Australian artist John Peter Russell, born in 1858, was interested in art from a young age. Following his father's death in 1879, he enrolled at the Slade School of Fine Art and continued at Cormon's atelier in Paris where he became friends with Vincent van Gogh. Russell painted van Gogh's portrait that's displayed in the Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam. In 1886, painter John Peter Russell met Monet on the Brittany island of Belle-Ile. Monet influenced his thinking and work, and from this encounter Russell developed his bold Impressionist style seen in seascapes, landscapes, and portraiture.
Russell made Bell-Ile his home, and he lived there for 20 years until his wife's death. After the First World War, artist John Peter Russell returned to Australia, settling in Sydney. As is often common, it was years before Russell's landscape paintings for sale were fully appreciated. Bring the world into your home with fine landscapes paintings offered for sale online at Invaluable.
John Peter Russell (1858 - 1930) Meules de Blé à Monte Cassino, c.1889 oil on canvas 65.0 x 81.0 cm label attached verso: 6 PROVENANCE Madam Lecoin, Brittany, France Thierry-Lannon & Associés S.A.R.L., Brest, France, 10 December 2011 Private collection, Melbourne Private collection, Perth EXHIBITED John Peter Russell, Galerie G. Denis, Paris, 1941 / 1943 (?), cat. 50 (label previously recorded by Galbally verso, as ‘Les Meules a Monte Cassino’) John Peter Russell 1858-1931: Australian Impressionist, Wildenstein & Co. Ltd, London, July – August 1965, cat. 12 LITERATURE Galbally, A., The Art of John Peter Russell, Sun Books, Melbourne, 1977, cat. 75, pl. 18 (illus.), p. 101 ESSAY John Russell’s inherited wealth afforded many freedoms, setting him on a unique path unlike that of any other Australian artist of the time and bringing him into direct contact with some of the masters of European Impressionism and Post-Impressionism. No longer expected to join the family business following the premature death of his father and now in possession of a substantial fortune, he sailed to England in 1880, enrolling at London’s Slade School the following year. Continuing his studies at Fernand Cormon’s atelier in Paris in the mid-1880s, he worked alongside Émile Bernard, Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec and later, Vincent Van Gogh. The two artists established an enduring friendship which is documented in their personal correspondence.1 Russell was also one of the few artists to paint Van Gogh and the 1886 portrait, now in the collection of the Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam, was treasured by the Dutchman who asked his brother Theo to ‘take good care of my portrait… which means a lot to me.’2 Around 1884 Russell met Marianna Mattiocco, probably in the studio of his friend, the British artist Harry Bates. Born into a farming family at Cassino, Italy, in 1865, Marianna and two of her brothers had moved to Paris, initially working as roving street performers and later, as artists’ models. Widely regarded as a classical beauty, Marianna was probably the model for Bates’ bas-relief sculpture, Dido, Queen of Carthage, 1885 (National Museum of Wales, Cardiff).3 Russell’s first dated drawings of Marianna are from 1886 and as Russell scholar Ann Galbally has noted, their inscriptions, which refer to her as Marianna Antonietta Russell (or M.A.A.R.), indicate the strength and seriousness of their relationship at the time even though they didn’t marry until early 1888.4 In the lead up to their marriage, Russell commissioned Auguste Rodin to sculpt a portrait of Marianna which he requested to be cast in silver so that it would have ‘all the delicacy of [the master’s] touch.’5 This commission initiated a longstanding friendship between the two artists and the silver bust, now in the collection of the Musée d’Orsay in Paris, was followed by a unique variation in bronze which is held by the National Gallery of Victoria.6 During the summer of 1886, the couple spent several months on Belle-Île, one of a group of small islands off the coast of Brittany. It was a momentous visit. Captivated by the rugged beauty of the island and attuned to the possibilities that the environment and the simple, rural way of life presented for his art, Russell bought land overlooking the inlet of Goulphar the following year, writing to his friend, Tom Roberts, ‘I am about to build a house in France. Settle down for some five years. Get some work done. It will be in some out of the way corner as much as a desert as possible.’7 It was during the same summer that Russell met and befriended Claude Monet who he saw working en plein air, famously introducing himself by asking if Monet was indeed ‘the Prince of the Impressionists’. Monet, who was eighteen years Russell’s senior, took a liking to the young Australian and dined with him and Marianna, enjoying their hospitality and company during his stay on the island. Monet also allowed Russell to watch him work and on occasion, to paint alongside him – experiences that provided an extraordinary insight into the techniques and working method of one of the founders of the Impressionist movement. Soon after, Russell and Marianna went to Italy, visiting her family in Cassino and in spring of the following year, travelling to Sicily where they established a base in the hilltop town of Taormina. The influence of the encounter with Monet on Belle-Île was significant and, stimulated by the clarity of the Mediterranean light, almost immediately Russell began working in a new way, creating compositions made up of pure strokes of high-keyed colour and removing black from his palette altogether.8 The clean, bright colours of Peasant women at Monte Cassino, 1886 (National Gallery of Australia) reflect these changes in approach, but it is in later paintings made around the time of a second visit to Cassino in 1889, such as The terraces of Monte Cassino, c.1889 (private collection) and the current work, Meules de Blé à Monte Cassino, c.1889, which show increasingly bold colour choices. Monet’s brilliantly coloured paintings of Antibes, which Russell saw in Paris in 1888, also influenced his chromatic experimentation during these years, feeding into his development as a brilliant and often daring colourist. Writing to Tom Roberts, Russell’s excitement about the possibilities of colour (and specifically the subject-matter of Belle-Île) is palpable, ‘But when we get to color. The gorse & heather. Yellow & purple, orange boat sails, blue sea, red rocks, green sea. All a matter of feeling. Tis in the man with brush & paint pot or it is not.’9 Meules de Blé à Monte Cassino takes in a view of the distant mountains, purple and white beneath a band of blue sky, with green fields in the middle distance and in the foreground, a vernacular stone building and trio of dome-shaped haystacks that glow in dazzling shades of orange, yellow and red. Deep purple shadows contrast with the shimmering golden hues of the central haystack, suggesting late afternoon and adding emphasis to the labouring lone figure. Such subject matter reflects the prevailing influence of Barbizon School painter Jean-François Millet (1814 – 75), whose paintings celebrated the nobility of peasant workers and a growing recognition at the end of the nineteenth century that this way of life was disappearing. This romantic notion of rural life was popular among contemporary artists and in addition to featuring in their imagery, was reflected in the choice that some made to live outside of the city centres.10 With the aim of establishing ‘a studio of the south’, Van Gogh moved to Arles in the south of France in early 1888, where harvest scenes became a familiar part of his subject matter. Indeed, one of the twelve ink drawings that he gave to Russell in 1888 – and one which Russell later gave to Matisse when he visited Belle-Île11 – describes a pair of haystacks similar to those depicted in Meules de Blé à Monte Cassino. Writing to Russell in the summer of 1888, Van Gogh said, ‘For ever so long I have been wanting to write to you – but then the work has so taken me up. We have harvest time here at present and I am always in the fields… Am working at a Sower. The great field all violet, the sky and sun very yellow.’12 The work of Paul Gauguin, who joined Van Gogh in Arles for two months in late 1888, also featured similar subjects and his painting, Yellow Haystacks (Golden Harvest), 1889 (Musée d’Orsay, Paris) celebrates local agricultural workers in a vibrant and bucolic rural scene. It was, however, Monet who made the subject most famous in his renowned series of haystack paintings created between 1890 – 91. Towering stacks of hay in the field adjacent to his house at Giverny inspired the series of thirty or so canvases which he developed en plein air, moving between several easels at a time, as well as in the studio. It was the first series in which Monet focussed on a single subject, revisiting it at different times of the day and in different seasons, under varied weather and light conditions, his primary motivation being to record the full scope of chromatic and atmospheric effects. ‘For me a landscape hardly exists at all as a landscape, because its appearance is constantly changing; but it lives by virtue of its surroundings, the air and the light which vary continually.’13 1. Although Russell did not see van Gogh again after he departed for Arles in the south of France in early 1888, their friendship continued via correspondence. See Galbally, A., A remarkable Friendship: Vincent van Gogh and John Peter Russell, The Miegunyah Press, Carlton, 2008. 2. Taylor, E., ‘John Russell and friends: Roberts, Monet, van Gogh, Matisse, Rodin’, Australian Impressionists in France, National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne, 2013, p. 56 3. See Onfray, G., translated by Lucie Reeves-Smith, ‘The most Breton of foreign painters of the era’, John-Peter Russell, Un impressionniste australien, Musée des Jacobins, Morlaix, 1997, pp. 8 – 9; Galbally, A., The Art of John Peter Russell, Sun Books, Melbourne, 1977, p. 28; and Tunnicliffe, W., (ed.), John Russell: Australia’s French Impressionist, Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney, 2018, p. 26 4. Galbally, ibid., pp. 28-29 5. John Peter Russell to Auguste Rodin, 17 October 1888, cited in Dunn, J., ‘An enduring regard: Russell and Auguste Rodin’ in Tunnicliffe, op. cit., p. 123 6. See Dunn, ibid., pp. 122 – 125 7. John Peter Russell to Tom Roberts, 5 October 1887, cited in Tunnicliffe, op. cit., p. 193 8. See Taylor, op. cit., p. 60 9. ibid., p. 195 10. See Galbally, 1977, op. cit., p. 45 – 49 11. See Spurling, H., ‘Henri Matisse on Belle-Île’ in Tunnicliffe, op. cit., pp. 130 – 137 12. Vincent Van Gogh to John Peter Russell, cited in Tunnicliffe, ibid., pp. 204 – 205 13. Claude Monet, cited in Getty Museum Collection database, entry for Wheatstacks, Snow Effect, Morning (Meules, Effet de Neige, Le Matin), 1891 at: https://www.getty.edu/art/collection/object/103RK8 (accessed 30 March 2026) KIRSTY GRANT
JOHN PETER RUSSELL (1858-1930) (Ligurian Hills) 1913 watercolour and pencil on paper signed and dated lower right: Russell 13 26 x 36.5cm PROVENANCE: The Artist The Collection of Dr. William Maloney, Melbourne, acquired from the above Thence by descent Private collection, Melbourne Menzies, Sydney, 11 May 2017, lot 1 (as "Ligurian Hills in Snow 1913") Private collection, Melbourne
