BERTRAM MACKENNAL (1863 - 1931) SALOME, 1897 bronze 29.0 cm height 32.5 cm (inc. base) signed at base: B. MACKENNAL inscribed with title at base: SALOME original black marble base PROVENANCE Macqaurie Galleries, Sydney Dr Jean Campbell, Sydney and Canberra McClelland Collection, McClelland Sculpture Park and Gallery, Langwarrin, acquired from the above on 24 June 1992 EXHIBITED Summer Exhibition, Royal Academy of Arts, London, UK, May 1897, cat. 2053 (another example) Bertram Mackennal sculpture from the Stawell Gallery, National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne, February 1901 (another example) First Exhibition of Statuettes by the Sculptors of To-day, British and French, Fine Art Society, London, UK, 1902, cat. 37 (another example) Exhibition of bronzes by Sir Bertram Mackennal K.C.V.O., R.A., Macquarie Galleries, Sydney, 7 – 20 October 1926, cat. 18 (another example) Exhibition of Bronzes by Sir Bertram Mackennal K.C.V.O., R.A., Fine Art Society’s Gallery, Melbourne, 16 – 29 May 1928, cat. 7 (another example) Memorial exhibition of statuettes by the Late Sir Bertram Mackennal, K.C.V.O, Fine Art Society’s Gallery, Melbourne, May 1932, cat. 21 (another example) Commemorative Exhibition of Works by Late Members, Winter Exhibition, Royal Academy of Arts, London, UK, 7 January – 11 March 1933, cat. 586 (another example) British Sculpture 1850 – 1914, Fine Art Society, London, UK, 30 September – 30 October 1968, cat. 108 (another example) S.H. Ervin Memorial Exhibition, S.H. Ervin Gallery, Sydney, 18 May – 17 December 1979, cat. 34 (illus. in exhibition catalogue p. 2, another example) Treasures of the National Trust, S.H. Ervin Gallery, Sydney, 5 March – 26 April 1982, cat. 89 (another example) Renaissance References in Australian Art, University Gallery, University of Melbourne, Victoria, 14 August – 20 September 1985, cat. 9 (illus. in exhibition catalogue p. 9, another example) Australian Sculpture 1890 – 1919, Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney, 22 January – 22 February 1987 (another example) The New Sculpture in Australia: Australian Art Nouveau Sculpture, McClelland Gallery, Langwarrin, 3 May – 5 June 1987, cat. 7 (another example) Bertram Mackennal: The Fifth Balnaves Sculpture Project, Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney, 17 August – 4 November 2007; and touring to National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne, 30 November 2007 – 24 February 2008 (another example) LITERATURE Australasian Antique Collector, no. 20, 1980, cover (illus., another example), p. 51 (illus., another example) Peer, J., ,Angels, Harlots and Nymphs: Some themes in Australian Allegorical sculpture,, Art and Australia, vol. 25, no. 2, Summer 1987, p. 214 McCulloch, A., and McCulloch, S., The Encyclopedia of Australian Art, Allen & Unwin, Sydney, 1994, p. 455 (illus., another example) Tranter, R. R., Bertram Mackennal: A Career, Parker Pattinson Publishing, New South Wales, 2004, cat. 40, pp. 44, 130 Edwards, D., Bertram Mackennal, Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney, 2007, pp. 5 (illus., another example), 47, 114, 115 (illus., another example), 148, 172, and catalogued in accompanying CD–ROM RELATED WORK Other examples of this work are held in the collections of the Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney, the National Gallery of Australia, Canberra, the Art Gallery of Western Australia, Perth, and the Ian Potter Museum of Art, University of Melbourne, Victoria ESSAY We are grateful to Brenda Martin Thomas, wife of the late David Thomas AM, for kindly allowing us to reproduce David,s writing in this catalogue entry. The legend of Salome derives from the Gospels of Matthew (14: 3 – 11) and Mark (6: 17 – 18). Both tell of Salome, daughter of Herodias (wife of Herod Antipas), whose dance so pleased her stepfather (who was also her uncle) that he promised her whatever she desired as a reward. At the bidding of her mother, who was fuelled by a vendetta, Salome requested the head of St John the Baptist on a dish. During the 1890s, Bertram Mackennal’s mind was very much occupied, like many of the best fin de siècle artists and writers, with the femme fatales of both his time and of past ages – smart, alluring women capable of persuasion and emasculation. While his several portrayals of Sarah Bernhardt – the living image of that mesmerisingly seductive woman – included her in the role of Cleopatra, and a bold bronze relief in the collection of the Art Gallery of New South Wales, his interest in the power of womanhood also extended to include Eve and several versions of Queen Victoria. As noted elsewhere, Circe too made her dramatic appearance, and he rounded off the decade with that marvellous marble bust of Dame Nellie Melba of 1899 now in the collection of the National Gallery of Victoria through the generosity of the diva herself. Salome, that tantalising femme fatale from the Bible was a particular favourite in late nineteenth century Paris, epitomising the femme fatale of the past as Bernhardt did of the present. Gustave Moreau painted a number of famous versions, and friend and compatriot Rupert Bunny produced a colour monotype of Salome in 1898 showing the direct influence of Oscar Wilde’s infamous one act play, Salomé. Wilde wrote his play in French in 1891, expanding upon the verses from the New Testament and accentuating the dance by which Salome seduces and manipulates her lust-crazed stepfather/uncle . It was first published in French in 1893, with the English translation appearing the following year accompanied by the sinuously brilliant drawings of Aubrey Beardsley. Obligingly, as if to add to the public interest in and promotion of Salome and Wilde’s play, the 1892 rehearsals for its London debut were stopped by the Lord Chamberlain. Eventually it premiered in Paris in 1896. The subject was ripe for exploitation and Mackennal responded, his bronze statuette being cast in Paris that same year. When translating the story of Salome into paint and print, artists usually confronted this stepdaughter of Herod Antipas with the decapitated head of John the Baptist. The delight of her mother Herodias was contrasted with the horror of Herod, who had unwisely offered to grant Salome’s wish in reward for her dance of the seven veils. Here however, Mackennal chose to focus on the seductively naked body of Salome, the only reference to the beheading being the broad-bladed sword she holds behind her back as an allusion her destructive power. DAVID THOMAS
BERTRAM MACKENNAL (1863 - 1931) TRUTH, 1894 bronze 61.0 cm height signed at base: MACKENNAL dated and inscribed with title at base: JUNE 12 - 1894 LONDON / TRUTH PROVENANCE Collection of the artist Thence by descent Pippin Drysdale, Perth Sotheby,s, Sydney, 22 April 2008, lot 57 Company collection, Melbourne Deutscher and Hackett, Sydney, 1 September 2010, lot 26 McClelland Collection, McClelland Sculpture Park and Gallery, Langwarrin, acquired from the above through the Elisabeth Murdoch Sculpture Fund EXHIBITED The Royal Glasgow Institute of Fine Arts, Glasgow, Scotland, 1905, cat. 848 (another example) The Franco-British Exhibition, London, UK, 1908, cat. 1402 (another example) Exhibition of bronzes by Sir Bertram Mackennal K.C.V.O., R.A., Macquarie Galleries, Sydney, 7 – 20 October 1926, cat. 9 (another example) Exhibition of Bronzes by Sir Bertram Mackennal, Fine Art Society’s Gallery, Melbourne, 16 – 29 May 1928, cat. 3 (another example) Commemorative Exhibition of Works by Late Members, Winter Exhibition, Royal Academy of Arts, London, UK, 7 January – 11 March 1933, cat. 82 (another example) 150 Years of Australian Art, Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney, 27 January – 25 April 1938, cat. 168 (another example) Early Australian Sculpture: From its Beginnings up to circa 1920, Ballarat Fine Art Gallery, Victoria, December 1976 – 15 March 1977, cat. 29 (another example) Australian Sculpture 1890 – 1919, Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney, 22 January – 22 February 1987 (another example) Australian icons: twenty artists from the collection, Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney, 4 August – 3 December 2000 (another example) Bertram Mackennal: The Fifth Balnaves Sculpture Project, Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney, 17 August – 4 November 2007; and touring to National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne, 30 November 2007 – 24 February 2008 (another example) LITERATURE Art in Australia, Series 3, no. 57, 15 November 1934, p. 44 (illus., another example) Australasian Antique Collector, no. 20, 1980, cover (illus., another example) Tranter, R. R., Bertram Mackennal: A Career, Parker Pattinson Publishing, New South Wales, 2004, cat. 27, pp. 43 – 44, 53, 100, 125 Edwards, D., et al., Bertram Mackennal, Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney, 2007, pp. 2 (illus., detail), 36, 37 (illus., another example), 47, and catalogued in accompanying CD-ROM RELATED WORK Other examples of this work are held in the collections of the Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney, the National Gallery of Australia, Canberra, the Art Gallery of South Australia, Adelaide and the Queensland Art Gallery | Gallery of Modern Art, Brisbane ESSAY ‘Truth holds her mirror outwards on her breast for the entire world