School of Culture and Communication - Theses
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ItemArt collectors in colonial Victoria 1854-1892: an analysis of taste and patronage( 1976)My examination of the holdings of private art collections in Victoria before 1892 is confined to British and European art. It was to Britain that taste was oriented, and the emerging group of Australian painters made little impact upon those patrons and collectors recognized as being the cultural leaders of the community. It would have been difficult to incorporate my research on collectors of Australian art in an essay of this length. I have therefore confined myself to a number of general observations set out in Appendix E. These may be useful in better understanding a part of the background against which British and European art was collected. I have limited my discussion to the dates 1854 to 1892. The former date was chosen because it was in that year that private collectors first publicly exhibited pictures in their possession. I have chosen the latter date because by 1892 the recession had taken a firm hold, and it can be confidently said that the first period of wealth had passed. By 1892 art and its market had all but ceased to be a topic of discussion in the Melbourne journals. I will concentrate on the 1880's; my Chapter on the period before 1880 is meant to be no more than a preface. The topic has been approached from two points of view. Chapters I to III concentrate on individual collectors, and attempt to establish, and then clarify, the various currents of taste which prevailed. My first concern was to identify the principal collectors, and then establish the extent of their holdings. The three broad groups that I have defined are discussed in Chapter III, and I have devoted Appendix A to summarizing this essential background information, while at the same time extending the number of collectors discussed. I will be searching both for evidence of motives for collecting, and for the way in which qualitative standards were established, though the results are generally disappointing. I have then approached the topic from an entirely different angle. I felt it important to take a broad approach and examine in more general terms the various influences which worked upon collectors. This has extended to the role of Melbourne's International Exhibitions, to the receptiveness of the community at large to foreign art and, perhaps most importantly, to the state and role of the art market in Melbourne in the 1880's. In doing this I was compelled to leave out detailed discussion of a number of collectors whose pictures might seem to merit a more considered treatment. It would have been possible to devote the entire essay to the first process of identification, and of compilation of holdings. Considering the exploratory nature of the essay, I decided it would be more useful to sketch in a wider background which could then be used as a basis for further research. I will argue that in general Melbourne collectors in the 1880's, while becoming increasingly receptive to foreign art, clung tightly to a wellentrenched, traditional taste for landscape. I will be exploring the background to a fairly wide resistance to modern figurative art, especially "Olympian". Although the 1880's represented the period of Melbourne's greatest wealth collectors did not, in fact, reassess their attitudes to the notion of "high" art. I will argue that from the market's point of view particularly the period was one of unfulfilled expectations. There have been limitations upon my ability to accurately assess the state and holdings of private Melbourne collections. Very few have remained intact - the crash of the 90's saw to that. For this reason I have had to rely almost exclusively on contemporary documents, and as my work progressed it became increasingly clear that the various catalogues and press reports were fraught with inaccuracies and inconsistencies. Thus, great care should be taken in accepting attributions. Contemporary scholarship in the field of Victorian art seems to be in a state of flux, and no clearly defined, commonly accepted critical terminology has yet emerged. In describing the various genres and types I have not imposed a strictly uniform system, but have preferred to use a variety of terms which might better help to describe the pictures, many of which I have been unable to illustrate. Because of the limits imposed on an essay like this I have decided not to include a discussion of the development of British aesthetic theory through the nineteenth century, of changing attitudes to landscape and such. I have used the word "taste" in its broadest sense. Ruskin, for example, early recognized the inherent "freedom" of the concept, and argued in Modern Painters "that taste was an instinctive preferring, not a reasoned act of choice". In fact, the publication of Richard Payne Knight's treatise on taste in 1805 marked the final demise of the eighteenth century concept of taste as an intellectual perception governed by reason When the term was used by authors and journalists in Melbourne in the 1880's it was invariably conceived in this broad Ruskinian sense. The problems that I will be identifying and discussing relate principally to questions of motive, and not the establishment of qualitative criteria.
