9 781743 050170 COVER by Lahn Stafford Design, Adelaide

Dogs in Australian Art

STEVEN MILLER

ISBN 978-1-74305-017-0

Dogs in Australian Art

Dogs in Australian Art looks at Australian art through the lens of dog painting, showcasing over 150 masterworks that illustrate the deep bond between Australians and their best friends. Steven Miller’s whimsical text argues that all the major shifts which occurred in Australia 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

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 New South Wales. 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 Sydney and is the proud owner of Finbar, a Welsh Terrier.

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: Title:

Miller, Steven. 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 London 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

AiredALe Mervyn Napier Waller Christian Waller with Baldur, Undine and Siren at Fairy Hills  1932

26

American Cocker Spaniel William Dobell  Self portrait  1968

28

American Foxhound Terry Batt  Double Happiness: The Year of the Dog  2006

30

American Pit Bull Terrier Cherry Hood  Daisy  2005

32

Australian Cattle Dog Hilda Rix Nicholas  The fair musterer  1935

34

Australian Kelpie Clifton Pugh  Rounding sheep  1968

36

Australian Shepherd Louise Hearman  Untitled # 820  2001

38

Australian Terrier Lucien Henry  Australian Terrier on a packing crate in garden  1890

40

Basset Hound Rachel Fairfax  Basset pups  2007

42

Beagle David Welch  The artist’s dog  2010

44

Bedlington Terrier Adrienne Doig  Hamish and Max  2005

46

Bichon Frisé Gabrielle Martin  Celeste and Lenny  1999

48

Black and Tan Terrier (Miniature) Arthur Murch  Suzanne Crookston  1935

50

Blenheim Spaniel William Dexter  Lady’s pet  1855

52

Border Collie Eric Thake  The weekly train departs, the dog goes back to sleep  1971

54

Contents

Border Terrier Joanna Braithwaite  Diggers  2005

56

Borzoi Violet Teague  Cynthia and Count Brusiloff  c. 1917

58

Boston Terrier Louise Hearman  Untitled # 999  2003

60

Brussels Griffon Joanna Braithwaite  The ancestors  2005

62

Bull Terrier Peter Booth  Painting  c. 1977

64

Canaan Dog Cherry Hood  Bedouin Canaan Dog (No. 6)  2002

66

Cavalier King Charles Spaniel Melissa Egan  The wife of Bath in her new hat  2006

68

Chihuahua Anne Leisner  Brutus  2006

70

Chinese Crested Justin Spiers and Yvonne Doherty Andrea, Tristan, Valentino & Tatiana  2006

72

Chow Chow Basia Sokolowska  Manchuride  and  Manchuhill  2008

74

Collie Kristin Headlam  Burns family portrait  2007

76

Corgi (Pembroke) Rew Hanks  King Billy Waiting for the Missing Monarch  and  King Billy Fetch Me My …  2003

78

Dachshund Stephanie Monteith  Young Sausage Dog  2005

80

Dalmatian William Casey  Devil dog  2006

82

Dingo Lin Onus Michael and I are just slipping down to the pub for a minute  1992

84

English Bulldog Grace Cossington Smith  Krinkley Konks sleeping  1927–28

86

English Cocker Spaniel Harold Septimus Power  Cocker Spaniels  c. 1935

88

English Foxhound George Stubbs  A couple of Foxhounds  1792

90

English Pointer George Perrottet  Bookplate for Carlyle S. Baer  1934

92

Fox Terrier (Smooth) Rupert Bunny  Mrs Bunny and her terrier  1902–05

94

Fox Terrier (Wire Hair) William Dobell  Conversation piece  1941

96

French Bulldog Margaret Preston  Nude with dog  1925

98

German Shepherd Chris Bruce  Rex  2003

100

German Short-haired Pointer Graeme Drendel  The temptation  and  The players  2008

