Heidelberg School – Australian Impressionism

Golden Summer. Arthur Stratton, Eaglemont, 1889

Introduction

The Heidelberg School was an Australian art movement of the late 19th century. It has been described as Australian impressionism. The movement emerged at a time of strong nationalist sentiment in Australia, then a group of colonies on the verge of federation. The artists' paintings, unlike the bush poems of the Announcement School, were celebrated for their distinct Australian character, and by the early 20th century, critics had come to recognize the movement as the beginning of an Australian tradition in Western art. Many of their most recognizable works can be seen in Australia's major public galleries, including the National Gallery of Australia, the National Gallery of Victoria, and the Art Gallery of New South Wales. The name refers to the then rural area of Heidelberg, east of Melbourne, where style practitioners found their subject, although the use was extended to cover other Australian artists working in similar areas. The core group painted together in "artist camps", the first being the Box Hill Artist Camp, founded in 1885. In addition to Arthur Stratton and Walter Withers, other important artists of the movement included Tom Roberts, Frederick McCubin, and Charles Conder. Like many of their contemporaries in Europe and North America, members of the Heidelberg School adopted a direct and impressionistic style of painting. They regularly painted landscapes en plein air and tried to depict everyday life. They showed a keen interest in the effects of lighting and experimented with a variety of brush stroke techniques. Several art critics, including Robert Hughes, have noted that the "impressionism" of the Heidelberg School had more in common with Whistler's tonal impressionism than with the broken colors of the French impressionists (Tate).

The artists of the Heidelberg School did not espouse any theory of color and, contrary to the more radical approach of French artists, often retained some degree of academic emphasis on form, clarity, and composition. They also sometimes created works within the narrative conventions of Victorian painting. The Australians had little direct contact with the French Impressionists. For example, it wasn't until 1907 that McCubbin saw their works in person, which encouraged his evolution toward a more relaxed, more abstract style. The painters of the Heidelberg School were not only following an international trend, but were "interested in making paintings that looked distinctly Australian". They greatly admired the bright landscapes of Louis Buvelot, a Swiss artist and art teacher who, in the 1860s, adapted the principles of the French Barbizon School to the countryside around Melbourne. Considering Buvelot to be "the father of Australian landscape painting", they showed little interest in the works of previous colonial artists, believing they looked more like European scenes that did not reflect Australia's harsh sunlight, earthy colours and characteristic vegetation. The painters of the Heidelberg School spoke of seeing Australia "through Australian eyes" and by 1889, Roberts claimed that they had successfully developed "a distinct and vital and reliable style". [13] The idea that they were the first to objectively capture Australia's "shrubland" gained widespread acceptance in the early 20th century, but has since been disputed. For example, art historian Bernard Smith identified "an authentic swrub atmosphere" in John Lewin's landscapes of the 1810s,[14] and John Glover in the 1830s is thought to have faithfully captured Australia's unique light and sprawling, messy thrush trees (‘Heidelberg School’). The Heidelberg School developed an informal, evocative and naturalistic style that challenged the colors and flora of the Australian landscape. One of the leading exponents of the Heidelberg School was Tom Roberts, an artist who had studied in Europe before returning to Australia in 1885, bringing with him new innovations in impressionism. Other artists associated with the Heidelberg School include Arthur Stratton, Frederick McCubin, Charles Conder, and Arthur Loureiro. The group soon became synonymous with a national painting style in Australia (Tate).