to see what may be reflected there. The little statuette is very finely finished and has been rightly and abundantly admired.’1 Widely acclaimed among the masterpieces of Mackennal’s oeuvre such as Circe (lot 4), Daphne, Victory and Salome (lot 6), Truth, 1894 eloquently encapsulates the Australian sculptor’s fluency in the radical style of late nineteenth-century British ‘New Sculpture’ with its Symbolist, Art Nouveau and Classicist tendencies and abiding interest in allegorical female imagery. Continuing a literary tradition that had long personified Truth as a naked woman, thus Mackennal here gives sculptural form to the idiomatic expression ‘naked truth’, thematising the attribute as a psychological act. As Deborah Hart elaborates, ‘…the figure’s nakedness [is] a metaphor for ‘unclothed’ truth, the tautness of her body carrying resonances of Circe’s force and sternness, her face frank, fearless and earnest, and her wings indicative of a being with the moral authority of a higher realm. Like Circe, her gesture extends to the imagined viewer. Truth holds up a burnished disc which reflects a reality incapable of compromise…’2 Furthermore, with its self-conscious connection to Circe, and its burnished surfaces and idealised naturalism evoking the then well-established neo-Florentine tendencies of British sculpture, Truth powerfully demonstrated those means – poetic, allegorical, decorative, classicist – by which Mackennal would ultimately rise to the uppermost ranks of early twentieth-century sculptors.3 Significantly, such embodiment of truth and its application in real life held particular resonance for Mackennal during these years, and it is not fanciful to suggest that the statuette was created by the young artist as a rebuke to the art establishments of Melbourne and London. Indeed, three years prior in 1891 while Mackennal was in Melbourne after studies in Paris and London, he had famously entered his Triumph of Truth, 1891 – a monumental achievement in the French Beaux-Arts style – into a competition for a major sculpture to adorn the front of the National Gallery of Victoria. To Mackennal’s great disappointment, his entry received only the faint praise of a second prize with no first being awarded as the Trustees considered that none of the designs proffered were worthy of the commission. The public outcry was loud, with many (including the famed French actress Sarah Bernhardt who was touring Melbourne at the time) considering the verdict both an insult to Mackennal and an indication of how poorly European avant-garde art was understood in Australia.4 Encouraging him to seek acceptance in a more international, cosmopolitan market, thus Bernhardt and a group of wealthy Melbourne patrons provided financial support for Mackennal to return to Paris where he did finally receive that elusive recognition. In 1892, two sculptures were accepted into the Paris Salon, and in 1893, his life-sized, Symbolist-inspired Circe received an esteemed mention honorable from the Salon Jury. The following year, his seductive sorceress was accepted for the summer exhibition of the Royal Academy of Arts, London, making him the first Australian artist to exhibit there – although the overt sexuality of the pedestal frieze depicting tumbling orgiastic nudes was too much for the prudish sensibilities of the hanging committee and the work was accordingly placed on display with the base covered. Not surprisingly, both the quality of the work and the cause célèbre of its censorship guaranteed the young artist notoriety, and his career was launched. Modelled in London in 1894 and cast in bronze in Paris around 1897 – 98, Truth was notably conceived and first editioned as a token of appreciation for those wealthy Melburnians who had generously initiated a trust fund to enable Mackennal and his family to live and work in Paris from 1892 onwards. Perhaps not coincidentally, the sculpture echoed the subject of his original, failed entry for the National Gallery of Victoria commission – with the choice of truth no doubt a veiled allusion to the ‘rightness’ of both Mackennal’s art and those far-sighted patrons. Notably, when one such supporter, Mr Frank Stuart, clothing manufacturer, land speculator and politician, subsequently displayed Truth in the window of Allen’s music shop in Collins Street, Melbourne in October 1897, it represented the first mature example of Mackennal’s sculpture to be seen by ordinary Melburnians who could not afford to travel abroad to Britain and the continent. Art critics were unanimously ecstatic about not only the sculptor’s unparalleled talent, but the charisma and presence of the statuette itself, celebrating the work as a touchstone to the exceptional career that was unfolding half a world away.5 ‘The expression on the face is frank, fearless and earnest, and the pose carries the same idea, heightened perhaps by an indefinable suggestion of sternness, even defiance. That the modelling is faultless need scarcely be said… around the base are mythological heads, beautifully executed, and every detail is worked out perfectly.’6 Without doubt, Mackennal had a special fondness for Truth, featuring casts in a number of prominent exhibitions at all stages of his career including his solo exhibition at the National Gallery of Victoria in 1901; the groundbreaking First Exhibition of statuettes by sculptors of Today, English and French sculpture for the home at the Fine Arts Society, London in 1902; the Royal Glasgow Institute of Fine Arts and the Royal Scottish Academy exhibition in Edinburgh in 1925; and the sell-out Macquarie Galleries exhibition in Sydney in 1926. Poignantly, Truth also appeared in the two memorial exhibitions for Mackennal upon his death – namely, a commercial show at the London Fine Arts Society, and the loan exhibition at the Royal Academy.7 1. The Sun, Melbourne, 29 October 1897, p. 13 2. Edwards, D., Bertram Mackennal, Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney, 2007, p. 37 3. ibid. 4. See Peers, J., catalogue entry for lot 81, in Bonhams, Important Australian Art From the Collection of Reg Grundy AC OBE and Joy Chambers-Grundy, Sydney, 26 June 2013 5. ibid. 6. Table Talk, Melbourne, 29 October 1897, p. 4 7. Peers, op. cit. VERONICA ANGELATOS
BERTRAM MACKENNAL (1863 - 1931) CIRCE, c.1902 – 04 bronze 57.0 cm height signed at base: B. MACKENNAL inscribed at base: KIP KH original black marble base PROVENANCE Private collection, Cologne Deutscher~Menzies, Sydney, 10 December 2008, lot 38 Company collection, Melbourne Deutscher and Hackett, Sydney, 1 September 2010, lot 25 McClelland Collection, McClelland Sculpture Park and Gallery, Langwarrin, acquired from the above EXHIBITED The Royal Glasgow Institute of Fine Arts, Glasgow, Scotland, 1905, cat. 854 (another example) The Franco-British Exhibition, London, UK, 1908, cat. 1305 (another example) Victorian Artists Society Exhibition, Athenaeum Hall, Melbourne, October 1910, cat. 1 (another example) International Fine Arts Exhibition, Rome, Italy, 1911 (another example) Exhibition of bronzes by Sir Bertram Mackennal K.C.V.O., R.A., Macquarie Galleries, Sydney, 7 – 20 October 1926, cat. 10 (another example) Exhibition of Bronzes by Sir Bertram Mackennal, Fine Art Society’s Gallery, Melbourne, 16 – 29 May 1928, cat. 4 (another example) Memorial exhibition of statuettes by the Late Sir Bertram Mackennal, K.C.V.O, Fine Art Society's Gallery, Melbourne, May 1932, cat. 26 (another example) Commemorative exhibition of works by late members, Winter Exhibition, Royal Academy, London, UK, 7 January – 11 March 1933, cat. 98 (another example) British Sculpture 1850 – 1914, Fine Art Society, London, UK, 30 September – 30 October 1968, cat. 106 (another example) Early Australian sculpture, from its beginnings up to circa 1920, Ballarat Fine Art Gallery, Victoria, December 1976 – 15 March 1977, cat. 20 (another example) Australian Sculpture 1890 – 1919, Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney, 22 January – 22 February 1987 (another example) The New Sculpture in Australia: Australian Art Nouveau Sculpture, McClelland Gallery, Langwarrin, 3 May – 5 June 1987, cat. 3 (another example) Stampede of the Lower Gods: Classical Mythology in Australian Art 1890s – 1930s, Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney, 19 October – 26 November 1989 (another example) Reverie, myth, sensuality: sculpture in Britain 1880 – 1910, City Museum and Art Gallery, Stoke-on-Trent, UK, 26 September – 29 November 1992 (another example) Australian icons: twenty artists from the collection, Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney, 4 August – 3 December 2000 (another example) Exposed: The Victorian Nude, Tate Britain, London, UK, 1 November 2001 – 13 January 2002; and touring (another example) Bertram Mackennal: The Fifth Balnaves Sculpture Project, Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney, 17 August – 4 November 2007; and touring to National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne, 30 November 2007 – 24 February 2008 (another example) Edwardian opulence: British art at the dawn of the twentieth century, Yale Center for British Art, New Haven, USA, 28 February – 2 June 2013, cat. 89 (another example) Archie Plus, Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney, 26 September 2020 – 7 March 2021 (another example) LITERATURE