John Peter Russell (1858 - 1930) Portrait of Dodge Macknight, c.1888 oil on canvas 55.5 x 47.5 cm signed lower right: JP RUSSELL PROVENANCE Bequeathed by Dodge Macknight to his sister-in-law, Elise Queyrel, Massachusetts, USA Thence by descent Mrs George W. Bruce, Massachusetts, USA Thence by descent Private collection, Delaware, USA Deutscher and Hackett, Melbourne, 29 August 2007, lot 48 Private collection, Melbourne EXHIBITED An Impressionist in Sandwich: The Paintings of Dodge Macknight, Heritage Plantation of Sandwich, Massachusetts, 15 November - 21 December 1980, cat. 68 (illus. in exhibition catalogue, p. 4) Australian Impressionists in France, National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne, 15 June – 6 October 2013 (label attached verso) John Peter Russell: Australia's French Impressionist, Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney, 21 July – 11 November 2018 (label attached verso) LITERATURE Letter from Vincent van Gogh to John Peter Russell, Arles, 19 April 1888 (collection of The Guggenheim Museum, New York) https://vangoghletters.org/vg/letters/let598/letter.html Salter, E., The Lost Impressionist: a biography of John Peter Russell, Angus and Robertson, London, 1976, pp. 75, 95 Galbally, A., The Art of John Peter Russell, Sun Books, Melbourne, 1977, p. 34 Pickvance, R., Van Gogh in Arles, Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, 1984, p. 253 Bailey, M., 'A Friend of Van Gogh, Dodge Macknight and the Post-Impressionists', Apollo Magazine, London, July 2007, pl. 4 (illus.), pp. 30, 31 (illus.) Fish, P., 'Spring bidding budding', The Sydney Morning Herald, Sydney, 25 August 2007 Jansen, L (ed.) et. al., Vincent van Gogh: The Letters, Van Gogh Museum, Amsterdam, 2009, vol. 4, p. 60 (illus.) Taylor, E., Australian Impressionists in France, National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne, 2013, frontispiece (illus.), pp. 56, 57 (illus.) Tunnicliffe, W. (ed.), John Peter Russell: Australia's French Impressionist, Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney, 2018, pp. 39, 41 (illus., dated 1887 - 88), 203 ESSAY When one of the greatest exponents of modern painting, Dutch master Vincent van Gogh, wrote admiringly of John Peter Russell’s portraits as ‘more serious and higher art’, praising in particular ‘such perfection as appeared to me in the Fabian and Macknight portraits’1, he articulated a keen appreciation for the work of Australia’s ‘lost impressionist’ that continues to resonate more than a century later. Occupying an esteemed position within Russell’s oeuvre, indeed the present Portrait of Dodge Macknight, c.1888 not only encapsulates superbly the artist’s technical brilliance and emotional breadth but, as the only known portrait of the American post-impressionist, the painting bears invaluable historical significance as well. With its whereabouts unknown until 2007, the work’s recent rediscovery has been a particularly exciting one for art critics and collectors alike; as acknowledged by the late Ursula Prunster, curator of the major Belle-Île exhibition held at the Art Gallery of New South Wales in 2001 which featured the work of Russell, Monet, and Matisse, ‘I have been looking for this painting for a while...’2 Although not as widely appreciated today, during his lifetime Dodge Macknight was highly regarded by his contemporaries as America’s first modernist and certainly, one of the world’s four greatest watercolourists.3 Discussing his legacy, a critic for The New Bedford Standard suggested, ‘In contemplating an exhibit of Macknight’s work, one should bear in mind that he is an extremist in an extreme school. His work should not be judged merely in the light of one’s own taste, but as an exposition of the artist’s conceptions. Some people call his paintings mere daubs of colour, others designate them as recorded thoughts transmitted through the eyes.’4 Born in Providence, Rhode Island, Macknight began his career in the art world as an apprentice to a theatrical scene designer before entering the firm of Taber Art in New Bedford, Massachusetts, a company that manufactured reproductions of paintings and photographs. In December 1883, at the age of 23, he migrated to Paris where he enrolled at the studio of academic painter Fernand Cormon, studying alongside Toulouse-Lautrec, Émile Bernard and Louis Anquetin, together with the two artists who would play a key role in introducing Macknight to the Parisian avant-garde, Eugène Boch and John Peter Russell. As Martin Bailey elucidates, Macknight and van Gogh first met through Russell in March 1886, the month that van Gogh joined Cormon’s studio, having arrived in Paris from Antwerp on 28 February 1886. Shortly thereafter, Macknight left Paris, heading first for the south of France and later that year for the Algerian coast, while van Gogh remained in Paris for another two years, during which he frequently met with Russell.5 Connected through their mutual status as outsiders in an intensely competitive Parisian art scene, Russell and van Gogh soon forged a close friendship – one that would endure through well-documented letters and exchanges of artwork right up until the latter’s tragic death in 1890. And indeed, it was most probably during these Paris years that the Dutchman posed for his celebrated portrait by Russell which, now housed in the van Gogh Museum, Amsterdam, he clearly cherished; as he would subsequently write to his brother Theo in one of his final letters, ‘Take good care of my portrait by Russell which I hold so dear.’6 On 20 February 1888, van Gogh arrived in Arles and several weeks later, Macknight came to Provence, staying in the nearby village of Fontvielle, north-east of Arles.7 Writing to his friend Eugène Boch, Macknight noted that he had ‘unearthed a couple of artists at Arles – a Dane [Christian Mourier-Petersen]’ and Vincent whom I had already met at Russell’s – a stark, staring crank, but a good fellow.’8 Van Gogh too would recount the meeting in a subsequent letter to Russell: ‘Last Sunday, I have met Macknight and a Danish painter, and I intend to go to see him at Fontvielle next Monday. I feel sure I shall prefer him as an artist to what he is as an art critic, his views as such being so narrow they make me smile.’9 And again, in his correspondence with Theo, ‘I must go and see him and his work, of which I have seen nothing so far. He is a Yankee, and probably paints better than most Yankees do. But a Yankee all the same. Is that saying enough? When I’ve seen his paintings or drawings I’ll concede about the work. But about the man, still the same...’10 Ironically perhaps, van Gogh's brusque assessment reflects more of his own notoriously volatile personality than any real dissatisfaction with Macknight, for only days later he would mention to his brother that he had invited the American to move into the Yellow House in Arles: ‘…it’s not impossible that he may come to stay with me here for a while. Then we would benefit, I think, on both sides.’11 Upon sighting Macknight’s work for the first time, van Gogh was typically gruff, recalling to Theo that ‘…He’s at the stage when the new colour theories are tormenting him, and while they prevent him from doing things according to the old system, he hasn’t sufficiently mastered his new palette to be able to succeed this way.’12 Yet, despite his criticism, the Dutchman was obviously impressed for less than one month later, after having seen various still-lifes that Macknight had just finished featuring ‘a yellow jug on purple foreground, red jug on green, orange jug on blue’13, he executed one of his famous Sunflower canvases with orange flowers in a yellow pot, set against a turquoise background.14 Thus, contrary to the popular assumption of van Gogh as an artistic recluse in Arles, it would seem rather, that he and Macknight were exploring in tandem the theory of disparate colour complementaries.15 At the same time, working with Monet on the remote, storm-tossed island of Belle-Île off the coast of Brittany, interestingly Russell was embracing very similar techniques; as he elucidates in a letter to Heidelberg school artist Tom Roberts back in Melbourne: ‘…No vehicle colour only on absorbed canvas or better on stiff canvas prepared only with glue. Simple colours but strong keep pure as long as possible.’16 Thus, in stark contrast to the darker tonalities of Russell’s 1886 portrait of van Gogh, the present offers a luminous demonstration of the French impressionist technique with the brushstrokes open and relaxed, and the coarse texture weave of the canvas soaking up the paint upon application to reveal the artist’s hand visibly at work. Cropped asymmetrically in a manner reminiscent of Japanese woodcut prints, the vivid white, red and blue-purple palette – shading through a toned white, pink and grey – is at once arresting and harmonious, contributing to create a portrait of great sensitivity and beauty. Closely related to Russell’s highly acclaimed Portrait of Dr Will Maloney 1887 (National Gallery of Victoria) executed around the same time, the portrait moreover betrays that powerful quality of immediacy and informality so essential to the vision of the European avant-garde. Following in the footsteps of Russell and Monet, in November 1888 Macknight made the first of many visits to Belle-Ile where, pursuing a passion for colour shared and encouraged by the Australian, he would produce some of the finest watercolours of his career. In 1892, he married the governess of Russell's children, Louise Queyrel, and in 1897 the couple and their young son returned to the United States, settling in East Sandwich where Macknight would remain for the rest of his life. Although initially condemned as ‘grotesque and uncouth’17 – barbs not unfamiliar to impressionist artists internationally at that time – his work was soon eagerly sought-after and acquired by public and private collectors alike, including eminent art patron Isabella Stewart Gardner, who had a dedicated ‘Macknight Room’ in her house at Fenway (now the Gardner Museum) and the Boston Museum of Fine Arts which purchased its first watercolour by Macknight in 1907 (five years before the first Sargent acquisition). Returning to America with Macknight and subsequently passed down through the artist’s family before its first appearance on the market in 2007, thus the present work not only offers a rare glimpse into one of the most fascinating yet often forgotten members of impressionism, but notably, is accompanied by an impeccable provenance. In addition to its historical significance, Portrait of Dodge Macknight also embodies the radical avant-garde theories and experiments which, gleaned by Russell through his personal connection with the French Impressionists and Post-Impressionists, so distinguish him from the local movement pioneered by the Heidelberg school. As celebrated French sculptor Auguste Rodin astutely prophesised of Russell’s artistic legacy, ‘Your works will live on, I am certain. One day you will be placed on the same level as our friends Monet, Renoir and Van Gogh.’18 1. Vincent van Gogh, Letter to John Peter Russell, Arles, 19 April 1888, letter 598, at https://vangoghletters.org/vg/letters/let598/letter.html (accessed October 2025) 2. Ursula Prunster, in conversation with Deutscher and Hackett art specialists (August 2007) 3. Hind, C. L., Art and I, The Bodley Head, New York, 1921, pp. 98, 100 – 101 & 176. The other three were Winslow Homer, John Singer Sargent and Hercules Brabazon. 4. The New Bedford Standard, January 1902, cited in An Impressionist in Sandwich: The Paintings of Dodge Macknight, Trustees of the Heritage Plantation of Sandwich, Massachusetts, 1980, p. 6 5. Bailey, M., ‘A Friend of Van Gogh: Dodge Macknight and the Post-Impressionists’, Apollo, July 2007, p. 30 6. Vincent van Gogh, Letter to Theo, Saint-Rémy-de-Provence, 5 and 6 September 1889, letter 800, at https://vangoghletters.org/vg/letters/let800/letter.html (accessed October 2025) 7. Bailey, op. cit. 8. Dodge Macknight, Letter to Eugène Boch, Fontvielle, 19 April 1888 9. Vincent van Gogh, Letter to John Peter Russell, 19 April 1888, op. cit. 10. Vincent van Gogh, Letter to Theo van Gogh, Arles, c.25 April 1888, letter 601, at https://vangoghletters.org/vg/letters/let601/letter.html (accessed October 2025) 11. Vincent van Gogh, Letter to Theo van Gogh, Arles, c.4 May 1888, letter 603 at https://vangoghletters.org/vg/letters/let603/letter.html (accessed October 2025) 12. ibid. 13. Vincent van Gogh, Letter to Theo van Gogh, Arles, 29 July 1888, letter 650 at https://vangoghletters.org/vg/letters/let650/letter.html (accessed October 2025) 14. Bailey, op. cit., p. 32 15. ibid. 16. John Peter Russell, Letter to Tom Roberts, Paris, 26 December 1887, reproduced in Galbally, A., The Art of John Peter Russell, Sun Books, Melbourne, 1977, p. 90 17. An Impressionist in Sandwich, op. cit., p. 6 18. Auguste Rodin , Letter to John Peter Russell, cited in ‘The Art of John Peter Russell’, Women’s Weekly, 3 May 1967, p. 34 at https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/page/4832171 (accessed October 2025) VERONICA ANGELATOS
John Peter Russell (1858-1930) Rocher Au Chien, Clos Marion, Belle–Île, 1897 signed, dated and inscribed lower left: 'To - Friend - LTC - J.P. Russell - '97' oil on canvas 63.5 x 81.0cm (25 x 31 7/8in).