 Historical Overview

Melbourne art critic Sidney Dickinson coined the term in an 1891 review of works by Arthur Streeton and Walter Withers, two local artists who painted en plein air in Heidelberg on the city's rural outskirts. The term has since evolved to cover painters who collaborated in "artist camps" around Melbourne and Sydney in the 1880s and 1890s. Along with Stratton and Withers, Tom Roberts, Charles Conder and Frederick McCubin are considered key figures in the movement. Drawing on naturalistic and impressionist ideas, they tried to capture Australian life, the bush and the harsh sunlight that characterizes the country. In August 1889, several artists from the Heidelberg School staged the 9 by 5 Impression Exhibition at Buxton's Rooms, Swanston Street, opposite Melbourne City Hall. The three main artists of the exhibition were Charles Conder, Tom Roberts and Arthur Stratton, with small contributions from Frederick McCoubin, National Gallery students R. E. Falls and Herbert Daly, and sculptor Charles Douglas Richardson, who exhibited five sculptures. Most of the 183 works included in the exhibition were painted on wooden cigar box lids, measuring 9 by 5 inches (23 × 13 cm), hence the name of the exhibition. Louis Abrahams, a member of the Box Hill artist camp, obtained most of the caps from his family's tobacco shop. In order to emphasize the small size of the paintings, the artists exhibited them in wide Red Gum frames, some left unorganized, others decorated with lyrics and small sketches, giving the works an "unconventional, avant garde look". [3] The japonist décor of Buxton's rooms featured Japanese displays, umbrellas, and flower vases that scented the gallery, while the influence of Whistler's Aestheticism also shone through on the harmony and "overall effect" of the display. The exhibition caused an uproar with many members of Melbourne's "intelligentsia" attending during its three weeks of operation. The general public, though somewhat confused, responded positively and within two weeks of opening, most of the 9 by 5 had sold. The response from critics, however, has been mixed. The most scathing criticism came from James Smith, then Australia's foremost art critic, who said the 9-by-5 was "devoid of any sense of beauty" and "whatever influence [the exhibition] was likely to exert could be no other than misleading and pernicious" (‘Heidelberg School’). The evolution of Australian Impressionism is inextricably linked to the city of Melbourne, where it flourished in the 1880s due to the city's expanding economy and cultural complexity, as well as the increase in leisure along with a corresponding increase in the sense of national identity. The contribution of the Australian Impressionists to Victorian art (as a whole) was stimulated by the city's vibrant artistic climate and reflected a wide range of artistic influences, from traditional practice to the more progressive European modern art movements of painting, aesthetics and symbolism (Heidelberg School of Australian Impressionism, Melbourne).

Politics

In the wake of Australian Colonial Painting (c.1780-1880), the first major milestone in Australian art is the "9 x 5 Impression Exhibition" held in a Melbourne sales hall in 1889. It was then, in the collection of small sketches, painted mainly on the seasoned wood of cigar boxes and measuring nine by five inches, that for the first time appeared a body of art that was clearly and consciously Australian. Most of the small impressions were the work of three virtually unknown young painters: Tom Roberts (1856-1931), Arthur Stratton (1867-1943) and Charles Conder (1868-1909). Fred McCubbin (1855-1917) was also represented, and several less important enthusiasts were attracted to the new movement. This group became known as the Heidelberg School, after the rural artist camps they set up on the site of Heidelberg, to the east of Melbourne. Art was a matter of little importance in Australia at the time – the French "Impressionism" movement was known only to a small number of artists – and Melbourne was slightly surprised by the exhibition, which by serving tea, providing musical entertainment and publicizing scathing criticism from the press, managed to arouse considerable curiosity and achieve several sales. The catalogue, with a cover design by Charles Conder (collector's item today), bore the legend or manifesto: "When you draw, form is the important thing, in painting the first thing you have to look for is the general impression of color." (Jean-Léon Jérôme: 1824-1904). Thus, the Australian "Impressionists" got their name – a misnomer at once as inaccurate and as apt as the "Pre-Raphaelites" or "Fauves". For Australian impressionism has little in common with the impressionist landscape painting of Claude Monet (1840-1926), Alfred Sisley (1839-1899) and Camille Pissarro (1830-1903), with their theories of the spectrum and vibration of light and colour. (For more, see: Features of Impressionist Painting 1870-1910.) The French were still fighting their own battles, and the influence of French impressionism was not felt in Australia for more than another generation. Color reproductions were almost non-existent. Australia was still far away to travel, and many artists who made the trip back to Europe were immersed in the more active art world of Paris, and Australia gained nothing from their experience (Australian Impressionism: Origins, Characteristics of Heidelberg School).