Spielmann, M. H., British Sculpture and Sculptors of Today, Cassel, London, 1901, p. 134 Moore, W., The Story of Australian Art, Angus & Robertson, Sydney, 1934, vol. 1, p. 202 (illus., another example) Badham, H., A Study of Australian Art, Currawong Publishing, Sydney, 1949, p. 136 Badham, H., A Gallery of Australian Art, Currawong Publishing, Sydney, 1954, pl. 101 (illus., another example) McCulloch, A., Encyclopedia of Australian Art, Hutchinson, Richmond, 1968, p. 662 Cooper, J., Nineteenth-Century Romantic Bronzes, David and Charles, London, 1975, p. 92 Flower, C., Erotica: Aspects of The Erotic in Australian Art, Sun Books, Melbourne, 1977, pp. 24 – 25 (illus., another example) Sturgeon, G., The Development of Australian Sculpture 1788 – 1975, Thames & Hudson, London, 1978, pp. 64, 65 (illus., another example) Scarlett, K., Australian Sculptors, Nelson, Melbourne, 1980, p. 405 Clark, J., et al., Golden Summers: Heidelberg and beyond, ICCA, Sydney, 1985, p. 181 (illus., another example) Peer, J., ,Angels, Harlots and Nymphs: Some themes in Australian Allegorical sculpture, Art and Australia, vol. 25, no. 2, Summer 1987, pp. 213 (illus., another example), 214 Thomas, D. (ed.), Creating Australia: 200 years of art 1788 – 1988, ICCA, Sydney, 1988, p. 129 (illus., another example) Lane, T., Nineteenth Century Australian Art in the National Gallery of Victoria, National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne, 2003, pp. 116 – 117 (illus., another example) Tranter, R. R., Bertram Mackennal: A Career, Parker Pattinson Publishing, New South Wales, 2004, cat. 26, pp. 57, 100, 124 – 125 Edwards, D., et. al., Bertram Mackennal, Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney, 2007, cover (illus., another example), pp. 30 (illus., another example), 31 – 34, 168 – 171, 211 (illus., detail), and catalogued in accompanying CD–ROM Trumble, A., and Wolk Rager, A. (eds), Edwardian opulence: British art at the dawn of the twentieth century, Yale University Press, New Haven, 2013, cat. 89, pp. 349 (illus., another example), 351, 410 Grishin, S., Australian art: a history, The Miegunyah Press, Victoria, 2013, pl. 17.5, pp. 166, 167 (illus., another example), 548, 564 RELATED WORK Circe, 1893, bronze, 240.0 x 79.4 x 93.4 cm, in the collection of National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne, Felton Bequest, 1910 Other examples of this statuette are held in the collections of the Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney, the National Gallery of Australia, Canberra, the Art Gallery of South Australia, Adelaide, and the Art Gallery of Western Australia, Perth ESSAY We are grateful to Brenda Martin Thomas, wife of the late David Thomas AM, for kindly allowing us to reproduce David's writing in this catalogue entry. Bertram Mackennal portrays the sorceress Circe in the moment of casting a spell – awesome, ominous and dangerously all-powerful. Beguiled by the beauty of the sensuous curves and naked body, her pose is confrontational and commanding. Mackennal’s public presentation of his sculpture of Circe was a triumph, bringing him fame and recognition. Exhibited prominently in the Paris Salon ( Société des Artistes Français) of 1893, it received the added prestige of being illustrated in the catalogue. Not only were reviews highly favourable, Mackennal also received a mention honorable. Writing in the Revue des Deux Mondes, one French critic observed: ‘The tense, restrained, but triumphant beauty of the sorceress bears itself with a firm and elegant alertness which is free from all trace of vulgarity and all suggestion of the model: no small merit in our opinion at the present day’.1 The English critic, R. Jope-Slade, praised Circe for its ‘remarkable and distinctive individuality’. He continued: ‘This powerful woman with extended arms and drooping hands, and the serpent-filled tresses of a witch, stands erect, almost rigid in the pride of consciousness of the irresistible supremacy of her nudity; but form and face are devoid of voluptuousness, and her expression is one of scorn for her victims.’2 While the French had taken Circe in their stride, across the Channel at London’s Royal Academy she caused something of a sensation. Keen to show her in the 1894 exhibition, the prudish action of the hanging committee caused more than a sniff of scandal. Prominently displayed, they covered her base with a swathe of red baize to hide the erotic figuring, which Mackennal had described as ‘debased men and women who have drunk of Circe’s wine.’3 It had the opposite effect. Exciting the public’s imagination, it became the talk of the town. The tale of the ancient goddess Circe is drawn from the pages of Homer’s The Odyssey. Here we learn of her enticements, of turning men into wild beasts and Odysseus’ sailors into swine. Irresistible and all-conquering, Circe is the classic femme fatale, a fascination that gripped many of the creative minds of the fin de siècle. A memorable oil painting is Circe Invidiosa, painted in 1892 by the English artist J. W. Waterhouse (Art Gallery of South Australia). Favoured by the Symbolists, the femme fatale populated opera, Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov devoted a symphonic suite to Scheherazade, and Aubrey Beardsley, Richard Strauss and Oscar Wilde produced their own versions of Salome. These powerful figures also reflected contemporary interests in the women’s movement and the rise of feminine equality.4 As the century drew to a close, subjects from classical mythology grew in popularity, especially among the young Australian artists exhibiting in Paris and London. Rupert Bunny’s Tritons, c.1890 (Art Gallery of New South Wales) gained a mention honorable at the Salon of 1890 and is believed to have been purchased by Alfred Felton. Bunny also exhibited Pastoral, c.1893 (National Gallery of Australia) in the same 1893 Salon as Mackennal’s Circe. Other notables in that same Salon included John Longstaff’s The Sirens, 1892 and Aby Altson’s The Golden Age, 1893 (both in the collection of the National Gallery of Victoria). The latter also received a mention honorable. The life-sized sculpture of Circe, which Mackennal exhibited in the Paris Salon of 1893 and London’s Royal Academy of 1894, was made of plaster, cast from the clay model. In Paris in 1901, Mackennal had it cast in bronze, the sculpture subsequently being acquired by the National Gallery of Victoria through the Felton Bequest in 1910. In response to the popularity of the work, Mackennal produced an edition of statuettes, of which the work on offer is one, cast in bronze in Paris between 1902 and 1904. Another is in the collection of the Art Gallery of New South Wales, which produced, from the original bronze, a limited edition of 100, hand-cast in bonded bronze powder and polymer resin during 1997 – 98. They are inscribed and numbered on the base: ‘B. Mackennal AGNSW …/100 Kip KH’. At the time of completing Circe in 1893, Mackennal wrote to his Melbourne patron and friend Felix Meyer saying: ‘I feel that I am all in it… I put so much time, money and thought into my Circe…’5 Noted for its lively invention and technical excellence, indeed the sculpture’s blend of French and British aesthetics is seamless. Mackennal is seen at his brilliant best in his combination of naturalism and symbolism. Knighted in 1921, internationally he remains today one of Australia’s most successful artists. 1. ‘Les Salons des 1893: la Peinture au Champ du Mars et la Sculpture sans les deux salons’, Revue des Deux Mondes, vol. 118, July 1893, unpaginated, cited in Jope-Slade, R., ‘An Australian Quartette’, The Magazine of Art, London, 1895, vol. 18, p. 390 2. Jope-Slade, ibid. 3. Mackennal, B., Table Talk, Melbourne, 29 June 1894, p. 3 4. Lane, T., ‘An Homeric Goddess for The Modern Age: Circe 1893’, in Edwards, D. et al., Bertram Mackennal, Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney, 2007, p. 168 5. Mackennal letter to Felix Meyer, 12 April 1893, Felix Meyer papers, cited in Lane, op. cit. DAVID THOMAS
PROPERTY FROM A PRIVATE COLLECTION, VICTORIA BERTRAM MACKENNAL (1863-1931) Sappho (also known as Reflections) c1921 bronze on marble base 42.0 x 17.5 x 26.0 cm (including base) unique signed to base: Mackennal
EDGAR BERTRAM MACKENNAL (1863-1931) Vesta c.1900 bronze signed at base: MACKENNAL 22.5cm (height); 39.5cm (height, including base) PROVENANCE: McKenzies Auctioneers, Perth Private collection, Perth EXHIBITIONS: Bertram Mackennal: The Fifth Balnaves Sculpture Project, Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney, 17 August - 4 November 2007 (another example) LITERATURE: Edwards, D., Bertram Mackennal: The Fifth Balnaves Foundation Sculpture Project, Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney, 2007, (illus., another example), and Catalogue Raisonné in accompanying CD-ROM
MACKENNAL, Bertram (1863-1931) 'Circe,' 1893 (Cast 1997-8) Produced by the Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney, as a limited edition after the original bronze version. Inscribed to base 'B. Mackennal / AGNSW / 99/100 / KIP KH' Bonded Bronze Powder & Polymer Resin (ed. 99/100) H58cm
Sir Edgar Bertram Mackennal Australian 1863 - 1931 Salome signed: B. MACKENNAL, inscribed: LONDON and HOHWILLER - Fondeur / Paris and titled: SALOME bronze, on a polished black stone base bronze: 29cm., 11 3/8 in. base: 7cm., 2 3/4 in.