JOHN RUSSELL 1858-1930 Fond d'une baie au Belle-Île au soleil couchant 1907 watercolour and gouache over pencil on paper signed and dated ‘JOHN. RUSSELL /07' lower right 39.8 x 49.7 cm PROVENANCE John Russell, Paris Jeanne Russell (Mrs Paul Jouve), France, by descent from the above Louis Jouve, France, by descent from the above in 1948 Madame Lecoin, Brittany, France, by descent from the above Private Collection, by descent from the above EXHIBITED (Possibly) Galerie G. Denis, Paris, 1943, as ‘Goulphar. Le Port' (label verso) John Peter Russell 1858-1931: Australian Impressionist, Wildenstein & Co. Ltd, London, July – August 1965, no. 47 (label verso) LITERATURE Ann Galbally, The Art of John Peter Russell, Sun Books, Melbourne, 1977, cat. no. 138, p. 105
JOHN RUSSELL 1858-1930 Roches, Belle-Île Rocks, Belle-Île (circa 1895) oil on canvas 50.7 x 61.5 cm PROVENANCE John Russell, Paris Jeanne Russell (Mrs Paul Jouve), France, by descent from the above Louis Jouve, France, by descent from the above in 1948 Private Collection, by descent Nevill Keating Pictures Ltd, London Private Collection, Melbourne, acquired from the above in 1982 Private Collection, Perth Private Collection, Perth, acquired from the above EXHIBITED John Peter Russell 1858-1931: Australian Impressionist, Wildenstein & Co. Ltd, London, July – August 1965, no. 25 Belle-Île: Monet, Russell & Matisse in Brittany, Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney, 24 November 2001 – 3 February 2002; Queensland Art Gallery, Brisbane, 14 February – 21 April 2002, no. 22, ‘Rocks, Belle-Île (Rochers, Belle-Île) c. 1895', illustrated LITERATURE Ann Galbally, The Art of John Peter Russell, Sun Books, Melbourne, 1977, cat. no. 182, p. 109 Ursula Prunster, Ann Galbally, Albie Thoms and Paula Dredge, Belle-Île: Monet, Russell & Matisse in Brittany, Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney, 2001, pp. 93 (illustrated), 126
JOHN RUSSELL 1858-1930 Île de la Jatte à Neuilly (1887) oil on canvas on cardboard signed ‘JR' lower right 31 x 35 cm PROVENANCE John Russell, Paris Jeanne Russell (Mrs Paul Jouvre), France, by descent from the above Private Collection, France, by descent from the above Modern & Contemporary Art, Tajan, Paris, 24 September 2024, lot 135, ‘Bord de Rive', illustrated Private Collection, Sydney, acquired from the above
JOHN PETER RUSSELL (1858 - 1930) PORTOFINO, c.1914 oil on canvas on plywood 59.5 x 48.0 cm PROVENANCE Estate of the artist Thence by descent Caroline Russell (née de Witt Merrill), the artist’s widow Mrs John W. Kessler, Illinois, USA, the artist’s niece, a gift from the above Thence by descent Ken Kessler, USA, the artist’s great-nephew Christie’s, London, 19 March 2020, lot 4 Private collection, Sydney, acquired from the above LITERATURE Galbally, A., The Art of John Peter Russell, Melbourne, 1977, cat. 260, p. 112 (as ‘Untitled (View of Portofino)’) Coslovich, G., ‘Amid shutdowns, Christie's offers Australian art rarities’, Australian Financial Review, 18 March 2020 (illus.) RELATED WORKS Portofino, 1920, oil on canvas on board, 50.0 x 58.0 cm, private collection Portofino, 1911, watercolour and pencil, 27.0 x 37.2 cm, in the collection of the National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne Portofino, 1920, watercolour and gouache, 26.8 x 37.9 cm, in the collection of the National Gallery of Australia, Canberra Portofino Harbour, 1920, watercolour and charcoal, 28.3 x 38.4 cm, in the collection of the Queensland Art Gallery | Gallery of Modern Art, Brisbane ESSAY John Russell’s inherited wealth afforded many freedoms, setting him on a unique path unlike that of any other Australian artist of the time and bringing him into direct contact with some of the masters of European Impressionism and Post-Impressionism. No longer expected to join the family business following the death of his father, he sailed to England in 1880, enrolling at London’s Slade School the following year. Continuing his studies at Fernand Cormon’s atelier in Paris in the mid-1880s, he worked alongside Émile Bernard, Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec and later, Vincent van Gogh, with whom he established an enduring friendship.1 His first experience of Belle-Île, one of a group of islands off the coast of Brittany, in the summer of 1886, represented both a professional and personal breakthrough. During an extended stay on the island, Russell met and befriended Claude Monet who he saw working en plein air and, recognising his painting style, famously introduced himself by asking if was indeed ‘the Prince of the Impressionists’. Surely flattered, Monet, who was eighteen years Russell’s senior, took a liking to the young Australian and uncharacteristically allowed him to watch him work and on occasion, to paint alongside him. This experience provided Russell with an extraordinary insight into the techniques and working method of one of the founders of the Impressionist movement and its influence was both significant and immediate. The paintings Russell later made in Italy and Sicily show him working in a new style, using a high-keyed palette that omitted black entirely, and his compositions made up of strokes of pure colour.2 In addition to showing him how to use colour as a means of expressing a personal response to the subject, Monet’s example also highlighted for Russell the importance of working directly from nature.3 Russell responded to the wild, isolated beauty of Belle-Île and in 1887 bought land overlooking the inlet of Goulphar, writing to his friend, Tom Roberts, ‘I am about to build a house in France. Settle down for some five years. Get some work done. It will be in some out of the way corner as much a desert as possible.’4 Known as Château de l’Anglais (or Château de Goulphar), the house was well-appointed with a large studio, workshop and expansive garden. Russell and his Italian-born wife, Marianna, lived there for many years, raising a large family, the island and surrounding ocean providing a constant source of inspiration for his art. ‘The colours completely bowl me over. On some days here it’s ravishing but impossible for my poor palette.’5 It was Marianna’s premature death in 1908 that prompted Russell to leave Belle-Île and for the next two years he travelled in Europe, marrying Caroline de Witt Merrill, an American-born singer known as ‘Felize’ (and a friend of his daughter Jeanne’s) in 1912. Russell had visited Portofino on the Ligurian coast in late 1908, returning with his new wife in 1914 and again, after the war, in 1920. The beauty of the town, with its sixteenth-century fortress perched high on the hilltop and distinctive pastel-coloured houses bathed in bright Mediterranean light, obviously appealed to the colourist in Russell, who painted various views in oil and watercolour. Monet had visited the region in the 1880s, staying in the nearby coastal town of Bordighera and further inland at Dolceacqua, and as works such as Strada Romana at Bordighera, 1884 (Museum Barberini, Potsdam) demonstrate, he too was dazzled by the beauty and glorious colours of the area. Russell worked in oil only occasionally after 1908, his preference increasingly being for the immediacy of watercolour which enabled him ‘to capture and hold the intensity of the colours of nature’.6 His deft handling of the medium is clear in Portofino, 1911 (National Gallery of Victoria) which depicts the piazza in front of Portofino Bay – showing the Church of St Giorgio with its distinctive tower in the background and the multi-storey buildings stepping up the hillside on the right – in delicately luminous tones. It was evidently a view that captivated Russell who repeated it in at least two paintings, continuing a practice that was familiar to his work – and indeed, to that of Monet – of revisiting the same subject at different times (of the day, season, year) and recording chromatic and atmospheric variations. With ‘the true impressionism in the tradition of Monet, [he] caught and held the fleeting moment of sunshine and shadow and pinned it down, light as a butterfly, for all time.’7 While one of these Portofino oils adopts a more distant viewpoint, featuring a large area of the bay in the foreground, the current painting from circa 1914 zooms in and hovers over the water, dividing the scene into a series of horizontal bands. The church and adjacent buildings make up the central band and while tones of pink and orange prevail, it appears as if Russell has brought the entirety of his palette to bear with a rainbow of coloured brushstrokes used to define the details of the architecture. In turn, this colour is reflected in the bay which is described in lively squiggles of paint that are built up in individual brushstrokes to suggest the rhythmic movement of the water. Russell varies the application of paint in his pictures according to the subject and the top band of the painting is the simplest, using less prominent brushstrokes and a more limited colour palette of greens and blues with occasional highlights to describe the hillside beyond the piazza and a glimpse of sky above. Russell’s brilliance as a colourist is on full display in this painting, as is his ability to communicate as much about being in a particular place as its physical and geographical features. Correspondence documents the provenance of this painting which, upon Russell’s death in 1930 was inherited by his wife, passing by descent to her sister Florence and then to her son, Ken Kessler. This and other works held by the family were rarely, if at all exhibited, and it has only been in more recent years that they have been more widely seen, adding immeasurably to our understanding of Russell’s remarkable oeuvre. 1. Although Russell did not see van Gogh again after he departed for Arles in the south of Frances in early 1888, their friendship continued via correspondence: see Galbally, A., A remarkable Friendship: Vincent van Gogh and John Peter Russell, The Miegunyah Press, Carlton, 2008 2. Taylor, E., ‘ John Russell and friends: Roberts, Monet, van Gogh, Matisse, Rodin’, Australian Impressionists in France, National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne, 2013, p. 60 3. ibid. 4. Letter from John Peter Russell to Tom Roberts, 5 October 1887, cited in Tunnicliffe, W., (ed.), John Russell: Australia’s French Impressionist, Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney, 2018, p. 193 5. Russell to Auguste Rodin, April – May 1890, cited in Prunster, U., ‘Painting Belle-Île’, Prunster, U. et al., Belle-Île: Monet, Russell and Matisse, Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney, 2001, p. 46 6. Galbally, A., The Art of John Peter Russell, Sun Books, Melbourne, 1977, p. 77 7. Ursula Hoff, cited in Salter, E., ‘ The Lost Impressionist: A biography of John Peter Russell, Angus and Robertson, London, 1976, p. 179 KIRSTY GRANT
JOHN RUSSELL 1858-1930 Vue de la Seine, Bougival View of the Seine, Bougival, Spring (1887) oil on canvas 54.5 x 64.5 cm PROVENANCE John Russell, Paris Jeanne Russell (Mrs Paul Jouvre), France, by descent from the above Baron Gilbert de Knyff, France, acquired from the above in 1948 Private Collection, Paris, acquired from the above Private Collection, France, by descent from the above Fine Australian Art, Sotheby's Australia, Melbourne, 11 April 2006, lot 16, illustrated Private Collection, Queensland, acquired from the above EXHIBITED John-Peter Russell: Un impressionniste australien, Musée des Jacobins, Morlaix, 27 June – 2 November 1997; Musée de La Choue, Vannes, 22 May – 13 September 1998, no. 27, ‘Le Pecq sue Seine', illustrated LITERATURE Patrick Jourdan, Jean-Claude Lesage, Claude-Guy Onfray, and Hilary Spurling, John-Peter Russell: Un impressionniste australien, Musée des Jacobins, Morlaix, 1997, pp. 46 (illustrated), 54, 'Le Pecq sue Seine' Ann Galbally, A Remarkable Friendship: Vincent Van Gogh and John Peter Russell, The Miegunyah Press, Melbourne, 2008, p. 166
JOHN PETER RUSSELL (1858-1930) TWO FIGURES ON A ROAD, 1910 Aquarelle et crayon sur papier Signé, daté "MCMX sept XXIII" et situé "Salsomaggiore" en bas à gauche Watercolor and pencil on paper; signed, dated and located lower left 17,5 X 25,5 CM • 6 7/8 X 10 IN.
