Footnotes

PROVENANCE
Sir Charles Snodgrass Ryan, Melbourne
thence by descent
Mr Rupert Sumner Ryan, Melbourne
thence by descent
Lady Ethel Marian (Maie) Casey, Melbourne
thence by descent
Private collection, Melbourne

EXHIBITED
John Longstaff, Old Court Gallery, Melbourne, August 1898

LITERATURE
'Mr John Longstaff's Pictures', The Argus, Melbourne, 3 August 1898, p. 6
'An Australian Artist, Mr John Longstaff's Pictures', Melbourne Punch, Melbourne, 4 August 1898, p. 5
'John Longstaff's Exhibition', Table Talk, Melbourne, 5 August 1898, p. 13
J.D. Fitzgerald, 'John Longstaff, Portrait Painter, The Lone Hand, Sydney, 1 June 1908, p. 114
'Death of Sir John Longstaff', The Argus, Melbourne, 2 October 1941, p. 3
'Death of Sir John Longstaff', The Advertiser, Adelaide, 2 October 1941, p. 8
Prue Joske, Debonair Jack: A Biography of John Longstaff, 1861 - 1941, Claremont, Melbourne, 1994, p. 32 (illus.), 72


In 1887 John Longstaff won the National Gallery of Victoria's inaugural travelling scholarship for his narrative painting 'Breaking the News', 1887, (in the collection of the National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne). Longstaff and his new wife, Rosa Louisa (Topsy) Crocker, whom he had impulsively married in the lead up to their departure, arrived into Paris in January 1888 where they were met by fellow compatriot and artist John Peter Russell.

Longstaff became absorbed in his new life in the centre of the artistic world. Like many of his contemporaries, the lure of art schools, frequent exhibitions showing the latest artistic trends and the prospects of sales drew the avant-garde to Paris. However, unlike many of the carefree artists, Longstaff had several commitments. One of the terms of the travelling scholarship required Longstaff to paint two Old Master copies for the National Galleries collection. Longstaff's first choice was Titian's Entombment of Christ, c.1888, which was highly commended upon its arrival in Australia. For his second copy, after Diego Velazquez's Aesopus, 1890, Longstaff spent three months in Spain studying the artist whose careful craftsmanship and subtle dark tonalities remained a major influence on his portraiture.

Longstaff returned to Melbourne in 1895, to the most severe economic depression in Australian history. 'Thirty-four-year-old John decided that the best means of earning enough money to support his family lay in portrait painting... Portraiture had special appeal for John, already noted for technical virtuosity and skill as a copyist. As most patrons want representational work, portraiture is inherently conservative which also suited John's personality and tastes.'1 Whilst the economic recession of the mid 1890s meant commissions were slow, his previous seven years in Europe had consolidated his position as Australia's leading portraitist, which appealed to the well-heeled. Favourable exhibition reviews also supported his pursuit,

'The present collection consists of about twenty pictures, mostly portraits and portrait studies. In the former Mr Alexander Landale, the Hon. Wm McCulloch, Minister of Defence, and Artist J. Ford Paterson are represented. All are excellently portrayed. Two others, depicting a daughter of Mr George Gray and a son of Dr Charles Ryan, are more in the nature of pictures, each forming a composition perfectly characteristic of its subject. Young Master Rupert Ryan, in a sylvan setting, is the personification of boyhood happiness'.2

With its distinguished provenance, Master Rupert Ryan was commissioned in 1898 by Major General Sir Charles Snodgrass Ryan, a leading surgeon and army officer who was by no means a stranger to the arts. His sister was Marian Ellis Rowan, renowned artist and botanical illustrator whose portrait was also painted by Longstaff in 1926 and which now hangs in the National Library of Australia, Canberra. Rupert Ryan would later become an Australian soldier and politician and was awarded the Companion of Order of St Michael and St George in 1928. Upon Rupert's passing in 1952 the portrait entered the collection of his sister, Lady Maie Casey, wife of Richard Casey, the 16th Governor General of Australia before being inherited by current owner in 1984.

The present work, considered an early example of Longstaff's portraiture, showcases his delicate handling of the subject, the influence of his English and European tour evident in the Gainsborough-like landscape. Longstaff would leave a lasting impression on the portrait genre winning the Archibald Prize five times in the space of ten years between 1925 and 1935.

Alex Clark

1. Prue Joske, Debonair Jack: A Biography of John Longstaff, 1861 - 1941, Claremont, Melbourne, 1994, p. 72
2. 'An Australian Artist, Mr John Longstaff's Pictures', Melbourne Punch, Melbourne, 4 August 1898, p. 5