Music

In terms of music, Oceania consists of a number of musical traditions: a) Australian classical music, b) Kiribati music, c) Marshall Islands music, Tokelau music, d) Polynesian music, Cook Islands music, e) Maori music, New Zealand music, Australian Aboriginal music,  the music of Fiji and the music of Samoa, the music of the Solomon Islands, the music of Tonga, the music of Tuvalu, the music of Vanuatu and the music of New Caledonia among others. In Australian classical music in particular, the first musical influences in Australia can be traced to two distinct sources: the first settlements, the large contingent of convicts, soldiers and sailors who brought the traditional folk music of England, Wales, Scotland and Ireland, and the first free settlers, some of whom had been exposed to the European tradition of classical music in their upbringing. An example of original music by a convict would be an 1861 melody dedicated to colonist James Gordon by violinist Constable Alexander Laing. Very little music has survived from this early period, although there are samples of music originating from Sydney and Hobart dating back to the early 19th century. Music editions of this period preserved in Australian libraries include works by Charles Edward Horsley, William Stanley, Isaac Nathan, Charles Sandis Packer, Frederick Augustus Packer, Carl Linger, Francis Hartwell Henslow, Frederick Hellard, Raymond Petsots and Julius Siede (‘Australian Classical Music’). Australia's indigenous music includes the music of Australia's Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders, intersecting with their cultural and ceremonial ceremonies, through the millennia of their individual and collective history to the present day. Traditional forms include many aspects of performance and musical orchestration that are unique to specific Australian Aboriginal regions or groups. And certain elements of musical tradition are common or widespread across much of the Australian continent, and even beyond. The music of the Torres Strait Islanders is related to that of neighbouring parts of New Guinea. Music is a vital part of the cultural preservation of Indigenous Australians (‘Indigenous Music of Australia’).

Notable Compositions

String Quartet No. 1 - Hill (1896)

The first work we will hear today is Alfred Hill's String Quartet performed by the Reston Community Orchestra (‘String Quartet No. 1 Mvt. 1’, Reston Community Orchestra, by Alfred Hill for Founder’s Day, 2021). Its composition began before 1892, was completed after 1896 and premiered only on 18 May 1911 in Sydney (‘String Quartet No. 1 (Hill)’).

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZqvC5Xk1IMo 

Alfred Francis Hill CMG OBE (16 December 1869 – 30 October 1960) was an Australian-New Zealand composer, conductor and teacher (‘Alfred Hill (Composer)’). The String Quartet No. 1 in B-flat major "Māori Quartet is the first of Alfred Hill's seventeen string quartets. Its approximate duration is 22 minutes. The Quartet consists of four movements: I. Mipriato — Allegro II. Waiata (Songs accompanying the Chorus). Hakka Dance (Barbarian) — Trio. Dance Poi (Cute) — Da capo III. Rancid (Lamentation). Ledo — Konmoto — Rythmos I — Allegro IV. Finale. Allegro moderato (‘String Quartet No. 1 (Hill)’).

Piano Quartet – Carmichael

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GvV5-H3Ml74&list=OLAK5uy_n2m4Vekb4ak_ANHmqTPKG_dvt1dgnCD3g&index=1 

John Carmichael OAM (born 5 October 1930) is an Australian pianist, composer and music therapist who has long resided in the United Kingdom. One of his best-known works is the Concierto folklorico for piano and string orchestra. His piano works form a large part of his musical output, although he composes for many other instruments. His work is characterized as expressive and lyrical (‘John Carmichael (Composer)’). John Carmichael's "Sea Changes" Piano Quartet was written in 2000. According to the composer, the title of the work refers both to the waters surrounding Australia, where he was born, and to the UK, where he now resides. [1] Composed for a typical piano quartet, the work is in three movements: Allegro energico Lento ma non troppo Allegro A typical performance lasts about 18 to 19 minutes ('Piano Quartet (Carmichael)').

Don John of Austria (opera) - Isaac Nathan

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=luE40XScE40

Isaac Nathan (c. 1791 – 15 January 1864) was an English composer, musicologist, journalist and self-journalist who has been described as the "father of Australian music" (‘Isaac Nathan’). Don John of Austria is a ballad opera in three acts by Isaac Nathan to a libretto by Jacob Levi Montefiore. It is the first opera written, composed and produced in Australia (‘Don John of Austria (Opera)’).

