GA023 - Australian and International Art

12
18
CHARLES CONDER (1868-1909)
Scene on the Epte circa 1894
oil on canvas
signed lower right: CONDER
43.5 x 53.5 cm
PROVENANCE
Mrs Cecil Lawson, England
Bradford Bradley & Co, Exhibition agents, Charlotte Street,
Fitzroy Square, London (label verso)
J.H.R Carver (label verso)
Savill Galleries, Sydney (label verso)
Private collection, New South Wales (?)
EXHIBITED
Exhibition of 20th Century British Paintings, National Gallery,
London, 1940, as Scene on the Ept (label verso)
Charles Conder, Sheffield City Art Galleries, September 1967,
as On the Ept (label verso)
J.S. Mass & Co. Ltd. New Bond Street, London, cat. 444,
as Scene on the Ept (label verso)
$30,000–40,000
Charles Conder’s Australian sojourn (1884-1890) left an
enduring contribution to the development of Australian
art. His success as an artist continued in both England and
France, and by at least 1896, the Paris Salon was already
hanging Conder’s pictures ‘on the line’. 1
Since the 1870s, the Seine river and its tributary, the Epte,
had been favourite painting spots among the Impressionists
in Normandy. Monet set up his studio in Giverny just a few
kilometres from the banks of the Epte, and in the early-
1890s he further stamped its significance into the collective
imagination when he produced the iconic Poplar series of
paintings. ‘Monet’, notes Ann Galbally, ‘was the most important
influence on Conder’s landscapes from 1892 to 1894.’ 2
Dozens of artists from all over the world, including Americans
Frederick Frieseke and Richard Miller, turned the sleepy
hamlet into a thriving artists’ colony. The area also managed to
hold Conder’s regular attention, and in March-April 1894, he is
registered to have stayed at Giverny.
In the present picture, Conder also borrows one of the
favourite leitmotifs used by Corot and the Barbizon School:
the silhouette of a lone anonymous figure, toiling by a river,
under moody crepuscular light. What first appears to be a
dark foreboding setting, emerges as a careful arrangement
of striking colours and masterly paintwork. Daybreak is
heralded by a blazing crack of sunshine in tints of pearlescent
yellow and peachy hues that shine through the coulisse of
soft violets, forest greens and earthy browns – the whole lot
reflected on the river’s flat surface. Conder is also showing
off the bravura of his paintbrush to suit the tone and energy
of the composition. He represents the calm waters with
long tinted veneers, the middle ground of rustling foliage
is made up of quick mosaic-like dabs, and the glare of the
sunrise bursts through the centre of the picture with thick and
weighty impasto.
Scene on the Epte carries an exceptional provenance and
exhibition history. It was first recorded to have been in the
collection of Mrs Cecil Lawson, Charles Conder’s sister-in-law,
a notable patron of the artist. It was exhibited in 1940 at the
National Gallery in London, and in 1967 it was included in a
show at the Sheffield City Art Galleries. This painting would
hang comfortably in any serious private or museum collection.
Petrit Abazi
1 Frank Mahony, ‘Australian Art: some representative artists’,
The Australian Star, Sydney, 26 December 1896, p. 7
2 Ann Galbally, Charles Conder: the last bohemian, The Miegunyah
Press, Melbourne University Press, Melbourne, 2002, p. 99