JOHN PETER RUSSELL (1858-1930) CATHÉDRALE SAINT-ANDRÉ DE WELLS, FAÇADE OUEST Aquarelle sur papier Signée des initiales de l'artiste en bas à droite Watercolor on paper; signed with the artist's initials lower right 20 X 28,5 CM • 7 7/8 X 11 1/4 IN.
JOHN PETER RUSSELL (1858-1930) SOUS-BOIS, 1912 Aquarelle et encre sur papier Signée et datée "12" en bas à gauche Watercolor and pencil on paper; signed and dated lower left 17,5 x 25,5 CM • 6 7/8 X 10 IN.
JOHN PETER RUSSELL (1858-1930) LE PÊCHEUR, 1904 Aquarelle et crayon sur papier Signé des initiales de l'artiste, daté "04" et situé "England" en bas à gauche Watercolor and pencil on paper; signed with the artist's initials, dated and located lower left 22,5 X 28 CM • 8 7/8 X 11 IN.
JOHN PETER RUSSELL (AUSTRALIAN 1858-1930) LA SEINE A NEUILLY signed, dated and titled JOHN RUSSELL 04. SEINE A NEUILLY lower right watercolour over pencil on paper 22.5 x 30.5cm; 8 3/4 x 12in 47 x 54.5cm; 18 1/2 x 21 1/2in (framed) Provenance Sale, Aponem Auctions, Paris, Mobilier, Objets d'Art, Tableaux, Bijoux, Armes, 12 March 2011, lot 139 Purchased from the above by the present owner The present lot is a view of the Pont de Neuilly that spans the Seine to the north-east of Paris and connects the neighbourhood of Neuilly to La Défense. Painted sparingly with ultramarine blues and delicate shades of violet, the artist combines topographical accuracy with an Impressionist palette to capture the shifting light as the day draws to a close. Born in Sydney, Russell emigrated to London in 1880 where he studied at the Slade School of Art before moving to Paris. In France he witnessed at first hand the development of Impressionism, befriending a number of leading artists of the day, including Auguste Rodin (1840-1917) and Claude Monet (1840-1926), and viewing exhibitions hosted by the Ecole des Beaux-Arts and at the gallery of Paul Durand-Ruel. Working in the studio of the Fernand Cormon, 1845-1924 (see lot 23), Russell befriended Vincent van Gogh, resulting in the artist's first ever portrait executed by Russell in 1886, now in the Van Gogh Museum, Amsterdam. The two artists remained close and corresponded right up until Van Gogh’s death in 1890. Although strikingly different personalities, they perhaps shared the same self-doubt in terms of artistic acumen: Russell was notoriously shy about exhibiting his work and his comfortable financial position exempted him from having to expose himself to criticism. Russell eventually returned to Sydney in 1920 where he died in relative obscurity. His cousin, Australian artist Thea Proctor, did much to posthumously promote Russell's art and by the late twentieth century, a number of biographies and exhibitions had helped restore his reputation as a significant artist. Today, Russell's works are held in major galleries in his Australia and across Europe, including the Musée d'Orsay and the Musée Rodin in Paris.
John Peter Russell (1858-1930) Houses, Belle-Ile, 1908 signed and dated lower right: 'John Russell '08' watercolour on paper 26.0 x 37.0cm (10 1/4 x 14 9/16in).
John Peter Russell (1858-1930) Lake at Monte Cassino signed and titled lower right: 'John Russell / Cassino' watercolour on paper 31.0 x 49.0cm (12 3/16 x 19 5/16in).
JOHN PETER RUSSELL (1858-1930) CHALET, SWITZERLAND, 1911 Aquarelle et crayon sur papier Signé, daté ‘11’ et localisé ‘Switzerland’ en bas au milieu Watercolor and pencil on paper; signed, dated ‘11’ and located ‘Switzerland’ lower middle 17,5 X 25 CM • 6 7/8 X 9 7/8 IN.
JOHN PETER RUSSELL (1858-1930) PORTO, 1912 Aquarelle et crayon sur papier Signé, daté ‘12’ et localisé vers le bas à gauche Watercolor and pencil on paper; signed, dated ‘12’ and located lower left 19,5 X 25,5 CM • 7 5/8 X 10 IN.
JOHN PETER RUSSELL (1858-1930) CAGNES, 1920 Aquarelle et encre sur papier Signé, daté ‘Feby 1920’ et dédicacé en bas à droite Watercolor and pencil paper; signed, dated ‘Feby 1920’ and dedicated lower right 26,5 X 37 CM • 10 3/8 X 14 5/8 IN.
JOHN PETER RUSSELL (1858-1930) CATHEDRALE Aquarelle et crayon sur papier Signé des initiales en bas à droite Watercolor and pencil on paper; signed with the artist’s initials lower right 19,5 X 28,5 CM • 7 5/8 X 11 1/4 IN.
JOHN PETER RUSSELL (1858-1930) MOUTAIN CHALET, 1911 Aquarelle et crayon sur papier Signé et daté ‘11’ en bas à gauche Watercolor and pencil on paper; signed and dated ‘11’ lower left 18 X 25 CM • 7 1/8 X 9 7/8 IN.
JOHN PETER RUSSELL (1858 - 1930) BELLE-ÎLE. VILLAGE D'ENVAG [SUNSHINE SHIMMER], 1900 oil on canvas 65.0 x 81.0 cm signed with initials lower centre: J.R. dated and inscribed with title verso: Sunshine Shimmer / August / B Isle 1900 PROVENANCE Estate of the artist, Brittany, France Harald Alain Russell, the artist’s son, Brittany, France, inherited from the above c.1930 Thence by descent Private collection, United Kingdom EXHIBITED John Peter Russell, Galerie G. Denis, Paris, 1941 / 1943 (?), cat. 11 (label attached verso, as ‘Belle-Isle. Village d’En-vag’) On long term loan to Glasgow Museums Art Galleries, Kelvingrove, Scotland, 1974 – 1991 LITERATURE Galbally, A., The Art of John Peter Russell, Sun Books, Melbourne, 1977, cat. 158, p. 107 (as 'Belle-Île. Village d'En-vag') ESSAY Although he was born in Sydney, John Russell lived much of his adult life in Europe and holds a unique place within the history of Australian art for his close association with avant-garde circles in 1880s Paris and firsthand acquaintance with some of the masters of European Impressionism and Post-Impressionism. Following studies at the Slade School, London in 1881, Russell attended Fernand Cormon’s atelier in Paris in the mid-1880s, working alongside Émile Bernard, Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec and later, Vincent van Gogh, with whom he established an enduring friendship.1 On a summer break from Paris in 1886, he spent several months on Belle-Île, one of a group of small islands off the coast of Brittany which, buffeted by almost constant westerly winds blowing in from the Atlantic Ocean, is part of the accurately named La Côte Sauvage. Captivated by the rugged landscape and the possibilities of this environment for his painting, Russell bought land there the following year. Writing to his friend, Tom Roberts, he said, ‘I am about to build a house in France. Settle down for some five years. Get some work done. It will be in some out of the way corner as much as a desert as possible.’2 It was here that he met and befriended Claude Monet who he saw working en plein air and, recognising his painting style, famously introduced himself by asking if he was indeed ‘the Prince of the Impressionists’. Flattered, Monet, who was eighteen years Russell’s senior, took a liking to the young Australian and dined with him and his beautiful wife-to-be, Marianna, enjoying their hospitality and company during his stay on the island. Uncharacteristically, Monet allowed Russell to watch him work and on occasion, to paint alongside him, experiences that provided the younger artist with an extraordinary insight into the techniques and working method of one of the founders of the Impressionist movement. The influence on Russell was significant and the paintings he made in Italy and Sicily only a few months later show him working in a new style, using a high-keyed palette (from which black had been banished entirely) and his compositions made up of strokes of pure colour.3 In addition to showing him how to use colour as a means of expressing a personal response to the subject, Monet’s example also highlighted for Russell the importance of working directly from nature. 4 Belle-Île offered little in the way of obvious picturesque views but ‘instead … the challenge of a raw confrontation with nature for which there was no tradition of painterly representation.’ 5 Russell and Monet were not the only artists attracted by its creative possibilities. The roll call of artists who visited Russell and his wife – Fernand Cormon (1888); John Longstaff (1889); Dodge MacKnight (1889, 90, 91 and 92); Eugène Boch (1890); Bertram Mackennal (1891) and Auguste Rodin (1902) – is mirrored by those who came to paint on the island independently. Henri Matisse first visited Belle-Île in 1895 as a young art student, returning in 1896 and again the following summer. Of the island he said simply, ‘Here it is wildness in all its beauty and emptiness.’6 During an extended stay in 1896 he lived at the village of Kervilahouen on the south-western side of the island, near Russell’s house, and the two artists met. Russell introduced the young artist to Monet’s techniques and the work of van Gogh, contributing to a dramatic transformation in his approach to colour. Matisse’s biographer, Hilary Spurling, describes this as ‘a way of seeing: the first inklings of the pursuit of colour for its own sake that would draw in the end on his deepest emotional and imaginative resources.’7 In Belle-Île, Village d’Envag, 1900, it is the distinctive stone cottages of the island, specifically the nearby village of Envag, that have captured Russell’s attention. With a series of chimneys lined up in silhouette against a pale blue sky, the cottages are described in delicate shades of purple, blue and occasional pink and white highlights. Characteristically, the colour is built up in individual brushstrokes which shimmer with movement and light, communicating as much about the appearance of the scene as the feeling of being there. Russell varies the application of paint according to the subject, with regular, mostly horizontal strokes defining the geometric form of the buildings, and freer, more painterly daubs delineating the verdant foreground and atmospheric sky. This is an intimate scene, a local view, and located just north of Russell’s home – known to the locals as Château de l’Anglais – which overlooked the inlet of Goulphar, it was an area with which he was very familiar. Russell scholar Ann Galbally explains the appeal of a rural lifestyle for many French artists during the late nineteenth century as ‘something that seemed to… be purer, simpler, and more fundamental’ than the intensity of the artworld centre of Paris.8 Citing, among others, van Gogh at Arles, Gauguin at Pont-Aven and Russell at Belle-Île, she explains that ‘they were drawn … towards a primitive life style, a closer communication with nature, a chance, so they felt, to find the source of art.’9 In this context, paintings like Belle-Île, Village d’Envag sit alongside Russell’s images of local fishermen and other island inhabitants, celebrating the simplicity and authenticity of rural life. Monet had painted examples of vernacular architecture in Varengeville, a coastal town in Normandy, and the cottages of Belle-Île appealed to other artists who visited the island. Matisse, for example, focussed on buildings at nearby Kervilahouen which, in the work illustrated here, gleam a brilliant white against his bold colour palette. Probably having seen Monet’s paintings of Belle-Île, the Post-Impressionist, Gustave Loiseau, travelled there with friends and fellow artists Maxime Maufra and Henry Moret in 1900. It is not known whether Loiseau and Russell met at the time, but the similarities between their paintings, both depicting the same area in Envag, make this a tantalising possibility. Russell paints from a position close to the cottages while Loiseau adopts a broader view – the varied perspectives, perhaps, of a local, more interested in capturing an impression of a familiar subject, versus a visitor, who paints the entirety of the scene as a way of recording it. Loiseau’s painting also includes figures walking on the path and close inspection of Belle-Île, Village d’Envag reveals a solitary figure sketched in pencil on the path as it forks to the right. A label attached to the back of the painting shows that it was exhibited in an exhibition at Galerie G. Denis, Paris in the 1940s, and Russell obviously regarded it as finished, so just when and why the sketch was added remains a mystery. 1. Although Russell did not see van Gogh again after he departed for Arles in the south of France in early 1888, their friendship continued via correspondence. See Galbally, A., A Remarkable Friendship: Vincent van Gogh and John Peter Russell, The Miegunyah Press, Carlton, 2008 2. Russell to Tom Roberts, 5 October 1887, cited in Tunnicliffe, W., (ed.), John Russell: Australia’s French Impressionist, Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney, 2018, p. 193 3. Taylor, E., ‘John Russell and friends: Roberts, Monet, van Gogh, Matisse, Rodin’, Australian Impressionists in France, National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne, 2013, p. 60 4. Prunster, U., ‘Painting Belle-Île’ in Prunster, U., et al., Belle-Île: Monet, Russell and Matisse, Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney, 2001, p. 31 5. Galbally, A., ‘Mer Sauvage’ in Prunster, ibid., p. 14 6. Prunster, op. cit., p. 37 7. Spurling, H., The Unknown Matisse: A Life of Henri Matisse, Volume One: 1869 – 1908, Hamish Hamilton, London, 1998, p. 144, cited in Taylor, op. cit., p. 65 8. Galbally, A., The Art of John Peter Russell, Sun Books, Melbourne, 1977, p. 45 9. ibid. KIRSTY GRANT
JOHN PETER RUSSELL (1858-1930) VUE DE LINCOLN, ANGLETERRE Aquarelle sur papier Signé et situé en bas à gauche Watercolor on paper; signed and located lower left 24 X 34 CM • 9 1/2 X 13 1/8 IN.
