THE ART - Canberra 100

EARLY CANBERRA 1913
BY A E MACDONALD—CANBERRA MUSEUM AND GALLERY (CMAG)
A.E. Macdonald Early Canberra 1913 oil on canvas
THE STORY OF THIS ARTWORK AND ITS ACQUISITION
This painting is pertinent to the
celebration of Canberra’s centenary
and it is the result of a competition,
a significant way of acquiring art for
the public. A notice was issued from
the Prime Minister’s Department on
Thursday 19 December 1912, and then
advertised in the Commonwealth of
Australia Gazette No. 80, Saturday
21 December 1912. The notice was an
invitation from the Historic Memorials
Committee to Australian artists to
submit paintings of the site where the
Federal Capital of the Commonwealth
was to be built. The idea was that
of G V F Mann, director of the Art
Gallery of NSW at the time and also a
distinguished architect and painter.
Little is known about A E MacDonald.
He was living in Sydney, in Wahroonga,
at the time of the competition, and
when he submitted his painting
on 25 June 1913, he used the nom
de plume, ‘Molonglo’. Perhaps he
wanted to identify strongly with the
landscape. The 21 December notice
not only asked for ‘Australian artists
resident in the various States of the
Commonwealth to submit paintings
illustrative of the site upon which it is
proposed to erect the Federal Capital
of the Commonwealth but also stated
that the subject will necessitate a
painting of a panoramic nature and
must be correct in regard to the
geological features of the landscape in
every respect. Midday effect is desired
in preference to evening or scenic
effects’. The notion of capturing the
view when it is at its most luminous is
a reference both to Australia’s unique
light and to the symbolic use of that
light to point to the bountiful future
open to the newly federated country.
If we want to ‘see’ what Canberra
was like 100 years ago, MacDonald’s
painting reveals a great deal. It is
an oil painting on canvas showing
the site of Canberra looking from
the present-day suburb of Ainslie,
towards what would one day be
the city, with St John’s Church,
Canberra’s first church, in the middle
ground. There is evidence of the
farms that were present at the time.
The bright light, undulating hills
and the open view were intended to
invigorate national pride and build an
expectation of a bright, open future.
The painting clearly addressed the
competition brief. The decade after
Federation seemed to introduce a
new nationalism, which was reflected
in much of the art of the time.
The works of the well-known artists
Arthur Streeton and Hans Heysen, for
example, expressed this nationalism
with strong, powerful, almost heroic
landscapes. MacDonald’s landscape
also reflects these ideals. The Historic
Memorials Committee’s choice of
landscape as the theme for this
important competition reinforces the
notion that the Australian landscape
was understood as symbolic of
Australian identity.
Who won? It wasn’t A E MacDonald.
The competition attracted ten
submissions and the winner was
William Lister Lister whose work,
and that of the runner-up, Penleigh
Boyd, are displayed in Parliament
House, Canberra. Their paintings
are of the same scene, in a general
sense, but each has a slightly
different perspective, with different
light and colour.
6 THE ART OF BRINGING THE ARTS TO CANBERRA