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ItemSpirit possession and healing rites in a Balinese village( 1978)This thesis seeks to describe and analyse a ritual known as the sanghyang dadara-dadari. It is a religious ritual, which will be shown to communicate through its use of known symbolic, metaphoric and metonymic forms of language and behaviour, the nature of the supernatural, and the interaction between the supernatural and the people of this Balinese village. It is the nature of this supernatural power, the cosmological order, and the role which this ritual played in the religious belief system of this village between 1974-6, that this thesis seeks to clarify. In addition, I will attempt to identify any change which may have occurred in the form or content of the ritual over the past fifty years, and attempt to account for the reasons for this change. In order to do this the scope of the study has been widened to include all accounts of the ritual in Bali, and three other rituals of the same genre, including one example from Java, which have been recorded between 1901 and 1970. The existing literature concerning the sanghyang dadara-dadari is meagre. Only very sketchy accounts have been located, the majority written by foreigners who just happened to observe the ritual and described it for the benefit of other foreign tourists, as one of the weird and exotic attractions of this island. Written with this aim in mind, accurate accounts of the ritual cannot be expected. These accounts cover a period between 1925 and 1941 only. Since that date no written records of the ritual have been located, which suggests, and which is supported by my research during my period of field work in Bali, that the ritual is now defunct in those villages where it was recorded prior to 1941 and in any other villages where it may have been part of the religious belief system. Only in Cemenggacn has it continued to flourish. It was therefore important to record it on tape and observe many performances in order to provide an accurate record. (From Preface)
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ItemThe theme of melancholy in Wordsworth's poetry( 1974)My concern in this essay is to focus attention on an aspect of Wordsworth's work to which I have given the general name of a "theme of melancholy". I wish to suggest by this not some habitual melancholy of attitude, or an elegiac note, though both of these are involved in the theme, but rather something which is inherent in all his work, present as one of the shaping conditions of his poetry. We speak of Wordsworth as a revolutionary, poet above all as one who was concerned with the release of feeling, and who achieved that release in great and lasting modes; yet I believe that, if we are to say this, we must also take account of the pervasiveness of this "melancholy" in his work. The considerations involved in such an account must have an important bearing on our sense of his work as a whole, and they seem to me also to offer terms in which we may explore the reasons for the extreme difference in quality which is manifested in it.(From Introduction)
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ItemHugh Ramsay: a consideration of his life and work( 1966)Hugh Ramsay was born on 25th May, 1877, in Glasgow, the fourth son of John and Margaret Ramsay (nee Thomson). John Ramsay appears to have followed various occupations before this time. According to D. S. Adam he served an apprenticeship as a carpenter and cabinet-maker in Shotts, Lanarkshire; in June, 1896, at the time of his marriage in Stane, Lanarkshire, he gave his occupation as ‘commission agent’; and at the time of Hugh’s birth in Glasgow he gave his occupation as ‘Die Sinker and Engraver’. Two considerations, mentioned by Adam and Mrs. Lennie, a niece of John Ramsay, might well have influenced Ramsay in his decision to emigrate: according to Adam, Margaret Ramsay was in poor health, and the doctor advised a change of climate; Mrs. Lennie, on the other hand, states that John Ramsay was attracted to Australia by the business opportunities he say there. On 5th March, 1878, John Ramsay with his wife and four sons sailed on the ‘Loch Sunart’ for Melbourne, Arriving on 7th June, 1878. The family lived at first in King Street, West Melbourne, moving in 1881 to Williams Road, Prahran, in 1885 to Erica Street, Windsor, and finally, in 1888, to Essendon. Here, according to a neighbor, the Ramsays lived in a terrace house in Bayview Terrace before moving into the substantial new home, “Clydebank”, in Vida Street. (From Chapter 1)
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ItemThe development of pessimism in the works of Mark Twain( 1976)The tendency towards pessimism in the 19th century novel is one of the most fascinating of the broad movements in literature, largely because its manifestations are so varied. The later novels of Dickens and Madam Bovary and Crime and Punishment would seem to have little in common and yet, like so many other novels of the period from about 1850 to the First World War, they are marked by a sense of the waste of human potential, a sombreness and narrowing in what life has to offer. We naturally feel that there must have been something in the age itself which inclined those who recorded it towards a pessimistic outlook. Yet how we are to comment on this general tendency is a difficult matter. I feel that little of value can be achieved by identifying general qualities of the age and looking back to find their influence on a variety of writers, at least not by those whose primary interest is literature and not history, however closely the two are linked in this perspective. Rather, certain qualities of the late 19th and early 20th centuries can perhaps be suggested by studying the careers of particular writers and noting the ways in which their impressions and judgments about life and their own times converge. Although a comparative study of a number of writers, with this point of view in mind, would represent a fuller working out of my interest, I feel that it would be quite inappropriate to the length of this thesis and I am confining myself to a study of Mark Twain. Twain is a figure of exceptionally wide significance in relation to the issue of pessimism as a general tendency in the 19th century. In part, this is because of the explicitness with which Twain expresses his growing pessimism. In this he resembles Tolstoy, for by the end of their careers both writers had reached a position of explicit, cosmic pessimism; a position registered particularly forcefully by their readers because it seems, at least superficially, to contrast sharply with their best known works - Anna Karenina and Huckleberry Finn - which are particularly beloved by all readers for their rendering of some of the simplest and most deeply felt of life's pleasures and values. But in what his pessimism reveals about the times in which he lived Twain is of more direct significance than Tolstoy. For although his later years were marked by exceptional difficulties and sorrows in his personal life, it is not in terms of private suffering that he develops his pessimistic outlook, but in terms of his beliefs about nature and society. (From Introduction)