JOHN PETER RUSSELL (1858-1930) VILLAGE CÔTIER EN NORMANDIE Aquarelle et crayon sur papier Signé des initiales de l'artiste en bas à droite Watercolor and pencil on paper; signed with the artist's initials lower right 27,5 X 39 CM • 10 7/8 X 15 3/8 IN.
JOHN PETER RUSSELL (1858-1930) LE PONT Aquarelle et crayon sur papier Signé des initiales de l'artiste en bas à droite Watercolor and pencil on paper; signed with the artist's initials lower right 17 X 25,5 CM • 6 3/4 X 10 IN.
JOHN PETER RUSSELL (1858-1930) BORD DE RIVE Huile sur toile marouflée sur carton Signée des initiales de l'artiste en bas à droite Oil on canvas laid on cardboard; signed with the artist's initials lower right 31 X 35 CM • 12 1/4 X 13 3/4 IN.
JOHN PETER RUSSELL (1858-1930) LA CATHÉDRALE SAINT-ANDRÉ DE WELLS Aquarelle et crayon sur papier Signé des initiales de l'artiste en bas à droite Watercolor and pencil on paper; signed with the artist's initials lower right 18 X 26 CM • 7 1/8 X 10 1/4 IN.
John Peter Russell (1858-1930) Bois De Boulogne, Paris, 1905 watercolour, pastel and pencil on paper titled, dated and signed l.l.c. 'Bois De B. P. January 1905 - John Russell'
John Peter Russell (1858-1930) A Felice Souvenir of Macks Island, New Zealand, 1922 watercolour on paper signed l.r.c. 'John Russell' inscribed and dated l.m. 'A Felice Souvenir of Macks Island, N.Z., 1922'
JOHN PETER RUSSELL (1858 - 1930) CRUACH EN MAHR, MATIN, BELLE-ÎLE-EN-MER, c.1905 oil on canvas 60.5 x 73.5 cm signed lower left: J. P. RUSSELL signed verso: J. P. RUSSELL artist’s label attached verso, signed and inscribed with title: CRUACH EN MAHR / J.P. RUSSELL / BELLE ÎLE EN MER PROVENANCE Private collection, France Christie's, Melbourne, 28 April 1992, lot 186 Private collection, London, acquired from the above EXHIBITED Salon d'Automne, Troisième Exposition, Grand Palais, Paris, 18 October – 25 November 1905, cat. 1388 (as 'Cruach en Mahr, (matin)'), label attached to frame verso Belle–Île: Monet, Russell & Matisse in Brittany, Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney, 24 November 2001 – 3 February 2002, and touring Queensland Art Gallery 14 February - 21 April 2002, cat. 30 (as 'Morning, Cruach en Mahr, Belle–Île–en–Mer (Cruach en Mahr, matin, Belle–Île–en–Mer)') Australia's Impressionists, The National Gallery, London, 7 December 2016 – 26 March 2017 (label attached verso) John Peter Russell: Australia's French Impressionist, Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney, 21 July – 11 November 2018 LITERATURE Galbally, A., The Art of John Peter Russell, Sun Books, Melbourne, 1977, cat. 168, p. 108 Galbally, A. et al, Belle Île: Monet, Russell & Matisse in Brittany, Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney, 2001, pp. 101 (illus.), 127 Galbally, A., A remarkable friendship : Vincent van Gogh and John Peter Russell, Melbourne University Publishing, Melbourne, 2008, p.240 Riopelle, C. (ed.), Australia's Impressionists, National Gallery Company and Yale University Press, London, 2016, cat. 41, pp. 59, 107 (illus.), 118, 125 Tunnicliffe, W. (ed.), John Peter Russell: Australia's French Impressionist, Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney, 2018, pp. 88, 145, 146 (illus.), 152 (illus.), 228 ESSAY John Russell holds a unique place in Australian art history for his close association with avant-garde circles in 1880s Paris and his firsthand acquaintance with some of the masters of European Impressionism and Post-Impressionism. Following studies at the Slade School, London in 1881, he attended Fernand Cormon’s atelier in Paris in the mid-1880s, working alongside Émile Bernard, Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec and later, Vincent van Gogh. The two artists established an enduring friendship which is documented in their extensive personal correspondence.1 Russell was one of the few artists to paint van Gogh and the 1886 portrait, now in the collection of the Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam, was treasured by the Dutchman who later asked his brother Theo to ‘take good care of my portrait by Russell which means a lot to me.’2 There is also a sheet of profile sketches of van Gogh in the Art Gallery of New South Wales. Russell’s deep interest in Japanese art, which is reflected in the group of spring blossom paintings made during the late 1880s, was also encouraged by van Gogh who collected Japanese ukiyo-e woodblock prints – developing a collection which numbered in the hundreds – and inspiring his friend to do the same. On a summer break from Paris in 1886, Russell spent several months on Belle-Île, one of a group of small islands off the coast of Brittany. It was here that he met and befriended Claude Monet who he saw working en plein air and, recognising his painting style, famously introduced himself by asking if he was indeed ‘the Prince of the Impressionists’. Inevitably flattered, Monet, who was eighteen years Russell’s senior, took a liking to the young Australian and dined with him and his beautiful wife-to-be, Marianna, enjoying their hospitality and company during his stay on the island. Uncharacteristically, Monet allowed Russell to watch him work and on occasion, to paint alongside him, experiences that provided the younger artist with an extraordinary insight into the techniques and working method of one of the founders of the Impressionist movement. The influence on Russell was significant and the paintings he made in Italy and Sicily only a few months later show him working in a new style, using a high-keyed palette (from which black had been banished entirely) and his compositions made up of strokes of pure colour.3 In addition to showing him how to use colour as a means of expressing a personal response to the subject, Monet’s example also highlighted for Russell the importance of working directly from nature.4 Belle-Île is part of the accurately named La Côte Sauvage, buffeted by almost constant westerly winds blowing in from the Atlantic Ocean. With a rugged landscape as yet untouched by tourism, it offered little in the way of obvious picturesque views but ‘instead… the challenge of a raw confrontation with nature for which there was no tradition of painterly representation.’5 Russell and Monet were both liberated and excited by the task of representing ‘the solid yet fantastical in the form of the rock formations on the western coastline, with the fluid and the mercurial – the sea, waves and spray … being forced beyond … previous boundaries into unknown territory.’6 During his visit to the island, Monet wrote to fellow artist Gustave Caillebotte, ‘I am in a superbly wild country, a heap of terrible rocks and an improbable sea of colours.’7 In July 1888, Russell wrote to van Gogh, ‘I am a painter of nature, of nature’s moods, of sunlight and (the) changing temper of the sea.’8 Similarly, Henri Matisse, who visited Belle-Île in 1895 and met Russell there the following year said simply, ‘Here it is wildness in all its beauty and emptiness.’9 Inherited wealth afforded Russell many freedoms and inspired by the possibilities of Belle-Île, he bought land overlooking the inlet of Goulphar in 1887, writing to his friend, Tom Roberts, ‘I am about to build a house in France. Settle down for some five years. Get some work done. It will be in some out of the way corner as much as a desert as possible.’10 Building a well-appointed home known as Château de l’Anglais (or Château de Goulphar), complete with a large studio, workshop and expansive garden, Russell lived there permanently until 1909/10. He came to know the geography of Belle-Île intimately and as an accomplished yachtsman, often sailed around the island experiencing the physical power and changing moods of the ocean. While La Pointe de Morestil par mer calme (Calm Sea at Morestil Point), 1901 (Queensland Art Gallery I Gallery of Modern Art) describes tranquil waters, Rough sea, Belle-Île, 1900 (National Gallery of Victoria), captures the opposite extreme in a luminous example of Russell’s painterly dynamism, the energy of his brushstrokes mirroring the turbulence of the ocean. Russell scholar Ann Galbally has described the ‘intensity of vision’ that characterises the works made on Belle-Île, where his focus on a limited range of subjects – the sea, the rocks, rugged coastline and figure studies – encouraged bold formal experimentation in paintings that captured the changing light and atmospheric conditions of the environment, as well as displaying his committed pursuit of pure colour.11 Cruach en Mahr, Matin, Belle-Île-en-Mer, c.1905 is one of a group of paintings produced around the turn of the century that depicts the tranquil waters of Port Goulphar. Painted from a location close to Russell’s home on the south-western side of the island, it describes a view that was very familiar to him. Looking across the protected bay, it takes in a group of moored fishing boats in the foreground, the rocky coastline and undulating hillside which rises up dramatically almost to the top of the canvas, capped by a sliver of sky. The red sail, Port Goulphar, c.1900, in the collection of the Musée d’Orsay/ Musée de Morlaix, depicts a similar view, although the palette could not be more different, as vivid colours reflect the bright sunshine of mid-afternoon. By contrast (and as the title indicates), the predominantly blue, green and purple colour palette of Cruach en Mahr, Matin, Belle-Île-en-Mer – describes a morning view, before the sun has fully risen and while the hillside and water’s edge are still cast in deep shadow. Russell describes the gentle, rhythmic movement of the water in freely applied squiggles of paint and the hillside is composed of layered brushstrokes of intense colour, as well as glimpses of exposed raw canvas. Russell’s brilliance as a colourist is on full display in this painting, as is his ability to communicate as much about the feeling of being in the landscape as its physical and geographical features. Adopting the Impressionist practice of painting the same subject at different times of the day and during different seasons, Russell had an indefatigable interest in exploring the varied effects of light and weather and the resulting chromatic range of this familiar and yet ever-changing landscape. Continually inspired by Belle-Île, he wrote ‘the colours completely bowl me over. On some days here it’s ravishing but impossible for my poor palette.’12 Russell evidently regarded this painting highly, as it is one of only a small number he chose to exhibit publicly during his lifetime. He entered it into the 1905 Salon d’Automne, the newly-established annual exhibition held at the Grand Palais in Paris, which displayed the most progressive contemporary art, and the label attached to its frame is evidence that it was accepted and catalogued as number 1388. The 1905 Salon d’Automne is particularly significant as the occasion on which the term ‘Fauvist’ was coined in response to the ‘wild dashes of colour’ in the new paintings of Henri Matisse, André Derain and Maurice de Vlaminck. It is apposite that Russell was represented in this salon given the role he had played in the dramatic