Bertram MacKennal (1863-1931) & Percy Metcalfe (1895-1947) Britain British Empire Exhibition Medallions: The Obverse: British Lion Sejant left before The Exhibition Buildings, 1924, The Obverse: Representations of Food, Housing & Transport, 1925, The Reverse on both: King George V Cast Bronze, Foundry The Royal Mint Initialled: PM
Bertram Mackennal (1863-1931) Salome, c.1895 signed, titled and inscribed to base: 'B MACKENNAL / LONDON / SALOME' bronze with marble base height: 33.0cm (13in). (including base) For further information on this lot please visit the Bonhams website
BERTRAM MACKENNAL (1863 – 1931) DIANA WOUNDED, 1905 bronze 36.5 cm height signed and dated at base: 1905 / B. Mackennal PROVENANCE Private collection, Melbourne Thence by descent Private collection, Melbourne EXHIBITED Royal Academy, London, 1906, cat. 1648 (another example) Bertram Mackennal: The Fifth Balnaves Sculpture Project, Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney, 17 August – 4 November 2007 (another example) LITERATURE Edwards, D., Bertram Mackennal: The Fifth Balnaves Sculpture Project, Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney, 2007, pp. 66 – 68, 116 – 118 (illus., p. 66, another example) RELATED WORK Diana Wounded, 1907 – 08, life-size marble version, Tate Gallery, London, acquired by the Chantrey Bequest, 1908 ESSAY The mythological tales of Diana, virgin huntress, inspired many artists over the centuries, Titian's painting Diana and Actaeon in London's National Gallery being one of the Renaissance master's greatest works. Bertram Mackennal's bronze Diana Wounded, 1905 is a far cry from Actaeon being torn to pieces by his own hounds. Moreover, she is stripped of her godly attributes, ‘her bow and hounds’, and presented as a blithe nude in her virgin splendour. Her contemporary appearance, as a nubile Edwardian beauty, has been commented on by several writers.1 Like his fellow Symbolists of the 1890s Mackennal portrayed the femmes fatales of his time: Sarah Bernhardt and the past Circe, 1893 (bronze, National Gallery of Victoria), and Salome, c.1895 (bronze, Art Gallery of New South Wales). Things changed in the first decade of the new century. His women became outwardly more genteel, though refinement did not reduce their considerable appeal. Diana, in Roman mythology, was the moon goddess of the hunt and birthing, equated with the Greek Artemis, daughter of Zeus and brother of the sun god Apollo. Jupiter gave Diana permission 'to live in perpetual celibacy' and, as 'the patroness of chastity', 'to shun the society of men'.2 Mythological references are avoided in Mackennal's bronze. Diana Wounded is even more tongue-in-cheek. The vicious Roman moon goddess in Ovid's Metamorphoses is inverted. It is she, not the quarry Damasichthon, son of Amphion and Niobe, who is injured in the leg'.3 Taking into account the association of Diana with 'heavenly' and 'divine', Mackennal carried this further. Divine in looks rather than status, she is a sight perilously tantalising to the mortal male. The action of bandaging her thigh, inspired by the more explicit sight of 'a model doing up her stocking', effectively enabled the artist to show off her bodily attributes without loss of modesty.4 This teasing play between the appealing and the unobtainable epitomised that beguiling blend of poise and pleasure so typical of la belle époque and its English Edwardian counterpart. Although calling freely upon ancient Greek and Roman sculptures of the goddess of love, Aphrodite and Venus, she is a thoroughly modern Edwardian maiden. Effectively using the contrapposto pose, Mackennal created an ideal image endowed with grace, but sensuous of modelling. When Mackennal made a marble life-sized version in 1907–08, he crowned Diana with her crescent moon. It was smartly acquired by the Chantrey Bequest and given to London's Tate Gallery in 1908. The Times called it 'one of the most beautiful nudes that any sculptor of the British school has produced'.5 The artist thought it one of his best works too. 1. Edwards, D., Bertram Mackennal: The Fifth Balnaves Sculpture Project, Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney, 2007, pp. 67–68 2. Lemprière, J., Lemprière's Classical Dictionary of Proper Names mentioned in Ancient Authors, Routledge and Kegan Paul Ltd, London, revised edition, 1972, p. 204 3. Hutchison, N., 'Here I am!'; sexual imagery and its role in the sculpture of Bertram Mackennal', in Edwards, op. cit., p. 116 4. ibid. 5.'The Royal Academy: second notice', Times, London, 8 May 1908, p. 6, quoted in Edwards, op. cit., p. 67 DAVID THOMAS
BERTRAM MACKENNAL (1863 – 1931) CIRCE, c.1902 – 04 bronze 57.0 cm height inscribed at base: KIP KH signed at base: B MACKENNAL PROVENANCE Dr J.J.C. Bradfield, Sydney, a gift from the artist, c. 1927 Thence by descent Edith Bradfield, Sydney Dr Stanley G. Bradfield, Sydney, a gift from the above c.1945 Thence by descent Enid Bradfield, Sydney Thence by descent Family collection, Canberra EXHIBITED The Royal Glasgow Institute of Fine Arts, Scotland, 1905, cat. 854 (another example) The Franco-British Exhibition, London, UK, 1908, cat. 1305 (another example) International Fine Arts Exhibition, Rome, 1911 (another example) The Royal Glasgow Institute of Fine Arts, Scotland, 1918, cat. 45 (another example) Exhibition of bronzes by Sir Bertram Mackennal K.CV.O., R.A., Macquarie Galleries, Sydney, 7 – 20 October 1926, cat. 10 (another example) Memorial exhibition of statuettes by the Late Sir Bertram Mackennal, K.C.V.O, Fine Arts Society Gallery, Melbourne, May 1932 (another example) Commemorative exhibition of works by late members, Winter Exhibition, Royal Academy, London, 7 January – 11 March 1933, cat. 98 (another example, lent by Lady Mackennal) British Sculpture 1850 – 1914, The Fine Art Society, London, 30 September – 30 October 1968, cat. 106 (another example) Spring exhibition. Recent Acquisitions, Joseph Brown Gallery, Melbourne, 18 – 29 October 1976, cat. 33 (another example) Early Australian sculpture, from its beginnings up to circa 1920, Ballarat Fine Art Gallery, Victoria, 15 March 1977, cat. 20 (another example) Spring exhibition 1979, Joseph Brown Gallery, Melbourne, 17 – 30 October 1979 (another example) Australian Sculpture 1890 – 1919, Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney, 22 January – 22 February 1987 (another example) Stampede of the Lower Gods: Classical Mythology in Australian Art 1890's-1930's, Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney, 19 October – 26 November 1989 Australian Art, Colonial to Contemporary, Deutscher Fine Art, Melbourne, May – June 1995, cat. 1128 (another example) Reverie, myth, sensuality: sculpture in Britain 1880 – 1910, City Museum and Art Gallery, Stoke-on-Trent, UK, 26 September – 29 November 1992 (another example) Australian icons: twenty artists from the collection, Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney, 4 August – 3 December 2000 (another example) Exposed: The Victorian Nude, Tate Britain, London, 1 November 2001 – 13 Jan 2002, and touring (another example) Bertram Mackennal: The Fifth Balnaves Sculpture Project, Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney, 17 August – 4 November 2007; National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne, 30 November 2007 – 24 February 2008 (another example) Edwardian opulence: British art at the dawn of the twentieth century, Yale Center for British Art, New Haven, USA, 28 February – 2 June 2013 (another example) Archie Plus, Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney, 26 September 2020 – 7 March 2021 (another example) LITERATURE Spielmann, M. H., British Sculpture and Sculptors of Today, Cassel, London, 1901, p. 134 Moore, W., The Story of Australian Art, vol. 1, Angus & Robertson, Sydney, 1934, p.202 (illus., another example) Badham, H., A Study of Australian Art, Currawong Publishing, Sydney, 1949, p. 136 Badham, H., A Gallery of Australian Art, Currawong Publishing, Sydney, 1954, pl. 101 (illus. another example) McCulloch, A., Encyclopedia of Australian Art, Hutchinson, Richmond, 1968, p. 662 Cooper, J., Nineteenth-Century Romantic Bronzes, David and Charles, London, 1975, p. 92 Flower, C., Erotica: Aspects of The Erotic in Australian Art, Sun Books, South Melbourne, 1977, pp. 24 – 25 (illus., another example) Sturgeon, G., The Development of Australian Sculpture 1788-1975, Thames and Hudson, London, 1978, pp. 64, 65 (illus., another example) Scarlett, K., Australian Sculptors, Nelson, Melbourne, 1980, p.405 Clark, J., et. al., Golden Summers: Heidelberg and beyond, ICCA, Sydney, 1985, p. 181 (illus. another example) Thomas, D., (ed.) Creating Australia: 200 years of art 1788-1988, ICCA, Sydney, 1988, p. 129 (illus. another example) Lane, T., Nineteenth Century Australian