Footnotes

PROVENANCE
Lionel Townsend Crawshaw, gift from the artist
thence by descent
Harold Crawshaw, Estoril, Portugal
Artarmon Galleries, New South Wales (label attached verso)
Private collection, Melbourne
thence by descent
Private collection, Melbourne
Deutscher and Hackett, Sydney, 10 April 2019, lot 39
Private collection, Singapore

RELATED WORK
Rocher Auchien, Clos Marion, Belle–Île, oil on canvas, 52.0 x 61.5 cm, The Nock Art Foundation, Hong Kong


John Peter Russell was born in Sydney in 1858 to a wealthy engineering family. Strong in stature, he was an avid sportsman and excelled in rowing, boxing and sailing. Following the death of his father in 1879, the family business was sold, leaving Russell a considerable inheritance. Free of the constraints of a life in business, Russell was able to comfortably pursue his artistic interests, studying abroad at the Slade School of Fine Art, London and the atelier of Fernand Cormon in Paris.

'It can be fairly claimed that John Peter Russell was Australia's first impressionist artist, although it is a term he would have most firmly rejected. He was fiercely individual as an artist and entirely self-sufficient. His world was for him bounded by his painting, his family and his chosen friends in the art colony of Paris'1, which included some of the most celebrated artists in western history – Claude Monet, Vincent Van Gogh and Auguste Rodin.

Visiting Belle–Île on a painting break, Russell befriended Claude Monet. 'Like Monet, Russell was seeking refreshment: in his case it was more physical and emotional than artistic... Russell made his home on the island from 1888 until the death of his wife, Marianna, in 1908. During this time, he developed an intimate relationship with the island and its natural features, sailing his yacht around the challenging western coastline and physically experiencing the power of the sea. His Belle–Île paintings chart an intense and complex relationship with a restricted number of motifs – the sea, the rocks, the coastline.. Although his motifs were limited, Russell's Belle–Île works show him developing experimental brush techniques in his rendering of form and pursuing colour purity in his pigments'.2

Belle–Île's rugged coastline and wild seas challenged some of the most accomplished artists of the time. Avante-Garde artist and fellow friend Henri Matisse visited the island in 1897, the same year Rocher Au Chien, Clos Marion, Belle–Île‎‎ was painted. Acknowledging Russell as a great teacher of impressionist techniques and colour theory, Matisse would also embrace colour as a vehicle of creative expression.

The present work, Rocher Au Chien, Clos Marion, Belle–Île‎‎, is an exceptional example of an artist at ease with his surroundings. The spontaneity in the application of paint and its transient use of colour, light and movement convey the natural grandeur of the scenery on display.

Rarely exhibiting and without the need to fund his life through art, Russell made a gift of Rocher Au Chien, Clos Marion, Belle–Île‎‎ to fellow British-born artist, Lionel Townsend Crawshaw (1864–1949). Crawshaw had arrived on Belle–Île in the mid-1890s. The two families formed a close friendship following a bout of typhoid which the Russell's helped nurse him through.

Recognised by his contemporaries as an artist of the highest significance, Auguste Rodin wrote in one of his last letters to Russell: 'Your works will live, I am certain. One day you will be placed on the same level with our friends Monet, Renoir and Van Gogh'.

1. Donald Finley, 'John Peter Russell and his friends', Art & Australia, June 1965, p. 39
2. Ann Galbally, Belle–Île: Monet, Russell & Matisse in Brittany, Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney, 2001, p. 15