Lot 246: ROBERT PRENZEL (1866 - 1941) THE JANET LADY CLARKE CHAIR

ROBERT PRENZEL (1866 - 1941)
THE JANET LADY CLARKE CHAIR
the stylized art nouveau Australian chair, carved "in memory of Janet Lady Clarke the First President", surmounted by a domed cover relief carved ' for God and Country ' surmounted by a shield with the stars of the Southern Cross and a crown flanked by sprays of carved wattle, the side panels carved with a possum in an alcove above chamfered arms, the supports modelled as long stemmed Waratah boughs surmounted by flowerheads and leaves on a shaped platform base, the back carved "Founded 1904", the back panel of the seat stamped 'Robert Prenzel Toorak Road South Yarra European Labour only' chalk marks to back further read, in long hand script Australian Womens National League x city 26/1/40 2 stacks Safe on 2A landing sale';

74cm wide, 74cm deep, 228cm high

Born in Kittlitztreben, Prussia, in 1866, the great furniture designer and wood carver Robert Prenzel migrated to Australia as a young man in 1888, at the very peak of Marvellous Melbourne's socio-economic boom years. Initially working in florid but conventional neo-renaissance and neo-rococo modes, Prenzel was evidently deeply impressed by the stylistic developments showcased at the 1900 Paris Exposition Universelle: the exhibition's catalogue Meubles de style moderne is preserved in the artist's archive. In the early years of the 20 (th) century he began to adopt the whiplash tendrils and sinuous asymmetries of Louis Majorelle, Eugène Gaillard and other avant-garde European decorative artists. As he extended his repertoire and his reputation, Prenzel began to incorporate into his pieces not only native Australian timbers, but also motifs of indigenous flora and fauna: kangaroos and koalas, kookaburras and cockatoos were used as focus motifs for panels and pediments, within columns and arches formed by waratahs and eucalypts. Indeed, it is Prenzel's work which best fits the stylistic designation popularised by Terence Lane: 'gum-nut art nouveau.'[1]

Beginning with the 'Glenormiston Suite', commissioned by Steuart Black in 1905 for his eponymous Western District homestead, Prenzel's furniture ? wardrobes and dressing tables, staircases and overmantels ? soon became popular among Victoria's establishment families; 'his ledger at this time, with its liberal sprinklings of Blacks, Fairbairns, Manifolds, Millears, Russells, Staughtons and Weatherleys, reads like a social register.'[2] The ledger records that in 1914 Prenzel made a native willow pedestal for Robert (later Sir Robert) Knox, ordered on the occasion of Knox's marriage to Ivy Clarke, and this family and class patronage also resonates in the present work, a commission for the powerful conservative lobby group the Australian Women's National League.[3] The Founding President of the League was Janet Clarke (née Snodgrass), second wife and widow of landowner Sir William Clarke, and Ivy's mother. Lady Clarke was, like her husband, a substantial philanthropist, including among her benefactory memberships the Charity Organisation Society, the Austral Salon, the Melbourne District Nursing Society, the Talbot Epileptic Colony committee, the Alliance Française, the Dante Society, the Women's Hospital committee, the Hospital for Sick Children and the City Newsboys' Society. She was also engaged with political life, and was first President of the National Council of Women of Victoria before becoming President of the AWNL. Much loved for her charitable work, thousands of mourners attended Lady Clarke's funeral in 1909.

The Prenzel President's chair which bears Janet Lady Clarke's name is appropriately magnificent; indeed, throne is probably a better word for it. It is exemplary of the artist's mature style, both in its sturdy Arts and Crafts architecture and in its extravagant decoration: formal coat of arms, floral panels, curvilinear interlace abstract pattern, stretched and bulbous letter forms and two exquisitely-carved naturalistic possums as heraldic supporters. Stamped with the address of Prenzel's South Yarra workshop (occupied 1910-1930), this most impressive, imposing work was probably commissioned by Lady Clarke's sister (and her immediate successor as President), Eva Hughes, around 1920.

[1] See Terence Lane, 'Gum-nut art nouveau: a suite of furniture by Robert Prenzel', Art Bulletin of Victoria, 1973, pp. 24-34

[2] Terence Lane, Robert Prenzel 1866-1941: his life and work, Melbourne: National Gallery of Victoria, 1994, p. 19

[3] See Marian Quartly, 'The Australian Women's National League and democracy', Women's History Review, vol. 15 no. 1, 2006, pp. 35-50; and Judith Smart, '"Principles do not alter but the means by which we attain them change": the Australian Women's National League andpolitical citizenship 1921-1945', Women's History Review, vol. 15 no. 1, 2006, pp. 51-68