as the area was originally heavily timbered with deep gullies, initially a farming area, however by around the 1890s, the area became increasingly populated.
You can see similar perspectives photographed in 1884 taken from O’Rielly’s Hill (now Highgate Hill) looking across West End (then South Brisbane) towards Toowong, with Mt. Coot-tha in the distance with the unsealed road now Dornoch Terrace. Contemporary photography of the Brisbane River from Dutton Park in 1914 and later are a good indication as to what Martyn Roberts would have seen, with views documented from Mt Coot-tha looking back to Dutton Park showing the Brisbane River snaking through the recently formed municipality.
Contemporary views from Dutton Park
Contemporary view from Mt. Coot-tha to Dutton Park
Although artists like R Godfrey Rivers, perhaps Brisbane’s most prominent artist of the time when Evening… was painted, best known for Under the jacaranda 1903, he was not overtly influenced by the techniques of the Australian impressionists, however, the style was not unknown in Brisbane. All the significant artists working in the style came from the southern states — a number of works that had been influenced by the movement were being created and exhibited in Brisbane.
The inclusion of works by prominent southern artists, including Julian Ashton, Sydney Long and Tom Roberts, in the Queensland Art Society Annual Exhibitions during the 1890s was greeted with enthusiasm by local reviewers and artists. There was optimism that a continued presence by these artists would assist the development of the local art scene, and although few continued to exhibit with the Society after the turn of the century, and the works sent were not of the highest quality, Brisbane did experience at least a limited exposure to their work.
The most notable Brisbane artist experimenting with the style was a student and colleague of Rivers, FJ Martyn Roberts, whose painting Evening shows that by 1898, at least one influential local artist was using the impressionists technique to depict a landscape in the afterglow — a favourite pictorial device of the Heidelberg School artists. Roberts had spent a short time in Sydney during the 1890s under the tutelage of Julian Ashton, and he had painted en plein air with a number of other members of Sydney’s avant-garde.
FJ Martyn Roberts Evening (Mt Coot-tha from Dutton Park) 1988
Evening was immediately recognised as a ‘modern’ work at its display in the Queensland Art Society’s 1898 Annual Exhibition. Roberts’s painting shared the Society’s prizes that year and the Brisbane Courier reviewed the work with guarded enthusiasm:
Mr Roberts is an impressionist, and an exponent of much of the broad modern school of work… Altogether the picture is a very vigorous and distinctly convincing suggestion, and a promise of the future excellence of the artist is contained in it.
Roberts’s style attracted much local attention, and many years later it was regretted that he had not been able to paint more prolifically, due to his teaching commitments at the Brisbane Technical College where he succeeded Rivers as Supervisor of the Art Department.
He was somewhat in advance of his time … had the opportunity been his to continue more as a practising painter than as a tutor he would have held a place to-day with Streeton, Gruner, and Lambert. His work and that of Streeton was [sic] very similar in those far-off days.
Edited extract from ‘Looking for the ‘Beau Mode’ in Brisbane: Godfrey Rivers Under the jacaranda‘ by Sara Tiffin from Brought to Light: Australian Art 1850-1965, Queensland Art Gallery, 1998.
Curatorial extracts, research and supplementary material compiled by Elliott Murray, Senior Digital Marketing Officer, QAGOMA
FJ Martyn Roberts
FJ Martyn Roberts was a major influence on students and artists in Brisbane. He began teaching in 1894 at the South Brisbane Technical College and after a number of moves within the system was appointed Supervisor of the Arts Department at the Central Technical College in 1916 following the resignation of R Godfrey Rivers in 1915. Roberts held this position until his retirement in 1936 despite widespread public agitation to have his appointment extended. Noted artists among his pupils at the Technical College were Lloyd Rees and Daphne Mayo.
We delve into a major reframing project for prominent Queensland ornithological artist and taxidermist Anthony Alder’s (1838-1915) painting Red-tailed Black Cockatoos c.1895.
Anthony Alder (Standing 3rd from the right)
DELVE DEEPER: Go behind-the-scenes as we conserve ‘Red-tailed Black Cockatoos’
The oil on canvas Red-tailed Black Cockatoos (illustrated) acquired in 2014 entered the QAGOMA Collection retaining only its original slip and without a picture frame. It is uncommon for a painting to enter the Gallery’s Collection unframed, yet this is the case with this Adler work, therefore, while the painting was undergoing conservation treatment, the Conservation Frames and Furniture Section commenced researching reframing options of frame styles that were historically accurate and aesthetically suitable for paintings by Alder.