Art in the National Gallery of Victoria, NGV, Melbourne, 2003, pp. 116 – 117 (illus. another example) Edwards, D., et. al., Bertram Mackennal, Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney, 2007, pp. 30 (illus. and illus. cover, another example), 31 – 34, 168 – 71, 211 (illus. detail), and catalogue in accompanying CD–ROM Mendelssohn, J., 'Australian symbolism: the art of dreams', Art & Australia, Sydney, Summer 2012, p. 309 Trumble, A., and Wolk Rager, A. (eds), Edwardian opulence: British art at the dawn of the twentieth century, Yale University Press, New Haven, 2013, cat. 89, pp. 349 (illus., another example), 351, 410 Grishin, S., Australian art: a history, The Miegunyah Press, Victoria, 2013, pl. 17.5, pp. 166, 167 (illus. another example), 548, 564 RELATED WORK ESSAY Bertram Mackennal portrays the sorceress Circe in the moment of casting a spell – awesome, ominous and dangerously all-powerful. Beguiled by the beauty of the sensuous curves and naked body, her pose is confrontational and commanding. Mackennal’s public presentation of his sculpture of Circe was a triumph, bringing him fame and recognition. Exhibited prominently in the Paris Salon ( Société des Artistes Français) of 1893, it received the added prestige of being illustrated in the catalogue. Not only were reviews highly favourable, Mackennal also received a mention honorable. Writing in the Revue des Deux Mondes, one French critic observed: ‘The tense, restrained, but triumphant beauty of the sorceress bears itself with a firm and elegant alertness which is free from all trace of vulgarity and all suggestion of the model: no small merit in our opinion at the present day’.1 The English critic, R. Jope-Slade, praised Circe for its ‘remarkable and distinctive individuality’. He continued: This powerful woman with extended arms and drooping hands, and the serpent-filled tresses of a witch, stands erect, almost rigid in the pride of consciousness of the irresistible supremacy of her nudity; but form and face are devoid of voluptuousness, and her expression is one of scorn for her victims. 2 While the French had taken Circe in their stride, across the Channel at London’s Royal Academy she caused something of a sensation. Keen to show her in the 1894 exhibition, the prudish action of the hanging committee caused more than a sniff of scandal. Prominently displayed, they covered her base with a swathe of red baize to hide the erotic figuring, which Mackennal had described as ‘debased men and women who have drunk of Circe’s wine’3. It had the opposite effect. Exciting the public’s imagination, it became the talk of the town. The tale of the ancient goddess Circe is drawn from the pages of Homer’s The Odyssey. Here we learn of her enticements, of turning men into wild beasts and Odysseus’ sailors into swine. Irresistible and all conquering, Circe is the classic femme fatale, a fascination that gripped many of the creative minds of the fin-de- siècle. A memorable oil painting is Circe Invidiosa, painted in 1892 by the English artist J. W. Waterhouse (Art Gallery of South Australia). Favoured by the Symbolists, the femme fatale populated opera, Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov devoted a symphonic suite to Scheherazade, and Aubrey Beardsley, Richard Strauss and Oscar Wilde produced their own versions of Salome. These powerful figures also reflected contemporary interests in the women’s movement and the rise of feminine equality. 4 As the century drew to a close, subjects from classical mythology grew in popularity, especially among the young Australian artists exhibiting in Paris and London. Rupert Bunny’s Tritons c.1890 (Art Gallery of New South Wales) gained a mention honorable at the Salon of 1890 and is believed to have been purchased by Alfred Felton. Bunny also exhibited Pastoral c.1893 (National Gallery of Australia) in the same 1893 Salon as Mackennal’s Circe. Other notables in that same Salon included John Longstaff’s The Sirens 1892 and Aby Altson’s The Golden Age, 1893 (both in the collection of the National Gallery of Victoria). The latter also received a mention honorable. The life-sized sculpture of Circe, which Mackennal exhibited in the Paris Salon of 1893 and London’s Royal Academy of 1894, was made of plaster, cast from the clay model. In Paris in 1901 Mackennal had it cast in bronze, the sculpture subsequently being acquired by the National Gallery of Victoria through the Felton Bequest in 1910. In response to the popularity of the work, Mackennal produced an edition of statuettes, of which the work on offer is one, cast in bronze in Paris between 1902 and 1904. Another is in the collection of the Art Gallery of New South Wales, which produced, from the original bronze, a limited edition of 100, hand-cast in bonded bronze powder and polymer resin during 1997-1998. They are inscribed and numbered on the base: ‘B. Mackennal AGNSW …/100 Kip KH’. At the time of completing Circe in 1893, Mackennal wrote to his Melbourne patron and friend Felix Meyer saying: ‘I feel that I am all in it … I put so much time, money & thought into my Circe, …’.5 Noted for its lively invention and technical excellence, its blend of French and British aesthetics is seamless. Mackennal is seen at his brilliant best in his combination of naturalism and symbolism. Knighted in 1921, internationally he remains today one of Australia’s most successful artists. When Mackennal made a celebrated visit to Australia in 1926, he was treated like a hero, receiving a number of prestigious commissions. Chief among these came from the State Government of New South Wales to undertake the design and erection of a cenotaph in Sydney’s Martin Place. The work was supervised by the noted engineer Dr John Bradfield (1867-1943), acknowledged as the ‘father’ of modern Sydney through his leading roles on the Sydney Harbour Bridge and other major projects undertaken for the Department of Public Works over many years. Notable for Mackennal’s bronze figures of an Australian soldier and sailor, the Cenotaph was unveiled in February 1929. Seemingly as a gesture of appreciation arising from their professional association with the Cenotaph, Mackennal gave Bradfield one of his bronze statuettes of Circe, believed to be one of the eight cast between 1902-4. An artist’s gift of one of their works, especially one of their most celebrated, is something very special. This is particularly so for the statuette Circe on offer, distinguished ownership adding prestige, interest of association and value for the prospective collector. During his Sydney visit of 1926, Mackennal held a solo exhibition of his bronzes at the Macquarie Galleries. Another example of the bronze statuette Circe was included. The exhibition was a sell-out. 1. ‘Les Salons des 1893: la Peinture au Champ du Mars et al sculptures sans les deux salons, Revue des Deux Mondes, vol. 118, July 1893, unpaginated, quoted in Jope-Slade, R., ‘An Australian Quartette’, The Magazine of Art, London, 1895, vol. 18, p. 390 2. Jope-Slade, ibid. 3. Mackennal, B., Table Talk, Melbourne, 29 June 1894, p. 3 4. Lane, T., ‘An Homeric Goddess for The Modern Age: Circe 1893’, in Edwards, D., et al, Bertram Mackennal, Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney, 2007, p. 168 5. Mackennal letter to Felix Meyer, 12 April 1893, Felix Meyer papers, quoted in Lane, ibid DAVID THOMAS
SIR EDGAR BERTRAMMACKENNAL KCVO RA (Australian, 1863-1931) Sarah Bernhardt c.1892 bronze Signed Bertram Mackennal lower left, and inscribed with the sitter's name upper right, her monogram and motto "Quand même" upper left 44.5 x 42cm EXHIBITIONS: National Portrait Gallery, Canberra November 2011- March 2012 OTHER NOTES: Sarah Bernhardt (1844-1923) was acclaimed as the greatest actor of her generation and had roles created for her by some of the finest writers of her age. A global superstar, she ultimately performed at least 70 roles in some 125 productions, appearing in many countries across the globe, even Cuba and Samoa, and touring the USA alone nine times. She first appeared in Melbourne in May 1891, for weeks before which her visit to Australia had been the general and absorbing topic of conversation. At the time of her tour, Bertram Mackennal was the centre of a debate in the press over the worthiness of his entry in a competition for a major bronze figure group to be placed outside the National Gallery of Victoria. An accomplished sculptor herself, Bernhardt could see his significant talent and advised Mackennal to return to Paris as he was "buried alive" in Australia. He took her advice, becoming a good friend and created this relief the following year. Bernhardt is shown bust length in profile swathed in a frilled chemise looking towards a nude female figure holding the masks of comedy and tragedy.
