Lot 10: John Peter Russell (1858-1930)

John Peter Russell (1858-1930)
Entrance to a Fjord, Belle-Île
signed and inscribed 'L'Entrée d'une Fjord J.P. Russell 11 Villa Méquillet' on a label on the stretcher, with inscription 'John Russell 25F Belle Ile Entrée de la droite de Goulphar. Vue de la pointe des Levres No 62' on the Galerie G. Denis label on the stretcher, with inscription 'Gueye L'ENTRÉE D'UN FJORD SOIR 200' on the reverse of the frame
oil on canvas
21 x 31 5/8in. (53.5 x 80.5cm.)

Sydney, Art Gallery of New South Wales, Belle-Île Monet, Russell & Matisse in Brittany, 2001, no.19.

A. Galbally, The Art of John Peter Russell, Melbourne 1977, facing p.65, pl.xviii (illustrated in colour).
U. Prunster, Belle-Île Monet, Russell & Matisse in Brittany (AGNSW exhibition catalogue), Sydney, 2001, pp.35 and 126, cat. no.19 (illustrated in colour p.90).

with Galerie G. Denis, Paris (label on the stretcher).
Jeanne Jouve (the artist's daughter).
Mme Gueye (the artist's great-niece), France.
with the Joseph Brown Gallery, Melbourne (c.1967).
Private collection, Melbourne.
Anon. sale, Sotheby's Melbourne, 27 Nov. 1995, lot 112.
Private collection, Melbourne.

THE PROPERTY OF A PRIVATE COLLECTOR
VAT rate of 5% is payable on hammer price and at 17.5% on the buyer's premium
After studying in Paris at the Académie Cormon during the mid-1880s with fellow students who included Lautrec, van Gogh, Bernard, Anquetin, Laval and Hartrick, Russell moved to Belle-Île with his family in 1888. He had been to the island first in 1886 when his visit coincided with Monet's working sojourn there from September to November. The two artists met in September ('il est venu rôder hier autour de moi, pendant que je travaillais, et a fini par me demander si je n'étais pas Claude Monet (le prince des impressionistes): ça a été une grande joie pour lui. Il est gentil, et nous avons fait une promenade ensemble, et ce soir, je dine chez lui.' (Monet to Alice Hoschedé, Kervilahouen, 18 Sept, 1886) and Monet appears to have tutored Russell in the rudiments of his technique. Russell's decision to leave Paris in favour of Belle-Île was a turning point in his career. The rugged coastline provided the main source of imagery between 1886 and 1906, as he painted pictures of the everchanging sea and the weatherbeaten 'Côte Sauvage' of his island. Inspired by Monet, he became the only Australian artist to incorporate the tenets of French impressionism in his work in the late 19th century. The significant part of his career being spent overseas, none of this practice came to influence contemporary Australian painting, and he would be ignored by the Australian art establishment when he returned to Sydney in 1921.

The present picture of the coast near his house high up above the inlet on Port Goulphar shows Russell catching the evening light in his regular palette of ultramarine blues, emerald, purples, pinks and madder ('... Other studies of Port Goulphar and surroundings are more successful, if more cautious. In L'Entrée d'une Fjord ..., the colour oppositions of ultramarine and emerald are quite spectacular.' A. Galbally, op. cit., p.55). If many of his motifs he returns to time after time along the island's coast are similar to Monet's in 1886, 'the differences between Russell's approach and Monet's can also be seen; Russell goes back and reworks compositions, even years later. Coast in blue, like My friend Polite, 1900 ... and Entrance to a fjord, Belle-Île, (1890s) ..., have all been reworked. The surfaces are sometimes uneven in texture, paint transparency and reflections as a result. The second thoughts seem to indicate the artist's dissatisfaction with the colour or compositional balance, and a desire to strengthen one or both. The mysterious, almost enamel-like emeralds and deep purples that blaze out of the dark shadows that cut into this fjord, ... the unusual green-pink sky behind his blue coast -- are all specific colour effects he exaggerates, expressively and deliberately for emphasis.' (U. Prunster, op. cit., p.35)