Before conservation: ‘Red-tailed Black Cockatoos’ 1895
Reframing paintings at QAGOMA is based on in-depth research, historical accuracy, and a knowledge of art and art history. There are numerous resources available when researching historic picture frames, and in the case of Red-tailed Black Cockatoos, our research commenced with Heron’s home 1895 (illustrated), another painting by Alder in our Collection.
Heron’s home was acquired in 2011 in an original 19th century picture frame that incorporates traditional frame making techniques and materials. Picture frames such as this were made or supplied by either an established picture frame making firm or importers of gilt mouldings.
TIME-LAPSE: Watch as the original colours are restored in Anthony Alders ‘Heron’s home’
To prepare Heron’s home for display, both the painting and frame required conservation treatment. While working on the frame, it was revealed that all the original compo ornament from the top edge and sight edge of the picture frame had been removed, prior to the gold overpaint being applied.
Frame during conservation: ‘Heron’s home’
Painting after conservation: ‘Heron’s home’ 1895
The most exciting stage of the treatment revealed the inscription ‘Mr Alder’, written in pencil on the verso of Heron’s home frame, providing a tangible link between artist, painting and frame. Unfortunately, no other frame maker’s labels or inscriptions relating to who the frame maker was, or when or where the frame was made were found.
‘Mr Alder’ inscribed on the verso of ‘Heron’s home’ picture frame
Publications on Anthony Alder reveal some relevant information:
‘most of the works held by the [Alder] family are still in their original highly ornate gilt frames which, according to the family, were made by Alder himself’.
‘He also produced a wide range of castings including fruit, fish and gold specimens, all in exceptional detail and painted in naturalistic colours. At the Greater Britain Exhibition in 1899 he received a gold medal diploma for gilded replicas of large cakes of retorted gold from mines at Gympie and Charters Towers’
‘Alder was also a skilled cabinet maker’.
There is a long history of artists designing, and in some instances making their own picture frames. Given Alder’s expertise in cabinet making, casting, and gilding, and the accounts of his descendants, this raised the question… is it possible that Alder made his own picture frames?
Our research continued with visits to precinct partners, State Library of Queensland and Queensland Museum who also have paintings by Alder in their collections. Two works of particular interest are Lincoln sheep, Homeward Laddie 1895 (illustrated), and Eagle and Fox (Not Game) 1895 (illustrated). Being of similar scale and profile, these picture frames are virtually identical to the frame on Heron’s home, employing the same gilding scheme, consisting of the undecorated areas being water gilt and the compo ornament being oil gilt. The main variation is the use of different styles of ornament employed to decorate each picture frame. This information proved crucial in understanding Alder’s choices of picture frames in 1895.
Profile of the picture frame: ‘Heron’s home’
Picture frame: ‘Lincoln sheep, Homeward Laddie’
Anthony Alder ‘Lincoln sheep, Homeward Laddie’ 1895
Picture frame: ‘Eagle and Fox (Not Game)’
Anthony Alder ‘Eagle and Fox (Not Game)’ 1895
However the question remained… are all these picture frames made by Alder himself? If by ‘made’ we are referring to purchasing prefinished mouldings, cutting, gluing and joining the mitres, then possibly yes. However, if one is referring to producing the profiled moulding, applying the compo ornament, and executing the various gilding finishes then this is highly unlikely. To manufacture picture frames of this quality, specialised woodworking machinery is required, stocks of different compo moulds are needed, and the knowledge of specialised picture framing gilding techniques is paramount.
Although the construction methods, materials, and gilding techniques employed on the three frames for Heron’s home; Lincoln sheep, Homeward Laddie; and Eagle and Fox (Not Game) — all painted in 1895 — are typically 19th century, the deep moulding profile, and the four separate sections of compo ornament are unique. This lead to the belief that the picture frames undoubtedly have the same provenance.
Although distinctive in style, I found the style of frames to be somewhat familiar. I distinctly remember encountering a similar frame on another painting within the Gallery’s Collection. During a stroll through Collection Storage, my search was rewarded as I came across the frame I was looking for on Oscar Friström’s portrait, Duramboi, from 1893, (illustrated) also on display at the Queensland Art Gallery’s Australian Art collection.
A contemporary of Alder, Friström was a prominent Brisbane portrait painter. Duramboi is framed in yet another version of the picture frames found on the three Alder paintings, it has the same deep moulding profile, four different sections of compo ornament and the same gilding scheme.
Oscar Friström ‘Duramboi’ 1893
Two crucial pieces of information are uncovered during the examination of the Duramboi frame. Firstly, Friström donated the artwork to the Gallery in 1895, two years after it was painted, which dates the picture frame between 1893 and 1895. Secondly, I find the most important piece of information when I turn the picture frame over —...