Sir Edgar Bertram Mackennal KCVO RAA (1863-1931), 'Salome', bronze, base signed 'B Mackennal London' and inscribed with title, the base with two entwined snakes, 29cm high Born in Melbourne, Australia, Mackennal came to England in 1882. He studied in London and Paris, spending five years in the latter city and coming under the influence of French Symbolism and Romanticism. He spent the rest of his life working in London, though he frequently visited Australia and sculpted the portraits of many famous Australians of the early 20th century. He became a proponent of 'The New School of British Sculpture', exhibited at the Royal Academy from 1886, and was elected ARA in 1909 and RA in 1922. He was the first Australian artist to be knighted (1921). Apart from his heads and busts, Mackennal sculpted portrait reliefs and also the profiles of King George V used for coins, medals and postage stamps. His bronzes include a number of statuettes in the Symbolist manner, the most famous of which was Circe (honourable mention at the Salon of 1893) and She sitteth on a Seat in the High Places of the City. Examples of his work are in public collections: UK - Eton College, Royal Opera House, St Pauls Cathedral, Tate Gallery, London, Windsor Castle, Australia - University of Melbourne (Victoria) and the Art Gallery of New South Wales (Sydney).
Edgar Bertram Mackennal 1863 - 1931 'Dancer', after the original, 1907 Hand cast bronze powder and polymer AGNSW edition, stamped on base and dated 1997 Height: 42cm Indigenous Art
BERTRAM MACKENNAL, (1863-1931), SALOMÉ, c.1895, bronze SIGNED: signed at base: B. MACKENNAL inscribed at base: LONDON / SALOME DIMENSIONS: 28.5 cm height PROVENANCE: Private collection, France EXHIBITED: Summer Exhibition, Royal Academy, London, May 1897, cat. 2053 (another example) Bertram Mackennal sculpture from the Stawell Gallery, National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne, February 1901 (another example) Bertram Mackennal Retrospective Exhibition, Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney, 17 August 4 November 2007; National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne, 30 November 2007 24 February 2008 (another example, lent by the Art Gallery of Western Australia, Perth) LITERATURE: Edwards, D., Bertram Mackennal: The Fifth Balnaves Foundation Sculpture Project, Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney, 2007, pp. 5, 115 (illus., another example) RELATED WORK: Other examples of this work are held in the collections of the Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney, and the Art Gallery of Western Australia, Perth
BERTRAM MACKENNAL, (1863 – 1931), DIANA WOUNDED, 1905, bronze SIGNED: signed and dated at base: 1905 / B. Mackennal DIMENSIONS: 37.0 cm height PROVENANCE: Private collection, Sydney EXHIBITED: Royal Academy, London, 1906, cat. 1648 (another example) Bertram Mackennal: The Fifth Balnaves Sculpture Project, Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney, 17 August – 4 November 2007 (another example) LITERATURE: Edwards, D., Bertram Mackennal: The Fifth Balnaves Sculpture Project, Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney, 2007, pp. 66 – 68, 116 – 118 (illus., p. 66, another example) RELATED WORK: Diana Wounded, 1907 – 08, life-size marble version, Tate Gallery, London, acquired by the Chantrey Bequest, 1908 ESSAY: The mythological tales of Diana, virgin huntress, inspired many artists over the centuries, Titian's painting Diana and Actaeon in London's National Gallery being one of the Renaissance master's greatest works. Bertram Mackennal's bronze Diana Wounded, 1905 is a far cry from Actaeon being torn to pieces by his own hounds. Moreover, she is stripped of her godly attributes ‘her bow and hounds’ and presented as a blithe nude in her virgin splendour. Her contemporary appearance, as a nubile Edwardian beauty, has been commented on by several writers.1 Like his fellow Symbolists of the 1890s Mackennal portrayed the femme fatales of his time ‘Sarah Bernhardt’ and the past Circe, 1893 (bronze, National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne, Felton Bequest 1910), and Salome, c.1895 (bronze, Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney). Things changed in the first decade of the new century. His women became outwardly more genteel, though refinement did not reduce their considerable appeal. Diana, in Roman mythology, was the moon goddess of the hunt and birthing, equated with the Greek Artemis, daughter of Zeus and brother of the sun god Apollo. Jupiter gave Diana permission 'to live in perpetually celibacy' and, as 'the patroness of chastity', 'to shun the society of men'.2 Mythological references are avoided in Mackennal's bronze. ' Diana Wounded is even more tongue-in-cheek. The vicious Roman moon goddess in Ovid's Metamorphoses is inverted. It is she, not the quarry Damasichthon, son of Amphion and Niobe, who is injured in the leg'.3 Taking into account the association of 'Diana' with 'heavenly' and 'divine', Mackennal carried this further. Divine in looks rather than status, she is a sight perilously tantalising to the mortal male. The action of bandaging her thigh, inspired by the more explicit sight of 'a model doing up her stocking', effectively enabled the artist to show off her bodily attributes without loss of modesty.4 This teasing play between the appealing and the unobtainable epitomised that beguiling blend of poise and pleasure so typical of la belle époque and its English Edwardian counterpart. Although calling freely upon ancient Greek and Roman sculptures of the goddess of love, Aphrodite and Venus, she is a thoroughly modern Edwardian maiden. Effectively using the contrappostal pose, Mackennal created an ideal image endowed with grace, but sensuous of modelling. When Mackennal made a marble life-sized version in 1907 – 08, he crowned Diana with her crescent moon. It was smartly acquired by the Chantrey Bequest and given to London’s Tate Gallery in 1908. The Times called it 'one of the most beautiful nudes that any sculptor of the British school has produced'.5 The artist thought it one of his best works too. 1. Edwards, D., Bertram Mackennal: The Fifth Balnaves Sculpture Project, Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney, 2007, pp. 67 – 68 2. Lemprière, J., Lemprière's Classical Dictionary of Proper Names mentioned in Ancient Authors, Routledge
BERTRAM MACKENNAL (1863-1931) Edward VII c.1905 charcoal on paper signed and titled lower left: MACKENNAL / Edward VII date on label verso 45.5 x 37cm PROVENANCE: John Horace MacKennal, the artist's brother Thence by descent Private collection, Melbourne Menzies, Melbourne, 20 March 2014, lot 84 (label veso) Davidson Auctions, Sydney, 13 December 2015, lot 326 Private collection, Melbourne