A Southern Maid - Harold Fraser-Simson

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YEyef1Ir5ts

Harold Fraser-Simson (15 August 1872 – 19 January 1944) was an English composer of light music, including songs and scores for musical comedies. His most famous musical was the World War I hit The Maid of the Mountains, and he later set to music many children's poems, especially those of A. A. Milne ('Harold Fraser-Simson'). A Southern Maid is an operetta in three acts composed by Harold Fraser-Simpson, with a book by Dion Clayton Calthrop and Harry Graham and lyrics by Harry Graham and Harry Miller. Additional music was provided by Ivor Novello and George H. Clutsam, with additional lyrics by Adrian Ross and Douglas Fuber. Starring Jose Collins and Bertram Wallis (‘A Southern Maid’).

Chu Chin Chow - Frederic Norton

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1OR-8FIDZ2Q&embeds_euri=http%3A%2F%2Foperetta-research-center.org%2F&feature=emb_logo 

George Frederic Norton (11 October 1869 – 15 December 1946) was a British composer (‘Frederic Norton’). Chu Chin Chow is a musical comedy written, produced and directed by Oscar Aceh, with music by Frederic Norton, based (with small decorations) on the story of Ali Baba and the 40 Thieves. [1] The play premiered at His Majesty's Theatre in London on 3 August 1916 and ran for five years and a total of 2,238 performances (more than double that of any previous musical), an album that lasted for almost forty years until Salad Days. [2] [3] The first American production of the show in New York, with additional lyrics by Arthur Anderson, ran for 208 performances in 1917–1918, starring Tyrone Power. [4] He then had successful seasons elsewhere in America and Australia, including 1919, 1920, 1921 and 1922 (‘Chu Chin Chow’).

Tota Pulchra es Maria- Stephen Moreno

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B2Z-0YZeIt0 

Stephen Moreno (16 January 1889 – 6 March 1953) was an Australian composer of classical music. He was born in Spain. where he became a novice monk in the Benedictine order. He was ordained in New North, Western Australia. He was a prolific and respected artist. Mature choral works were published for various ceremonial religious occasions, some with orchestrations for larger ensembles (‘Stephen Moreno’).

Bibliography

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Australian Impressionism: Origins, Characteristics of Heidelberg School. http://www.visual-arts-cork.com/history-of-art/australian-impressionism.htm. Accessed 25 Mar. 2023.

'Uncle Nine Chow'. Wikipedia, 20 Nov. 2022. Wikipedia, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Chu_Chin_Chow&oldid=1122870295.

‘Don John of Austria (Opera)’. Wikipedia, 18 Mar. 2023. Wikipedia, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Don_John_of_Austria_(opera)&oldid=1145310095.

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‘Heidelberg School’. Wikipedia, 23 Jan. 2023. Wikipedia, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Heidelberg_School&oldid=1135192834#Influences_and_style.

Heidelberg School of Australian Impressionism, Melbourne. http://www.visual-arts-cork.com/history-of-art/heidelberg-school.htm. Accessed 25 Mar. 2023.

‘Indigenous Music of Australia’. Wikipedia, 3 Dec. 2022. Wikipedia, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Indigenous_music_of_Australia&oldid=1125369525.

‘Isaac Nathan’. Wikipedia, 12 Mar. 2023. Wikipedia, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Isaac_Nathan&oldid=1144279852.

‘John Carmichael (Composer)’. Wikipedia, 22 Mar. 2023. Wikipedia, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=John_Carmichael_(composer)&oldid=1145991991.

‘Piano Quartet (Carmichael)’. Wikipedia, 21 July 2021. Wikipedia, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Piano_Quartet_(Carmichael)&oldid=1034769536.

‘Stephen Moreno’. Wikipedia, 28 Oct. 2022. Wikipedia, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Stephen_Moreno&oldid=1118697734.

‘String Quartet No. 1 (Hill)’. Wikipedia, 31 Jan. 2021. Wikipedia, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=String_Quartet_No._1_(Hill)&oldid=1003936540.

‘String Quartet No. 1 Mvt. 1’, Reston Community Orchestra, by Alfred Hill for Founder’s Day, 2021. Directed by Reston Museum, 2021. YouTube, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZqvC5Xk1IMo.

Tate. ‘Heidelberg School’. Tate, https://www.tate.org.uk/art/art-terms/h/heidelberg-school. Accessed 25 Mar. 2023.