JOHN PETER RUSSELL

Of the many Australian artists who were part of the international impressionist movement, John Peter Russell is the closest to the French in style. Born in Sydney, his eventual financial independence enabled him to follow his creative interests without hindrance, studying at the Slade School in London, and later in Paris at Cormon's Academy. His close friendship with Vincent van Gogh, whose portrait by Russell is in the Rijksmuseum Vincent van Gogh, Amsterdam, and Auguste Rodin, whose model, the very beautiful Mariette Mattiocco, became the first Mrs Russell, placed him in close contact with the Parisian avant garde during the last decades of the nineteenth century. At Belle-Ile, off the coast of Brittany, he worked for a time with Claude Monet - ‘the prince of the impressionists' as Russell called him.

The Russells settled at Belle-Ile in 1888 and built 'Le Château de l'Anglais' above the inlet of Goulphar looking out on to the Atlantic in all its moods. Here, in the isolation of the island, the artist devoted himself to his work and to the family that soon grew around him. He also delighted in entertaining such visiting fellow artists as John Longstaff, Bertram Mackennal, Rodin and Henri Matisse. To the islanders, Russell was the seigneur, and for his family, the patriarch. The Russell family included his daughter, the flaxen- haired Jeanne, and numerous, high spirited sons, 'long of limb, naked, brown skinned'.¹  They enjoyed the freedom of their island life and the naturalness of their of their nakedness. Russell encouraged their independence – Alain was a favourite among the fishermen and joined the crews on their pursuits. The boys, like their father, were champion swimmers. Oft times the three eldest sons were required as be models, blistered by the heat of the sun on Goulphar beach as they posed for their father's paintings. Here the three figures are set against the sea they all loved, the model yachts at their feet providing a symbolic addition. Russell was an experienced yachtsman and built his own vessel at Belle-Ile. His sons were also natural boatmen.

In the years on either side of the turn of the century, subjects of bathers and figures on the beach were popular subjects in French and Australian art. Paintings by Monet and Renoir come to mind. In Australia, the impressionist painters, especially Tom Roberts, Arthur Streeton and Charles Conder, created many a masterpiece on the shores of Port Phillip Bay and Sydney Harbour. There were also the expatriates Phillips Fox and Rupert Bunny whose canvases addressed moments of relaxation on the sands at popular French bathing resorts, styled in the fashions of la belle époque.

Another important but slightly smaller painting by Russell of his sons on the beach, Les fils du peintre jouant avec une crabe, is now in the Musée Rodin, Paris.² Here in the present painting he demonstrates his most daring impressionist technique with its brilliant palette, high-keyed and pure of hue, and rapid brushwork. The scene almost shimmers with sunlight and warmth. There is a sense of freedom in the mood of the painting that is underlined by Russell’s employment of separate, impressionist brush strokes. This is not a portrait but an epitome of summer and gilded youth.

We are most grateful to Dr Ann Galbally for assistance in cataloguing this work.

1. Salter, E., The Lost Impressionist: A Biography of John Peter Russell, Angus and Robertson (UK), London, 1976, p.137.
2. Galbally, A., The Art of John Peter Russell, Sun Books, Melbourne, pl. i. Dr Galbally’s new study of Russell’s art and in particular his relationship with van Gogh and the French impressionists is forthcoming.