transformation of Matisse’s approach to colour and indeed, given his own reputation as one of the most daring and talented colourists of his day. The young Frenchman spent three months on Belle-Île in 1896, fortuitously meeting Russell who subsequently introduced him to Monet’s techniques and to the work of van Gogh, gifting him one of the pen and ink drawings the Dutchman had sent him from Arles some years earlier. This encounter contributed to the development of what his biographer, Hilary Spurling, described as ‘a way of seeing: the first inklings of the pursuit of colour for its own sake that would draw in the end on his deepest emotional and imaginative resources.’13 In more recent years Cruach en Mahr, Matin, Belle-Île-en-Mer has been included in several important exhibitions: Belle-Île: Monet, Russell & Matisse in Brittany at the Art Gallery of New South Wales in 2001; the John Russell retrospective, Art Gallery of New South Wales, 2018 and the 2016 – 17 exhibition, Australia’s Impressionists, at the National Gallery, London. The first ever exhibition in the United Kingdom to focus on the art of Australia’s Impressionists, this show was part of the National Gallery’s expanded mission to collect, display and study the work of artists working within the tradition of European representational painting but further afield, away from the places usually acknowledged as the centres of artistic production.14 Elaborating on the significance of Cruach en Mahr, Matin, Belle-Île-en-Mer within Russell’s oeuvre and its importance in the exhibition, the Director of the National Gallery, Dr Gabriele Finaldi wrote, ‘This unconventional view of the coastline of Port Goulphar not yet fully illuminated by the rising sun suggests the lessons Russell absorbed from painting en plein air alongside Claude Monet, and the indefatigable interest Russell developed for capturing the varying effects of light and weather on the rugged landscape of his adopted home of Belle-Île. In its complex layering of intense, contrasting colour, veiled with the dominant key of electric blue, we see Russell in full force as a colourist, exploring the dense chromatic modulations of shadow.’15 Russell played a crucial role in the exhibition and indeed, an entire section of the display was dedicated to his art. Shown alongside Tom Roberts, Arthur Streeton and Charles Conder, Russell’s significant place among the very best of Australia’s artists working in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries was made clear, as was his utterly unique role as a vital and direct link between Australian art and French Impressionism and Post-Impressionism. Alongside these national and international exhibitions of Russell’s work, institutional acquisitions have taken place as galleries and museums strive to ensure their collections represent the best of his painting. The offering of this painting represents an increasingly rare opportunity to acquire a major painting by John Russell. 1. Although Russell did not see van Gogh again after he departed for Arles in the south of France in early 1888, their friendship continued via correspondence. See Galbally, A., A Remarkable Friendship: Vincent van Gogh and John Peter Russell, The Miegunyah Press, Carlton, 2008 2. Taylor, E., ‘John Russell and friends: Roberts, Monet, van Gogh, Matisse, Rodin’, Australian Impressionists in France, National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne, 2013, p. 56 3. ibid., p. 60 4. Prunster, U., ‘Painting Belle-Île’, in Prunster, U., et al., Belle-Île: Monet, Russell and Matisse, exhibition catalogue, Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney, 2001, p. 31 5. Galbally, A., ‘Mer Sauvage’, in Prunster, U., ibid., p. 14 6. Galbally, 2001, op. cit., p. 13 7. Prunster, ‘Painting Belle-Île’, op. cit., p. 19 8. ibid., p. 29 9. ibid. 10. Russell to Tom Roberts, 5 October 1887, cited in Tunnicliffe, W., (ed.), John Russell: Australia’s French Impressionist, Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney, 2018, p. 193 11. Galbally, 2001, op cit., p. 15 12. Russell to Auguste Rodin, April-May 1890, cited in Prunster, ‘Painting Belle-Île’, op. cit., p. 46 13. Spurling, H., The Unknown Matisse: A Life of Henri Matisse, Volume One: 1869-1908, Hamish Hamilton, London, 1998, p. 144, cited in Taylor, op. cit., p. 65 14. See Riopelle, C., ‘Australia’s Impressionists in a World Context’ in Australia’s Impressionists, National Gallery Company, London, 2016, pp. 14 – 16 15. Dr Gabriel Finaldi to the vendor, 16 June 2016 KIRSTY GRANT
JOHN PETER RUSSELL (1858-1930) Foothills, Southern France 1920 watercolour on paper signed and dated lower left: John P. Russell/ 20 26.5 x 37.5cm PROVENANCE: Christie's, Melbourne, 22 August 2000, lot 101 Private collection, Melbourne
JOHN PETER RUSSELL (1858-1930) French Coastal View 1907 watercolour on paper 23.5 x 33.5 cm; 39.5 x 48.5 cm (framed) signed and dated lower right: JOHN. RUSSELL./ 07
John Peter Russell (1858-1930) Maisons À Belle-Île, 1908 signed and dated lower right: 'JOHN RUSSELL 1908' watercolour and pencil on paper 26.0 x 36.0cm (10 1/4 x 14 3/16in).
JOHN PETER RUSSELL (1858 - 1930) SOUVENIR DE BELLE–ÎLE (MARIANNA RUSSELL WITH GOATS, GOULPHAR, BELLE–ÎLE), 1897 oil on canvas 65.0 x 81.5 cm signed, dated and inscribed with title lower centre: TO. FRIEND. WILL. MALONEY. J. P. RUSSELL. 1897. - SOUVENIR. DE. BELLE. iLE. signed, dated and inscribed verso: J. P. RUSSELL. / BELLE ILE / 1897. artists’ colourmen stamp verso: Rey & Perrot, Paris framer's label attached verso: R J Stannard, London PROVENANCE Dr William Maloney, Melbourne, a gift from the artist in 1897 Thence by descent Private collection, Melbourne, daughter of the above Thence by descent Private collection, Melbourne EXHIBITED On loan to the National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne, 1942 - 1943 John Peter Russell: Australian Impressionist, University Art Museum, University of Queensland, Brisbane, 25 February – 19 March 1978; National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne, 30 March – 6 May 1978; Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney, 21 May – 26 June 1978, cat. 35 (partial label attached verso) LITERATURE Galbally, A., The Art of John Peter Russell, Sun Books, Melbourne, 1977, cat. 154, pp. 11, 106 RELATED WORK Bergère en blanc avec des chèvres, c.1897, oil on canvas, 110.0 x 178.0 cm, in the collection of the Musée d'Orsay, France, on loan to the Musée des Jacobins, Morlaix, illus. in Jourdan, P. et al., John-Peter Russell, un Impressionniste Australien, Musee des Jacobins, Morlaix, 1997, p. 31 We are grateful to Peter Perry OAM for his assistance with this catalogue entry. ESSAY John Peter Russell holds a unique place in Australian art history as a result of his close association with avant-garde circles in 1880s Paris and his firsthand acquaintance with masters of European Impressionism and Post-Impressionism. As a student at Fernand Cormon’s atelier in Paris in the mid-1880s, Russell worked alongside Émile Bernard, Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec and later, Vincent van Gogh, with whom he established an enduring friendship.1 On a summer break from Paris in 1886, Russell spent several months on Belle-Île, one of a group of small islands off the coast of Brittany. It was here that he met and befriended Claude Monet who he saw working en plein air, famously introducing himself by asking if Monet was indeed ‘the Prince of the Impressionists’. Inevitably flattered, Monet, who was eighteen years Russell’s senior, took a liking to the young Australian and dined with him and his beautiful wife-to-be, enjoying their hospitality and company during his stay on the island. Uncharacteristically, Monet also allowed Russell to watch him work and on occasion, to paint alongside him, experiences that provided an extraordinary insight into the techniques and working method of one of the founders of the Impressionist movement. The influence on Russell was significant and the paintings he made in Italy and Sicily only a few months later show him working in a new style, creating compositions that are made up of strokes of pure high-keyed colour.2 ‘… But when we get to color. The gorse & heather. Yellow & purple, orange boat sails, blue sea. Red rocks, Green sea. All a matter of feeling. Tis in the man with brush & paint pot or it is not.’3 Captivated by the rugged beauty of Belle-Île and attuned to the possibilities that both the environment and the simple, rural way of life presented for his art, Russell – whose inherited wealth meant he didn’t have to find paid employment – bought land overlooking the inlet of Goulphar in 1887. Writing to Tom Roberts, he said, ‘I am about to build a house in France. Settle down for some five years. Get some work done. It will be in some out of the way corner as much as a desert as possible.’4 Around 1884 Russell had met Marianna Mattiocco, probably in the studio of his friend, the British artist Harry Bates (1850 - 99). An Italian beauty, she was the model for Bates’ bas-relief sculpture, Dido, Queen of Carthage, 1885 (National Museum of Wales, Cardiff) and had also possibly modelled for Rodin. Following the birth of the first two of their twelve children (many of whom did not survive infancy), they formalised the relationship, marrying in 1888. Russell commissioned Rodin to sculpt a portrait bust of Marianna early that year – cast in 1889, it was the first of several works which the master modelled on her classical features – and this initiated a longstanding and intimate friendship between the artists. 6 The family moved to Belle-Île in the summer of 1888 and lived there permanently until 1909 - 10 when the house was sold following Marianna’s premature death. Russell developed an intimate knowledge of the island’s geography, both from the land and the sea, and this informed many of his best-known paintings such as Port-Goulphar, Belle-Île, 1887 (Art Gallery of New South Wales) and Rough Sea, Belle-Île, 1900 (National Gallery of Victoria), which capture the distinctive light, changing colours and atmospheric conditions of the area. The island attracted many visitors. Even Sarah Bernhardt bought property and spent her summer holidays on Belle-Île from 1894 - 1922, saying, ‘I like to come every year to this picturesque island, to taste all the charm of its wild and grandiose beauty. I draw new artistic forces from its invigorating and restful sky.’ 7 The young Henri Matisse spent three months on Belle-Île in 1896, fortuitously meeting Russell who introduced him to Monet’s techniques and the work of van Gogh, gifting him one of the pen and ink drawings the Dutchman had sent him from Arles some years earlier. This encounter contributed to a dramatic transformation in Matisse’s approach to colour which his biographer, Hilary Spurling, described as ‘a way of seeing: the first inklings of the pursuit of colour for its own sake that would draw in the end on his deepest emotional and imaginative resources.’8 Russell continued to be inspired by Belle-Île, writing to Rodin in 1890, ‘the colours completely bowl me over. On some days here it’s ravishing but impossible for my poor palette.’ 