National Gallery of Australia | Audio Tour | The Edwardians

Introduction

Valerie Susan Langdon — the subject of this work — caused a scandal in 1878 when she married in secret Henry Meux, the heir to a brewery fortune. Valerie said she was an actress before her marriage, but many suggested she had worked under another name at a dance hall frequented by prostitutes. In a bid to gain his wife a place in polite Victorian society, Henry bought Lady Meux the diamonds that Whistler portrayed her wearing in this painting. However, neither the jewels nor her Egyptian antiquities collection could gain her the position that she desired.

James WHISTLER, Arrangement in black no. 5: Lady Meux 1881

This portrait of Thomas Lister, 4th Baron Ribblesdale, came to epitomise the Edwardian aristocrat: a sportsman, soldier, courtier and landowner. Sargent portrayed him as being alert and upright, a man with a strong physical presence, immaculately dressed, but with an expression that suggests he may have been stubborn at times. While Sargent revealed everything about his subject, in another sense he gave nothing away — he presented Ribblesdale’s public face and not his private life.

John Singer SARGENT, Lord Ribblesdale 1902

Nevinson witnessed the heavy casualties and widespread devastation of the first battles of the First World War. At the front, he made notes and sketches which he later worked up into drawings, paintings and drypoints. In Returning to the trenches he captured, through angular lines and abstract blocks of colour, the movement of an army on the march. He portrayed the column of men marching as if they were robots, caught up in a destiny over which they had no control.

C.R.W. NEVINSON, Returning to the trenches 1914

In The fountain, Villa Torlonia, Frascati, Italy Sargent portrayed the artist Jane de Glehn sketching the scene in front of her, watched by her artist husband Wilfrid. Jane described sitting for the picture in a letter to her sister on 6 October 1907: ‘Sargent is doing a most amusing and killingly funny picture in oils of me perched on a balustrade painting. It is the very ‘spit’ of me. He has stuck Wilfrid in looking at my sketch with rather a contemptuous expression … I am all in white with a white painting blouse and a pale blue veil around my hat. I look rather like a pierrot, but have rather a worried expression as every painter should have who isn’t a perfect fool, says Sargent. Wilfrid is in short sleeves, very idle and good for nothing’. (quoted in Kilmurray and Ormond, 1988)

John Singer SARGENT, The fountain, Villa Torlonia, Frascati, Italy 1907

Peter Pan is a small-scale version of George Frampton’s sculpture unveiled in Kensington Gardens in 1912. Edwardian society was enchanted by JM Barrie’s story of Peter Pan. The subject reflects a contemporary fascination with paganism and a belief in the power of nature and natural forces.

George FRAMPTON, Peter Pan 1912

In Important people Lambert presented a group of ordinary people at a time when the subjects of group portraits were often people with wealth or status in society. He mocked the assumption that importance is a matter of money or property. He created an allegorical image representing a range of human qualities that he regarded as important: motherhood, physical prowess, business acumen, and new life and energy.

George LAMBERT, Important people 1914, 1921

A decoration was once owned by Pickford Waller, an English designer and a collector of Conder’s work, as well as paintings by Spencer Gore, George Lambert, William Nicholson, Charles Shannon and Whistler. In his house in Pimlico, Waller placed this large decorative piece in a room that was entirely hung with Conder’s works. It includes features that are typical of Conder’s work, such as the oval medallion, wreaths and ribbons, and decorative borders.

Charles CONDER, A decoration [Formerly listed in Titan as "A decoration (on silk?)"] (1894-1904)

Lambert presented Lotty in command of the room, comfortably looking out at the viewer. The lady, dressed for outdoors in hat and gloves, is tenuously seated in this room; her body silhouetted against the door suggests her imminent escape. It was rare for a lady to venture into a kitchen, and in portraying Lotty and the lady together Lambert challenged traditional Edwardian social roles and behaviours.

George LAMBERT, Lotty and a lady 1906

Nellie Melba was the professional name of Helen Porter Mitchell (1861–1931). The Australian soprano was born in Melbourne, the city from which she took her name. She sang at Covent Garden, London, from 1888 to 1926, and at intervals with the Metropolitan Opera Company, New York. Famous for her lyric and coloratura roles, Sarah Bernhardt described her voice as being ‘pure crystal’ and Percy Grainger claimed that her voice always made him ‘mindsee Australia’s landscapes’. When Bunny painted this portrait, Melba was at the pinnacle of her success and beginning her artistic partnership with the tenor, Enrico Caruso.

Rupert BUNNY, Madame Melba 1901-02

La Belle chauffeuse is a portrait of the playwright Sylvia Bristowe. Nicholson loved style and often included costume in his paintings. In depicting Sylivia Bristowe in a motoring outfit he made a statement about her being a modern woman, adopting the latest modes of transport as well as being wealthy enough to own a car.

William NICHOLSON, La Belle chauffeuse 1904

Florence, Lady Phillips (1863–1940) was the daughter of a South African land surveyor. In 1885, she met and married Lionel Phillips, who had become wealthy in the 1880s by mining diamonds. They lived in England from 1898 to 1906, during which time Lady Phillips developed a keen interest in art and bought contemporary works — by William Orpen, William Rothenstein, Walter Sickert and Philip Wilson Steer, as well as by Pissarro, Monet and Sisley. In 1919, her daughter Edith married the artist William Nicholson.

Giovanni BOLDINI, Portrait of a lady, Mrs Lionel Phillips 1903

Almina was the fifth daughter of the wealthy and well-known Bond Street dealer, Asher Wertheimer. The portrayal of European women as alluring ‘orientals’ was fashionable at the turn of the 20th century. Sargent portrayed Almina dressed in exotic costume with an ivory-white Persian dress, a turban entwined with pearls and holding a sarod, a musical instrument from northern India.

John Singer SARGENT, Almina, daughter of Asher Wertheimer 1908

From around 1910 William Strang painted images of his family and friends wearing fashionable clothes and placed in imaginary settings in which he conveyed aspects of male–female relationships. In Bank holiday he suggested a young couple’s awkwardness when dining out, and included two symbols of devotion: the flowers and the pet. Strang created a deliberately understated image that allowed viewers to find their own interpretation.

William STRANG, Bank holiday 1912

Bathing hour is an image of leisure. Fox captured sunlight and colour in a scene of happy holiday-makers enjoying healthy outdoor pursuits. He showed a mother in a loose fitting dress drying her young child. Set apart in the intimacy of their domestic ritual, Fox emphasised the bond between mother and child. At the time it was painted Fox’s depiction of a naked child in such a setting was unconventional.

E. Phillips FOX, Bathing hour c.1909

Audio guide to works from the NGA exhibition Grace Cossington Smith: A retrospective exhibition, shown at the National Gallery of Australia, Canberra 4 March – 13 June 2005