BERTRAM MACKENNAL, (1863 – 1931), DIANA WOUNDED, 1905, bronze SIGNED: signed and dated at base: 1905 / B. Mackennal DIMENSIONS: 37.0 cm height PROVENANCE: Private collection, United Kingdom, acquired c.1933 Thence by descent Private collection, United Kingdom EXHIBITED: Royal Academy, London, 1906, cat. 1648 (another example) Bertram Mackennal: The Fifth Balnaves Sculpture Project, Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney, 17 August – 4 November 2007 (another example) LITERATURE: Edwards, D., Bertram Mackennal: The Fifth Balnaves Sculpture Project, Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney, 2007, pp. 66 – 68, 116 – 118 (illus., p. 66, another example) RELATED WORK: Diana Wounded, 1907 – 08, life-size marble version, Tate Gallery, London, acquired by the Chantrey Bequest, 1908 ESSAY: The mythological tales of Diana, virgin huntress, inspired many artists over the centuries, Titian's painting Diana and Actaeon in London's National Gallery being one of the Renaissance master's greatest works. Bertram Mackennal's bronze Diana Wounded, 1905 is a far cry from Actaeon being torn to pieces by his own hounds. Moreover, she is stripped of her godly attributes ‘her bow and hounds’ and presented as a blithe nude in her virgin splendour. Her contemporary appearance, as a nubile Edwardian beauty, has been commented on by several writers.1 Like his fellow Symbolists of the 1890s Mackennal portrayed the femme fatales of his time ‘Sarah Bernhardt’ and the past Circe, 1893 (bronze, National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne, Felton Bequest 1910), and Salome, c.1895 (bronze, Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney). Things changed in the first decade of the new century. His women became outwardly more genteel, though refinement did not reduce their considerable appeal. Diana, in Roman mythology, was the moon goddess of the hunt and birthing, equated with the Greek Artemis, daughter of Zeus and brother of the sun god Apollo. Jupiter gave Diana permission 'to live in perpetually celibacy' and, as 'the patroness of chastity', 'to shun the society of men'.2 Mythological references are avoided in Mackennal's bronze. ' Diana Wounded is even more tongue-in-cheek. The vicious Roman moon goddess in Ovid's Metamorphoses is inverted. It is she, not the quarry Damasichthon, son of Amphion and Niobe, who is injured in the leg'.3 Taking into account the association of 'Diana' with 'heavenly' and 'divine', Mackennal carried this further. Divine in looks rather than status, she is a sight perilously tantalising to the mortal male. The action of bandaging her thigh, inspired by the more explicit sight of 'a model doing up her stocking', effectively enabled the artist to show off her bodily attributes without loss of modesty.4 This teasing play between the appealing and the unobtainable epitomised that beguiling blend of poise and pleasure so typical of la belle époque and its English Edwardian counterpart. Although calling freely upon ancient Greek and Roman sculptures of the goddess of love, Aphrodite and Venus, she is a thoroughly modern Edwardian maiden. Effectively using the contrappostal pose, Mackennal created an ideal image endowed with grace, but sensuous of modelling. When Mackennal made a marble life-sized version in 1907 – 08, he crowned Diana with her crescent moon. It was smartly acquired by the Chantrey Bequest and given to London's Tate Gallery in 1908. The Times called it 'one of the most beautiful nudes that any sculptor of the British school has produced'.5 The artist thought it one of his best works too. 1. Edwards, D., Bertram Mackennal: The Fifth Balnaves Sculpture Project, Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney, 2007, pp. 67 – 68 2. Lemprière, J., Lemprière's Classical Dictionary of Proper Names mentioned in Ancient Authors, Routledge and Kegan Paul Ltd, London, revised edition, 1972, p. 204 3. Hutchison, N., 'Here I am!'; sexual imagery and its role in the sculpture of Bertram Mackennal', in Edwards, op. cit., p. 116 4. ibid. 5.'The Royal Academy: second notice', Times, London, 8 May 1908, p. 6, quoted in Edwards, op. cit., p. 67 DAVID THOMAS
BERTRAM MACKENNAL (1863-1931), Silence (also known as Goddess) c1894 BERTRAM MACKENNAL (1863-1931), Silence (also known as Goddess) c1894 bronze relief, 34.0 x 27.5 x 2.5 cm signed lower right: Bertram Mackennal, , Joseph Brown Gallery, Melbourne, 1978 Private collection, Perth Estate of the above Salon, Paris, 1894, no.3336 (another example) Royal Academy of Arts, London, 1895, no.1635 (another example) Spring Exhibition, Joseph Brown Gallery, Melbourne, 25 September - 9 October 1978, cat.35 (illus. exhibition catalogue) The New Sculpture in Australia, McClelland Gallery + Sculpture Park, Victoria, 3 May - 5 June 1987, cat.6 (another example)
BERTRAM MACKENNAL, (1863 – 1931), SALOMÉ, c.1895, bronze SIGNED: signed at base: B. MACKENNAL inscribed at base: LONDON / SALOME stamped inside base with E. Gruet Jeune Paris foundry mark DIMENSIONS: 28.5 cm height PROVENANCE: Jennmaur Gallery, San Francisco, USA Private collection, Sydney EXHIBITED: Summer Exhibition, Royal Academy, London, May 1897, cat. 2053 (another example) Bertram Mackennal sculpture from the Stawell Gallery, National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne, February 1901 (another example) Bertram Mackennal Retrospective Exhibition, Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney, 17 August – 4 November 2007; National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne, 30 November 2007 – 24 February 2008 (another example, lent by the Art Gallery of Western Australia, Perth) LITERATURE: Edwards, D., Bertram Mackennal: The Fifth Balnaves Foundation Sculpture Project, Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney, 2007, pp. 5, 115 (illus., other examples) RELATED WORK: Other examples of this work are held in the collections of the Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney, and the Art Gallery of Western Australia, Perth
BERTRAM MACKENNAL, (1863 1931), SALOMÉ, c.1895, bronze SIGNED: signed at base: B. MACKENNAL inscribed at base: LONDON / SALOME stamped inside base with E. Gruet Jeune Paris foundry mark DIMENSIONS: 28.5 cm height PROVENANCE: Private collection, France Thence by descent Private collection, France EXHIBITED: Summer Exhibition, Royal Academy, London, May 1897, cat. 2053 (another example) Bertram Mackennal sculpture from the Stawell Gallery, National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne, February 1901 (another example) Bertram Mackennal Retrospective Exhibition, Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney, 17 August 4 November 2007; National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne, 30 November 2007 24 February 2008 (another example, lent by the Art Gallery of Western Australia, Perth) LITERATURE: Edwards, D., Bertram Mackennal: The Fifth Balnaves Foundation Sculpture Project, Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney, 2007, pp. 5, 115 (illus., other examples)
BERTRAM MACKENNAL, (1863 1931), CIRCE, c.1902 04, bronze SIGNED: inscribed on base: KIP KH B MACKENNAL DIMENSIONS: 57.0 cm height PROVENANCE: Private collection, Melbourne Deutscher Fine Art, Melbourne Private collection, Melbourne EXHIBITED: Another statuette of Circe was included in Bertram Mackennal: The Fifth Balnaves Sculpture Project, Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney, 17 August 4 November 2007; National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne, 30 November 2007 24 February 2008 LITERATURE: References to Mackennal's Circe are too numerous to list. For the most recent see, Edwards, D., et. al., Bertram Mackennal, Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney, 2007, pp. 30 (illus. another example), 31 34, 168 71, 211 (illus. detail), and catalogue in accompanying CDROM ESSAY: Circe, Salomé and other femmes fatales captured the creative minds of many writers, artists and composers of the fin-de-siècle, and were a popular subject with the Symbolists. There was Medea, Cleopatra, Mallarmé's Hérodiade, Gustave Moreau's The Apparition, Franz von Stuck's The Sphinx, and Edvard Munch's The Vampire. Wagner's operas were heavily populated with such ladies, Rimsky-Korsakov composed his symphonic suite Schéhérazade in 1888, and Wilde, Beardsley and Strauss produced their own Salomés. Others, like Klimt, indulged in the sexually provocative Judith, and Delilah and the Sirensall had their day. Significantly, one of the most popular paintings in the Art Gallery of South Australia today is J. W. Waterhouse's Circe Invidiosa, pointing to ongoing interest in such themes that fascinated our forefathers. Bertram Mackennal's Circe is no exception, its outrageous London debut adding to its popularity