9 His mastery and expressive use of colour is on full display in So uvenir de Belle-Île, 1897. In the foreground a figure wearing traditional Breton dress leads a pair of goats along the cliff top, brilliantly illuminated by a full moon that sits high in the sky. The dramatic, predominantly purple sky appears to glow and the sensation of the strange ‘in-between’ light of dusk, which teases the eye and makes it hard to focus clearly, is skilfully rendered. The crisp white of the figure’s dress and cap provides a central focal point, highlighting the vivid colours of the surrounding scene: the yellow and greens of the grassy ground, the purple shadows cast by the figure and her goats, and the deep blue tones of the ocean – described by Monet as ‘an improbable sea of colours’ 10– with its distinctive rocky outcrops. While Russell is renowned as a bold and inventive colourist, this is surely one of the most dazzling examples of his work. A contemporary photograph shows Marianna dressed in local costume, posing on the cliff top as Russell, seated at an easel in the foreground, works on the larger, closely related painting, B ergère en blanc avec des chèvres, c.1897 (Musée d’Orsay, France). While the goats do not appear in the photograph, they were family pets and a familiar element of the Russell’s cliff-top home, which consisted of a large stone house and expansive garden, as well as various outbuildings including a studio that opened directly out to the ocean. In addition to highlighting the importance for Russell of working directly from the subject, the photograph and a comparison of the two paintings reveals aspects of his working method; changes in perspective and scale, varied use of colour and compositional choices that in the larger painting, result in a stronger emphasis on the figure who is depicted as an almost heroic representation of traditional rural life. Such subject matter reflects the prevailing influence of Barbizon School painter Jean-François Millet, whose paintings celebrated the nobility of peasant workers and their labour, and a growing awareness at the end of the nineteenth century that this way of life was disappearing. According to Ann Galbally, ‘It was against a background of romanticization of the primitive that [Russell] moved his wife and family to Belle-Île … and to ultimately forswear subject-painting, decorative art, even portrait painting in favour of a painterly identification with his rural surroundings.’11 As the inscription which runs along the bottom of the painting indicates, Souvenir de Belle-Île was a gift from the artist to his friend Will Maloney, an Australian doctor and later in life, long-serving Labor politician. In the summer of 1883 Maloney, Russell, his brother Sydney and Tom Roberts travelled through France and Spain and Maloney, who subsequently worked at hospitals in London, visited Russell in Paris on several occasions. It was on his final visit in 1887, prior to his return to Australia, that Maloney sat for Russell who painted a small portrait of his friend which is now in the collection of the National Gallery of Victoria. An informal study of the young Maloney, the portrait holds particular significance as the first painting made using the Impressionist technique to arrive in Australia.12 Maloney and Russell maintained a correspondence and in 1897, Russell sent this painting to his friend in Melbourne, which has remained in the possession of the Maloney family ever since. 1. Although Russell did not see van Gogh again after he departed for Arles in the south of France in early 1888, their friendship continued via an extensive correspondence. See Galbally, A., A Remarkable Friendship: Vincent van Gogh and John Peter Russell, The Miegunyah Press, Melbourne, 2008 2. Taylor, E., ‘John Russell and friends: Roberts, Monet, van Gogh, Matisse, Rodin’, Australian Impressionists in France, National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne, 2013, p. 60 3. Russell to Tom Roberts, 5 October 1887 quoted in Tunnicliffe, W., (ed.), John Russell: Australia’s French Impressionist, Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney, 2018, p. 53 4. Ibid., p. 193 5. See Onfray, G., translated by Lucie Reeves-Smith , “The most Breton of foreign painters of the era”, John-Peter Russell, Un impressionniste australien, Musée des Jacobins, Morlaix, 1997, pp. 8-9. Galbally, A., The Art of John Peter Russell, Sun Books, Melbourne, 1977, p. 28 and Tunnicliffe, ibid., p. 26 6. See Taylor, op. cit., p. 68 7. Sarah Bernhardt quoted in The summers of Sarah Bernhardt at Les Poulains | Belle-Île-en-Mer Tourist Office – Official Website (belleileenmer.co.uk), accessed 14 July 2023 8. Spurling, H., The Unknown Matisse: A Life of Henri Matisse, Volume One: 1869-1908, Hamish Hamilton, London, 1998, p. 144 quoted in Taylor, op. cit., p. 65 9. Russell to Auguste Rodin, April-May 1890 quoted in quoted in Prunster, U., ‘Painting Belle-Île’, Prunster, U., et al., Belle-Île: Monet, Russell and Matisse, Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney, 2001, p. 46 10. Claude Monet to Gustave Caillebotte, 11 October 1886, ibid., p. 19 11. Galbally, A., The Art of John Peter Russell, Sun Books, Melbourne, 1977, p. 47 12. Taylor, op. cit., p. 53 KIRSTY GRANT
JOHN PETER RUSSELL (1858 - 1930) SNOW IN THE ALPS (SWITZERLAND), c.1912 - 15 watercolour on paper 35.0 x 51.0 cm (sight) signed lower left edge: JOHN. RUSSELL – bears inscription verso: MG/60 / SNOW IN THE / ALPS PROVENANCE Private collection Christie's, Sydney, October 1971, lot 54 Sir Leon and Lady Trout, Brisbane The Collection of Sir Leon and Lady Trout, Christie's, Brisbane, 6 June 1989, lot 191 Henry Krongold, Melbourne The Estate of Paul Krongold, Melbourne EXHIBITED Master Works from the Collection of Sir Leon and Lady Trout, Queensland Art Gallery, Brisbane, 21 September – 14 December 1977, cat. 38 (label attached verso) Watercolours in the Collection of Sir Leon and Lady Trout, Queensland Art Gallery, Brisbane, 4 May – 6 June 1978 (label attached verso)
JOHN PETER RUSSELL (1858 - 1930) DADONE, c.1900 oil on canvas 32.0 x 25.5 cm signed with initials and inscribed with title upper right: Dadone / J.R / FeciT PROVENANCE The artist Thence by descent Jeanne Jouve, the artist’s eldest child and only daughter Private collection, a gift from the above in 1948 Private collection, Paris, purchased in 2000 Sotheby's, Melbourne, 19 September 2005, lot 10 The Reg Grundy AC OBE and Joy Chambers-Grundy Collection (label attached verso) Important Australian Art from the Collection of Red Grundy AC OBE and Joy Chambers-Grundy, Bonhams, Sydney, 26 June 2013, lot 72 Private collection, Melbourne ESSAY John Peter Russell holds a unique place in Australian art history for his close association with avant-garde circles in 1880s Paris and his firsthand acquaintance with masters of European Impressionism and Post-Impressionism. As a student at Fernand Cormon’s atelier in Paris in the mid-1880s, Russell worked alongside Émile Bernard, Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec and later, Vincent van Gogh, with whom he established an enduring friendship.1 On a summer break from Paris in 1886, Russell spent several months on Belle-Île, one of a group of small islands off the coast of Brittany. It was here that he met and befriended Claude Monet who he saw working en plein air, famously introducing himself by asking if Monet was indeed ‘the Prince of the Impressionists’. Inevitably flattered, Monet, who was eighteen years Russell’s senior, took a liking to the young Australian and dined with him and his beautiful wife-to-be, enjoying their hospitality and company during his stay on the island. Uncharacteristically, Monet also allowed Russell to watch him work and on occasion, to paint alongside him, experiences that provided an extraordinary insight into the techniques and working method of one of the founders of the Impressionist movement. The influence on Russell was significant and the paintings he made in Italy and Sicily only a few months later show him working in a new style, creating compositions that are made up of strokes of pure high-keyed colour.2 Captivated by the rugged beauty of Belle-Île and attuned to the possibilities the environment presented for the development of his art, Russell – whose inherited wealth meant he didn’t have to find paid employment – bought land overlooking the inlet of Goulphar in 1887. Writing to Tom Roberts, he said, ‘I am about to build a house in France. Settle down for some five years. Get some work done. It will be in some out of the way corner as much as a desert as possible.’3 Living there permanently until 1909, Russell developed an intimate knowledge of the island’s geography, both from the land and the sea, and this informed many of his best known paintings such as Port-Goulphar, Belle-Île, 1887 (Art Gallery of New South Wales) and Rough Sea, Belle-Île, 1900 (National Gallery of Victoria), which capture the distinctive light, changing colours and atmospheric conditions of his island home. Russell was also a talented painter of portraits and just as his images of the Belle-Île landscape describe areas he knew intimately, so too, the subjects of his portraits are typically people with whom he had a close relationship. His great friend, van Gogh, is the subject of a fine 1886 portrait which is in the collection of the Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam. Russell’s wife, Marianna – an Italian beauty who had modelled for the sculptor, Rodin – was the subject of numerous works. Her mother also sat for Russell and this intimately-scaled profile portrait depicts her father, Pasquale Mattioco – the colloquial Italian term ‘Dadone’ acknowledging his status as a senior male relative. The artist’s respect for his subject is clear and, as well as rendering the subject’s physical appearance, the portrait speaks to the wisdom and experience of a long life. With an emphasis on shades of blue, with white and grey highlights, the painting recalls Russell’s seascapes, and the image is built up in a series of energetic and assured brush strokes which reflect what Russell scholar, Ann Galbally, described as the artist’s distinctive ‘intensity of vision.’4 1. Although Russell did not see van Gogh again after he departed for Arles in the south of France in early 1888, their friendship continued via an extensive correspondence. See Galbally, A., A Remarkable Friendship: Vincent van Gogh and John Peter Russell , The Miegunyah Press, Carlton, 2008 2. Taylor, E., ‘John Russell and friends: Roberts, Monet, van Gogh, Matisse, Rodin’, Australian Impressionists in France, National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne, 2013, p. 60 3. Russell to Tom Roberts, 5 October 1887 quoted in Tunnicliffe, W., (ed.), John Russell: Australia’s French Impressionist, Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney, 2018, p. 193 4. Galbally, op. cit., p. 15 KIRSTY GRANT
John Peter Russell (1858-1930) Rocks, Belle Île, 1907 signed and dated lower left: 'J. P. RUSSELL. 07' oil on board 26.5 x 34.0cm (10 7/16 x 13 3/8in).