102

Golden Retriever Matt Kelso  Flying dogs over the Murrumbidgee River, NSW  1978

104

Gordon Setter Arthur Streeton  Brace of Gordon Setters  1892

106

Great Dane Ivor Hele  Woodley  1955

108

Great Swiss Mountain Dog Viola Dominello  Dog  2007

110

Greyhound Tim McMonagle  Cheese and Pickles  2005

112

Hungarian Puli Janet Tavener  Hungarian Puli  2006

114

Husky Petrina Hicks  Lambswool  2008

116

Ibizan Hound Geoff Harvey  Boris  1999

118

Irish Red and White Setter William Strutt  Dogs with flowers and game  1850s

120

Irish Terrier Ron McBurnie  Tobias and the angel  2009

122

Irish Wolfhound Tom Roberts  Blue eyes and brown  c. 1887

124

Italian Greyhound Rosslynd Piggott  Dark sun, Tuscany  1993

126

Jack Russell Noel McKenna  Jack Russel  2001

128

Kangaroo Dog Unknown artist  Wallaroo and dog  c. 1840

130

King Charles Spaniel Norman Lindsay  Dogs for comfort  1937

132

Komondor Fred Cress  Debate  2008

134

Labrador Retriever Euan Heng  Oskar welcomed  2005

136

Lakeland Terrier Ron McBurnie  Professional dog show  1983

138

Löwchen Nicholas Chevalier  Waiting for the ferry, Manila  1881

140

Maltese Terrier James Guppy  Between us  1991

142

Miniature Pinscher Marshall Claxton  The Dickinson family  1851

144

Newfoundland W.E. Kelly  Nelson  1901

146

Papillon Emmanuel Phillips Fox  The green parasol  1912

148

Parson Russell Terrier Douglas Fry  My best friend  1910

150

Pekingese Helen Stewart  Portrait of Treania Smith

152

Pharaoh Hound Edwin Russell Tanner  Dog  c. 1958

154

Poodle (Standard) Gabrielle Martin  Kate and Harry  1998

156

Poodle (Toy) Richard Read Snr  Julia Johnston  1824

158

Pug Norman Lindsay  Rose on ‘Bobs’  c. 1912

160

Pyrenean Mountain Dog Robert Dowling  Mrs Adolphus Sceales with Black Jimmie on Merrang Station  1855–56

162

Saluki Fred Cress  Too few lovers  1989

164

Schnauzer (Miniature) Jim Birkett  Max and the Boys  2006

166

Scottish Terrier May Gibbs  Scotty  1941

168

Soft-Coated Wheaten Terrier Peter Spilsbury  Böcklin  2001

170

(White) Spitz Benjamin Edwin Minns  The blue hat  1918

172

Staffordshire Terrier J.M. Crossland  Staffordshire Bull Terrier belonging to Rev. John Gower  1851

174

Weimeraner Mclean Edwards  Martin Browne  2007

176

Welsh Terrier Adrienne Doig  Finbar with Vi King and Steven  2006

178

West Highland Terrier Jeff Koons  Puppy  1995

180

Whippet Vicki Varvaressos  Portrait of Frank Watters  1994

182

Yorkshire Terrier Neil Evans  Wilkie (Romantic Fool) Collins  2004

184

Index of Artists

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The Untold Story of Australian Art Benjamin Duterreau (1767–1851) The Conciliation 1840. Oil on canvas, 121.0 x 170.5 cm. Collection of the Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery, Hobart

The history of Australian art is conventionally told with reference to a number of themes, such as the Australian landscape and its light, urbanisation, technological innovation or the impact of European art and ideas. 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 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 simple and unexpected causes. For centuries it was believed that the Roman Empire fell because of dynastic rivalry and barbarian incursions, until it was suggested that the real cause was probably much simpler: lead in the drinking pipes. So it is with Australian art. The various stylistic shifts which have occurred, the debates about abstraction and figuration, the rivalries

between schools and cities are attributed to sociological, historical and personal 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 the colonisers were from their new environment. An anonymous watercolour found among the manuscripts of Joseph Banks is probably the first attempt. This Dingo, however, is almost unrecognisable, resembling more an oversized fox.

Anonymous Canis familiaris dingo c. 1793. Watercolour on paper, 20.5 x 31.8 cm. Banks MS34. Image courtesy of the Art Gallery of New South Wales Archive

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Pioneer dogs

Augustus Earle (1793–1838) Australian native in his bark hut [1826?]. Watercolour on paper, 18.1 x 19.4 cm. Collection of the National Library, Canberra

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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 Indigenous Australians could live together harmoniously. It was a popular image, with a large number of copies being sold throughout Australia during the nineteenth century. It shows ‘Old King William’ and his family visiting a settler’s cottage on washing day. They are accompanied 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

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 views and in hundreds of portraits. Tasmanian artist William Buelow Gould is typical. He can appear self-conscious and inept when attempting landscapes and history pieces in the grand manner, but his animal portraits are different.

Alexander Schramm (1814–64) A scene in South Australia c. 1850. Oil on canvas, 25.7 x 31.8 cm. Collection of the Art Gallery of South Australia, Adelaide. South Australian 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

AIREDALE

26

Visitors to Napier Waller’s home in Melbourne recalled that the first sound heard there was ‘Baldur’s deep bark and the scuttering of claws on the polished 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 Terriers, 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 Airedale Terrier Club was formed in 1929, one of the first pure dog breed 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,

Mervyn Napier Waller (1893–1972) Christian Waller with Baldur, Undine and Siren at Fairy Hills 1932. Oil and tempera on canvas mounted on composition board, 121.5 x 205.5 cm.

Collection of the National Gallery of Australia, Canberra, purchased 1984 (49895)

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.

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AUSTRALIAN CATTLE DOG

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When this painting by Hilda Rix Nicholas was shown in 1937, it was singled 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 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 pastoralist 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 perspective. 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 established 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.

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

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AUSTRALIAN KELPIE

Peter Corlett (1944–) Casterton Kelpie 1996 (detail). Bronze. Casterton Town Hall.

36

When she was not writing poetry, Dame Mary Gilmore was campaigning to have the contribution which dogs have made to our national life recognised. She encouraged the Commonwealth Bank of Wagga Wagga to celebrate 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 Dog Festival is held each year, and in 1994 the town commissioned Charlie Beltramie to create a commemorative sculpture for Stewart Park. 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.

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