and encouraging the production of an edition of statuettes. Symbolist interests were also embraced by Mackennal's Australian expatriate friends like Bunny with his witches, images of death, and mer folk, and Longstaff in his huge painting The Sirens of 1892, in the National Gallery of Victoria. Mackennal's life-sized Circe, centrally placed in the 1893 Paris Salon, gained an honorable mention and highly favourable reviews, followed by controversy when shown at London's Royal Academy in 1894. Noted for its blend of French and British aesthetics, technical excellence and invention, it established his European reputation. Writers of the time commented on its 'distinctive individuality'. The critic for the Revue des Deux Mondes, remarked The tense, restrained, but triumphant beauty of the sorceress bears itself with a firm and elegant alertness which is free from all trace of vulgarity and all suggestion of the model. While, on the other side of the Channel, it was the irresistible supremacy of her nudity and an expression of scorn for her victims that attracted attention.1 A supremely Symbolist work, more recent writers have commented on its absolute embodiment of female sexuality and power.2 Its brilliant combination of naturalism and symbolism shows Mackennal in full command of his creativity. Derived from Homeric myth, Circe is the unrivalled female temptress whose hypnotic beauty ensnares men and turns them into swine, a universal comment on the animal nature of man. Part of the fascination of Mackennal's interpretation lies in its blend of confronting sexuality, beguiling beauty and arresting power. The life-sized Circe was cast in bronze in Paris in 1901 and acquired by the National Gallery of Victoria in 1910 through the Felton bequest. The statuettes were cast in bronze in Paris between 1902 and 1904. 1. Quoted in Jope-Slade, R., 'An Australian Quartette', The Magazine of Art, London, 1895, vol. 18, p. 390 2. Read, B., 'Introduction', p. 11, and Lane, T., 'An Homeric goddess for the modern age: Circe 1893', p. 171, in Edwards, D., et. al., Bertram Mackennal, Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney, 2007 DAVID THOMAS
BERTRAM MACKENNAL, (1863 – 1931), DIANA WOUNDED, 1905, bronze SIGNED: signed and dated at base: 1905 / B. Mackennal DIMENSIONS: 37.0 cm height PROVENANCE: The Viscount Norwich and Lady Diana Cooper, United Kingdom Dreweatts and Bloomsbury, Newbury, United Kingdom, 16 November 2016, lot 116 Private collection, Sydney EXHIBITED: Royal Academy, London, 1906, cat. 1648 (another example) Bertram Mackennal: The Fifth Balnaves Sculpture Project, Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney, 17 August – 4 November 2007 (another example) LITERATURE: Edwards, D., Bertram Mackennal: The Fifth Balnaves Sculpture Project, Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney, 2007, pp. 66 – 68, 116 – 118, p. 66 (illus., another example) RELATED WORK: Diana Wounded, 1907 – 08, life-size marble version, Tate Gallery, London, acquired by the Chantrey Bequest, 1908
BERTRAM MACKENNAL, (1863 – 1931), VESTA, c.1900, bronze SIGNED: signed at base: MACKENNAL DIMENSIONS: 25.5 cm height PROVENANCE: The Viscount Norwich and Lady Diana Cooper, United Kingdom Dreweatts and Bloomsbury, Newbury, United Kingdom, 16 November 2016, lot 127 Private collection, Sydney EXHIBITED: Bertram Mackennal: The Fifth Balnaves Sculpture Project, Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney, 17 August – 4 November 2007 (another example) LITERATURE: Edwards, D., Bertram Mackennal: The Fifth Balnaves Foundation Sculpture Project, Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney, 2007, (illus., another example), and catalogue raisonné in accompanying CD-ROM RELATED WORK: Centrepiece for dining table 'Vesta', late 1980s – early 1900s, gilt bronze and alabaster, 65.0 cm height, private collection, in Edwards, D., Bertram Mackennal: The Fifth Balnaves Foundation Sculpture Project, Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney, 2007, pp. 34 – 35
Sir Edgar Bertram Mackennal, KCVO, RA (1863-1931), Vesta, bronze with dark brown patination, signed in the maquette, 23cm high, on a red viened marble plinth, 26cm high overall Sir Bertram Mackennal was one Sir Bertram Mackennal was one of the most significant Australian sculptors of the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Mackennal came to London aged nineteen to study at the Royal Academy Schools, and went from there to work briefly under Rodin in Paris. He made sculpture for war memorials and public buildings in London and Australia. He was knighted in 1921, after designing the tomb of Edward VII. It is possible that this is one of the bronzes described in Diana Cooper Autobiography , The Rainbow Comes and Goes , 1958, page 220. Diana describes various wedding gifts including Statuettes by Frampton, Mackennal and Reid Dick.... Provenance: Property of The Viscount Norwich and Lady Diana Cooper. Refer to the online PFD of the catalogue for further information (Lots 1 - 169)
Sir Edgar Bertram Mackennal, KCVO, RA (1863-1931), Diana Wounded, bronze with dark brown patination, signed and dated 1905 in the maquette, 37cm high, on a green viened marble plinth, 41cm high overall Sir Bertram Mackennal was one of the most significant Australian sculptors of the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Mackennal came to London aged nineteen to study at the Royal Academy Schools, and went from there to work briefly under Rodin in Paris. He made sculpture for war memorials and public buildings in London and Australia. He was knighted in 1921, after designing the tomb of Edward VII. Diana was the moon Goddess, so Mackennal gave her a crescent moon in her hair. She also hunted, hence 'Diana Wounded' ties a bandage to her leg. It is possible that this is one of the bronzes described in Diana Cooper Autobiography , The Rainbow Comes and Goes , 1958, page 220. Diana describes various wedding gifts including Statuettes by Frampton, Mackennal and Reid Dick.... Provenance: Property of The Viscount Norwich and Lady Diana Cooper. Refer to the online PFD of the catalogue for further information (Lots 1 - 169)
BERTRAM MACKENNAL 1863-1931 Diana Wounded 1905 bronze signed and dated '1905 / B. Mackennal' on base 37 x 15.5 x 12 cm PROVENANCE Private Collection, Sydney Private Collection, New South Wales, by descent from the above
BERTRAM MACKENNAL (1863-1931) , Sappho (possibly Reflections), c1921 bronze on marble base, 42.0 x 17.5 x 26.0 cm (including base), signed to base: Mackennal
BERTRAM MACKENNAL (1863-1931) , Decorative Metal Plates for Electric Light Switches, bronze (2), (i) 10.0 x 20.5 cm; (ii) 19.5 x 7.5 cm, (i) signed lower right: BM, inscribed lower left: RD 298553 (ii) signed lower left: BM inscribed lower right: RD 398555
BERTRAM MACKENNAL (1863-1931) , Diana Wounded, 1905 bronze with marble base, 43.0 x 18.0 x 14.0 cm (including base), signed and dated to base: 1905/Mackennal, stamped with foundry mark: E. Gruet Foundry, Paris
BERTRAM MACKENNAL (1863-1931) Morning (Woman Dressing her Hair) c1902 bronze 44.0 cm height signed to base: B. MACKENNAL stamped with foundry mark to base: E. Gruet/ JEUNE/ Fondeur/ Paris
BERTRAM MACKENNAL (1863-1931) Head of a Saint 1892 bronze relief 52.5 x 39.5 x 10.5 cm signed and inscribed lower left: B/E MacKen/Paris dated lower right: 1892 stamped with foundry mark: E. Gruet/ JEUNE/ Fondeur/ Paris
BERTRAM MACKENNAL (1863-1931) Peace c1896 bronze 20.0 cm height signed to base: B. MACKENNAL stamped with foundry mark to inside of base: E. Gruet/ JEUNE/ Fondeur/ Paris
MACKENNAL, Bertram (1863-1931) 'Edward VII'. Bertram Mackennal was the first Australian artist to be knighted, & sculpted statues of King Edward VII for London, Melbourne, Adelaide & Calcutta. Charcoal 46x37cm