JOHN PETER RUSSELL (1858-1930) Belle Isle 1903 watercolour signed, titled and inscribed lower centre: J P RUSSELL TO L. T. C. / BELLE ISLE '03 30.5 x 46.5cm PROVENANCE: Private collection, Sydney
JOHN PETER RUSSELL (1858 - 1930) A BLOSSOM TREE, BELLE-ÎLE, 1887 oil on canvas 61.5 x 46.5 cm signed, dated and inscribed lower left: …'To my friend Monsieur Dufour Those friends thou hast, grapple them to thy heart with hooks of steel / Belle Ile 1887/J. P. Russell’ PROVENANCE Monsieur Dufour, France, acquired from the artist in 1887 Private collection Sotheby’s, Melbourne, 17 April 1989, lot 301 Private collection Sotheby’s, Melbourne, 19 April 1993, lot 346 Jack Manton, Queensland Thence by descent Jennifer Manton, Sydney Estate of the above, Sydney ESSAY John Russell holds a unique place in Australian art history for his close association with avant-garde circles in 1880s Paris and his firsthand acquaintance with some of the masters of European Impressionism and Post-Impressionism. As a student at Fernand Cormon’s atelier in Paris in the mid-1880s, Russell worked alongside Émile Bernard, Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec and later, Vincent van Gogh, with whom he established an enduring friendship.1 On a summer break from Paris in 1886, Russell spent several months on Belle-Île, one of a group of small islands off the coast of Brittany. It was here that he met and befriended Claude Monet who he saw working en plein air, famously introducing himself by asking if he was indeed ‘the Prince of the Impressionists.’ Uncharacteristically, Monet allowed Russell to watch him work and on occasion, to paint alongside him, experiences that provided the young Australian artist with an extraordinary insight into the techniques and working method of one of the founders of the Impressionist movement. The influence on Russell was significant and the paintings he made in Italy and Sicily only a few months later show him working in a new style, using a high-keyed palette (from which black had been banished entirely) and his compositions made up of strokes of pure colour.2 In addition to showing him how to use colour as a means of expressing a personal response to the subject, Monet’s example also highlighted for Russell the importance of working directly from nature.3 Inherited wealth afforded Russell freedoms that others did not have and inspired by the possibilities of Belle-Île for his art and his life, he bought land overlooking the inlet of Goulphar. Writing to Tom Roberts in October 1887, he said, ‘‘Well my dear TR I’m about finished with studios & will jump out of Paris as soon as possible. The tone of things don’t suit me… I am about to build a house in France. Settle down for some five years. Get some work done. It will be in some out of the way corner as much as a desert as possible.’4 Russell lived on the island until 1909 and the subjects it offered – especially the sea and rugged coastline – encouraged what Russell scholar, Ann Galbally, described as an ‘intensity of vision’ in which experimental brushstrokes and his committed pursuit of pure colour captured the distinctive changing light and atmospheric conditions of the environment.5 Russell had a deep interest in Japanese art and this is reflected in A Blossom Tree, Belle Île, 1887 and a number of other related paintings of spring blossoms made around this time, including The Garden, Longpré-les-Corps-Saints, 1886 (private collection) and Almond Tree in Blossom, 1887 (National Gallery of Victoria). Russell had seen Japanese ceramics and bronzes in the 1879 – 80 Sydney International Exhibition, but a broader interest was stimulated by van Gogh who collected Japanese ukiyo-e woodblock prints (as did his brother, Theo, and Monet) – developing a collection which numbered in the hundreds – and encouraged him to do the same.6 Russell absorbed the lessons of Japanese ukiyo-e design, introducing flattened pictorial space, distortions of traditional perspective and dramatic cropping of subjects to his compositions. Almond Tree in Blossom, 1887 (National Gallery of Victoria) employs bold cropping and a close-up view of the blossom-covered branches, which are flattened in space against a solid but shimmering background of powdered bronze paint, itself a reference to the gilded backgrounds of Japanese screens.7 In this painting, the dramatic reflection of the tree trunk connects the reedy foreground, the central band of water, and the distant grassy bank – with a small cottage pictured just right of the tree – within a tightly compressed space. Prominently positioned at the front of the picture plane and filling the entire top section of the canvas, the blossoming tree and its beauty is Russell’s focus. The delicacy and transience of this seasonal flowering provides a poignant contrast to the dedication Russell inscribed to his friend Monsieur Dufour, which reads, ‘Those friends thou hast, grapple them to thy heart with hooks of steel.’ This painting has a notable provenance, having been one of several works by Russell in the Jack Manton Collection of Australian Impressionist Art. Begun in 1961, the collection aimed to ‘include the best possible example of the chosen artist’s work, capture developmental changes (if any) and show any shift of emphasis in style, period or location’.8 Many paintings from the Manton Collection were subsequently acquired for the permanent collection of the National Gallery of Victoria. 1. Although Russell did not see van Gogh again after he departed for Arles in the south of France in early 1888, their friendship continued via extensive correspondence. See Galbally, A., A Remarkable Friendship: Vincent van Gogh and John Peter Russell, The Miegunyah Press, Carlton, 2008. 2. Taylor, E., ‘John Russell and friends: Roberts, Monet, van Gogh, Matisse, Rodin’, Australian Impressionists in France, National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne, 2013, p. 60 3. Prunster, U., ‘Painting Belle-Île’, Prunster, U., et al., Belle-Île: Monet, Russell and Matisse, Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney, 2001, p. 31 4. Russell to Tom Roberts, 5 October 1887, cited in Tunnicliffe, W., (ed.), John Russell: Australia’s French Impressionist, Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney, 2018, p. 193 5. Galbally, op cit., p. 15 6. Tunnicliffe, op. cit., p.39 7. Taylor, op. cit., p. 57 8. Manton, J., ‘Genesis’ in Australian Painters of the Heidelberg School: The Jack Manton Collection, Oxford University Press, Melbourne, 1979, p. 148 KIRSTY GRANT
JOHN PETER RUSSELL (1858 - 1930) FLAME TREES, 1921 pencil and watercolour on paper 25.0 x 30.5 cm (sheet) signed and dated lower right (inverted): RUSSELL 21. bears inscription verso: J21 PROVENANCE Mr Alan Greenway, Australia and USA Thence by descent Private collection, California, USA
John Peter Russell (1858-1930) Archways, Salerno II signed lower left: 'JOHN RUSSELL' chalk and gouache on paper 37.0 x 27.5cm (14 9/16 x 10 13/16in). For further information on this lot please visit the Bonhams website
JOHN PETER RUSSELL (1858 – 1930) NEW ZEALAND LANDSCAPE, c.1924 watercolour on paper 23.5 x 30.0 cm 44.0 x 51.0 cm (frame) signed with initials lower left: JR PROVENANCE John Alain Stobart Russell, Scotland, the artist’s grandson Sir Leon & Lady Trout, Queensland, by 1977 Philip Bacon Galleries, Brisbane Private collection, Queensland Christie’s, Melbourne, 2 – 3 May 2002, lot 85 The Cbus Collection of Australian Art, Melbourne, acquired from the above EXHIBITED Masterworks from the Collection of Sir Leon and Lady Trout, Queensland Art Gallery, Brisbane, 21 September – 14 December 1977, cat. 42 (label attached verso) Watercolours from the Collection of Sir Leon and Lady Trout, Queensland Art Gallery, Brisbane, 4 May – 6 June 1978, cat. 77 Aspects of the Trout Collection, Philip Bacon Galleries, Brisbane, 1989, cat. 40 on long term loan to Newcastle Region Art Gallery, New South Wales, prior to 2006 (label attached verso) on long term loan to Gippsland Art Gallery, Victoria LITERATURE Galbally, A., The Art of John Peter Russell, Sun Books, Melbourne, 1977, p. 123, cat.491 (as ‘Landscape: New Zealand’) Rainbird, S., and Bacon, P., Aspects of the Trout Collection, Philip Bacon Galleries, Brisbane, 1989, pl.40, p.100 (illus.) Nainby, B., Stanhope, Z., and Furlonger, K., The Cbus Collection of Australian Art, in association with Latrobe Regional Gallery, Melbourne, 2009, pp. 50 (illus.), 231
JOHN PETER RUSSELL (1858 – 1930) PINE TREE, BRIGHAM’S CREEK, NEW ZEALAND, c.1924 watercolour on paper 24.0 x 31.0 cm (sight) 44.0 x 50.5 cm (frame) bears certificate of authenticity attached verso, signed by the artist’s grandson PROVENANCE John Alain Stobart Russell, Scotland, the artist’s grandson Sir Leon & Lady Trout, Queensland Philip Bacon Galleries, Brisbane Private collection, Queensland Christie’s, Melbourne, 2 – 3 May 2002, lot 71 The Cbus Collection of Australian Art, Melbourne, acquired from the above EXHIBITED Masterworks from the Collection of Sir Leon and Lady Trout, Queensland Art Gallery, Brisbane, 21 September – 14 December 1977, cat. 37 (label attached verso) Watercolours from the Collection of Sir Leon and Lady Trout, Queensland Art Gallery, Brisbane, 4 May – 6 June 1978, cat. 79 Aspects of the Trout Collection, Philip Bacon Galleries, Brisbane, 1989, cat. 42 Overland, Latrobe Regional Gallery, Victoria, 10 March – 15 July 2012 LITERATURE Galbally, A., The Art of John Peter Russell, Sun Books, Melbourne, 1977, p. 121, cat.456 (as ‘Trees, Brigham’s Creek’) Rainbird, S., and Bacon, P., Aspects of the Trout Collection, Philip Bacon Galleries, Brisbane, 1989, pl.42, p.100 (illus.) Nainby, B., Stanhope, Z., and Furlonger, K., The Cbus Collection of Australian Art, in association with Latrobe Regional Gallery, Melbourne, 2009, p. 231
The Doorway oil on cardboard 40.5 x 30.5 cm (16 x 12 in.) framed dimensions: 49 x 39 cm (19 1/4 x 15 3/8 in.) CONDITION Observed in frame, the painting is in good condition. Minor surface soiling present to the center. Folding to the upper left corner. Inspection under UV light shows no sign of restoration. N.B. All lots are sold in as-is condition at the time of sale. Please note that any condition statement regarding works of art is given as a courtesy to our clients in order to assist them in assessing the condition. The report is a genuine opinion held by Shapiro Auctions and should not be treated as a statement of fact. The absence of a condition report or a photograph does not preclude the absence of defects or restoration, nor does a reference to particular defects imply the absence of any others. Shapiro Auctions, LLC., including its consultants and agents, shall have no responsibility for any error or omission.
![JOHN PETER RUSSELL, BELLE-ÎLE. VILLAGE D'ENVAG [SUNSHINE SHIMMER], 1900](https://image.invaluable.com/housePhotos/Deutscher_and_Hackett/73/781373/H4043-L388911915.jpg)
