School of Historical and Philosophical Studies - Theses
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ItemRupert Bunny's symbolist decade: a study of the religious and occult images 1887-1898( 1998)The late 19th century, Australian-born artist, Rupert Bunny has not been sufficiently acknowledged as a Symbolist figure. This study of his religious and occult works (the most explicit manifestation of the Symbolist preoccupation) shows how they engage with the Symbolist discourse of the day, both in France and in Britain. In the 1880s and 1890s there was a resurgence in religious belief and a general interest in religion, magic and the occult. Bunny began to paint images of the spiritual world, and a distinct occult thread, either from esoteric religions or classical myth, appears beside the Christian legends of the saints and bible stories. His depictions of the occult world are little known, as only photographic and literary evidence remains of rare paintings such as La Tentation de st. Antoine, and a group of works on paper housed at the Museum of Art, The University of Melbourne, is unpublished. The iconography of these works of Satanism, the Catholic occult, and ancient Greek and Nordic myths of death is examined in their contemporary context. However, like his contemporary Maurice Denis, Bunny's flutter with the occult is confined to his youthful period. In the new century, after a brief engagement with a more dramatic and naturalistic religious image, based on the Old Masters such as Rembrandt and Titian, he returns to the images of beautiful women at leisure which drew critical acclaim for him. Bunny's British cultural heritage has largely been ignored, yet his paintings fit more easily into the broad Symbolist canon if read in such a context. Paintings such as Les' roses de ste. Dorothee and the Burial of St. Catherine of Alexandria are analysed through their iconography, style and fresh contemporary critical sources which allows them to be reintegrated into the broader Symbolist dialectic. Although Bunny was a cosmopolitan by birth and education the question of nationalism arises as rival critics in France and Britain encouraged him to choose either Paris or London, and to paint a relevant style and subject. Bunny sought recognition as an artist in the conservative venues of the Royal Academy and the Société des Artistes français and his style reflects this context. Clearly, he did not engage with the radical Symbolism seen in the private images of Odilon Redon; nor did he lose touch with the sculptured form of the human body. However, Bunny was genuinely a Symbolist in his subject matter and it is hoped that through this study of his religious and occult work a broad reassessment of his oeuvre in the Symbolist decade will begin.