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ItemThe life and work of Ludwig Becker (1808-1861): with a critical analysis of his Australian oeuvre and an appreciation of his contribution to artistic and scientific developments in Victoria( 1978)Ludwig Becker’s name has long been associated with the Great Exploring Expedition of 1860-61 and the work he executed during the Expedition as artist, naturalist and geologist. But details of his life and training have been obscure and work undertaken prior to the Expedition relatively unknown. Becker was no superficial or flamboyant character but a true scholar. He appeared content to remain in the background, sharing his knowledge and contributing much to the cultural life of early Melbourne, always the worker while others took the honours. During the research for this study of Becker’s life and work I realised that it would be enhanced by extending the critical analysis into the scientific field. I sought some guidance from scientific specialists. I acknowledge with gratitude the advice given me by Mr John Calaby, Division of Wild Life Research, C.S.I.R.O., Canberra; and Mr Alan West, Curator of Anthropology, both of the National Museum of Victoria. Help provided on a specific point is acknowledged in the relative note. The scientists confirmed that Becker was able to identify correctly almost all living species of the animal world that he sketched, providing a considerable amount of data which they can hardly fault. In all other respects this thesis is an original work. It provides a biographical study of Becker in three sections. The first covers his life prior to his arrival in Australia; the second covers nine years spent in Tasmania and Victoria; and the third tells of the part he played on the Expedition until his death. There is a lengthy critical appraisal of his artistic work, the German tradition which moulded him and comparisons with other artists, especially William Strutt. There is also a chapter on his promotion of the arts in Victoria. Appendices, including hitherto unknown (in Australia) biographical details of Hermann Beckler, with whom he was closely associated on the Expedition, as well as full notes to the text, provide additional information and sources. The second volume contains the Catalogue of Becker’s work. That prior to the Expedition cannot claim to be complete but does give the fullest information available to date. The catalogue of the sketches of the Expedition is complete. These sketches and other documentary material, including reports, letters and meteorological observations on which I have based my study of this section are in the collection of the Royal Society of Victoria, now part of the special collections held in the La Trobe Library, State Library of Victoria. Also in the La Trobe Library are the Minutes in manuscript of the Victorian Society of Fine Arts which I believe worthy of inclusion as a lengthy appendix in this study.
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ItemTom Roberts and Australian impressionism, 1869 to 1903( 1962)“To Tom Roberts, from whose quick perception and expression of the principles of impressionism in the year 1886, sprang the first national school of painting in Australia”. It was thus that Arthur Streeton in 1915, dedicated an exhibition catalogue to his friend and teacher, Tom Roberts. In this study, I propose to investigate the implications of such a claim. My thesis will be divided into four sections as follows: The first contains a discussion of the sources of Roberts’ art in Australia, England and Europe; and of the works which he brought back to Australia in 1885. It was these works which Streeton claimed had a profound effect on the painters of Melbourne. The second section is primarily concerned with the question of the nature of Roberts’ principles of impressionism; with the question of the development of such principles in the Australian context during the second half of the 1880’s. Also discussed is the nature of Roberts’ influence on the formation of the ‘national school of painting’. Section three centres around a discussion of Roberts’ subject-matter. In it are raised the problems of Roberts’ allegiance to a realist-impressionist programme and of the nature of his response to the Australian environment. The fourth section deals with the developments in Roberts’ maturing style and attitudes inspired by the change of place and of time, in the Sydney of the 1890’s.
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ItemJames Blackburn: civil engineer, surveyor and architect: his life and work in Van Diemen's Land (1833-1849)( 1970)The theme of this thesis is the elucidation in detail of the life of an early Australian professional mana and convict – in a sense – made good, and to discuss his projected and remaining achievement in Tasmania – with special emphasis (as this thesis is submitted within the domain of local Art History rather than in the wider field of Australian History) on his architectural work. At the time of commencement (1956-57) this combination of full-scale biography from primary source material with a professionally-orientated survey of a man’s life work was totally new to the Australian visual arts. Biographies such as a life of Francis Greenway by M.H. Ellis (1949) for instance, contained no analysis, comprehension or even real consideration of the only thing, ultimately, which made Greenway worth writing about for a serious audience – his architecture. There is still extremely little of this duality as far as nineteenth century artists are concerned, and none whatsoever in the field of early architecture. The concern here, as expressed in the title, is with James Blackburn’s life and work in the island of Tasmania – the “set task” (admittedly a self-chosen one) expires, in fact, in the year 1849 when he settled permanently in what was to become the State of Victoria. An epilogue has, notwithstanding, been appended both to round off the biographical narrative and to include for anyone interested such information as has been obtained with brief and desultory spare-time explorations outside the periods of research of the main bulk of the thesis text. A sustained and prolonged onslaught would not alter the outlines of Blackburn’s life in Melbourne, but might (and might not) give more details of his schemes and yield further undertakings as City Surveyor. If it be borne in mind that prior to this investigation the only three statements which had been made about Blackburn in Melbourne were to the effect that he was “Father of the Melbourne Water Supply” and that he died in 1852 after falling from a horse (the latter two inaccurate) it will be seen that a reasonable expansion of knowledge has been achieved, and the last chapter many not appear objectionably gratuitous in this context. (From Introduction)
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ItemThe National Gallery School of Victoria, 1870 to 1890( 1975)It would be a temptation to see the development of art education in Melbourne in terms of a logically related progression of events, but this would be a simplification of what was really a much more haphazard process. In fact, I shall argue that the mixed beginnings and ambiguities do not find any comfortable resolution until the reign of George Frederick Folingsby, after 1882.