Lot 4

The Collection of Kurt Albrecht, Melbourne
Thence by descent
Kozminsky Galleries, Melbourne (as "Shelling the Peas c.1905") (label verso)
Private collection, Western Australia

Thomas, D., The Life and Art of Rupert Bunny: A Catalogue Raisonné in Two Volumes, Thames & Hudson, Melbourne, 2017, vol. 2, p. 49, cat. no. O355

Like numerous Australian artists in the late nineteenth century, Rupert Bunny (1864-1947) went overseas to complete his training and engage with modernism. In contrast to many expatriates, he spent close on fifty years living in Paris and understood its ways. He exhibited suc - cessfully in Paris, Britain, America, Europe and Australia. His paintings were widely collected including thirteen by the French state. Bunny is arguably 'the most successful painter to have left Australian shores'. (1)

He first studied at Melbourne's National Gallery School from 1881-83, then at twenty years of age, he travelled to London in 1884 and attended Calderon's Art School, a preparatory school for the Royal Academy in St John's Wood. By 1886 he moved to Paris. This was a wise move, it was a more progressive city in which to study art in and was awash with foreign students. From the many academies on offer, he studied privately under Jean-Paul Laurens for four years, then at Colarossi's in 1890 under Pierre-Paul-Leon-Glaze.

Bunny learnt much from Laurens, a Salon juror, Professor at the École des Beaux Arts, and one of the most influential history painters of the era. He was schooled in the 'rhetorical devices associated with the Academy's promotion of classical and historical subject matter … in the tradition of European studio practice'. (2) Laurens' example of winning medals and honours at annual Salon and Royal Academy exhibitions was one Bunny emulated.

He immersed himself in cosmopolitan Paris which was a melting pot of nations. He shared a studio with Alastair Cary-Elwes, the grandson of an English baronet, was a good friend of writer Zsigmond Justh, the son of a wealthy Hungarian landowning family, and was an active member of the American Art Association. He attended salons and soirées that prominent French artists held in their studios, including his teacher Lauren's weekly studio opening, and that of high society artist Jacques-Émile Blanche, who was well connected with avantgarde writers, dancers and musicians.

A key to Bunny's success was his choice of subject matter in his Belle Époque and postwar works. It ranged across mythological works, biblical stories, myths and legends; paintings with literary and musical allusions suited to a leisured class of viewers; spaces of femininity; portraits of famous stage performers and modern dance. These subjects were familiar to an informed cosmopolitan audience. A feature of much of the work is its emotional intensity. Bunny was steeped in classical mythology, an accomplished pianist and a frequent attendee of musical, opera, theatre and dance performances. He completed a number of stunning portraits of performers including Dame Nellie Melba and the famed Japanese actor Madame Sadayakko.

Jeanne Morel, a fellow art student whom Bunny married in March 1902 is a recurring model in his paintings from c.1895. Besotted by her beauty, she is also the subject of portraits in an array of costumes from day wear through to glamorous evening dress, and a changing gaze from the dreamy to the mysterious. A range of other sitters feature in his portraits from 1903-9, however his 'Portrait of Madame B…,' c.1903 (Lot 20), was singled out for praise. It was described by a reviewer as 'flowing in execution and glowing in tone', and 'distinguished and full of life', while the two roses she holds 'show him to be an artist of great delicacy of hand and taste'. (3)

From 1907-10 Bunny worked on a series of intimiste scenes set on the balcony of his upper-level apartment showing women in long flowing gowns listening intently to music, often by Chopin, reading poetry, or engaging in languid relaxation. They were set at differing times of the day and night and are studies in feminine idleness, tinged with nostalgia for a life being overtaken by modernity. The balcony, an extension of the salon or the living room, was a space in which women read, embroidered and held afternoon tea. They were tastefully dressed in gowns made of luxurious fabrics. Often Bunny incorporated Oriental or Japonisme features into the paintings such as a cushion, floor rug or a Japanese fan, iconography that tapped into the Belle Époque mood. The painting 'The Sonata', c.1910 (Lot 17) is from this series, Bunny writing, 'I called it "The Sonata" the idea being these women are listening to music from the balcony of a room which it really was, as a Danish woman and a very fine pianist, a friend of ours, was playing the "Moonlight Sonata". (4)

Other paintings show women indoors, or at leisure in the garden reading or collecting flowers as in 'Two Women in a Garden', c.1912. Then from 1913 he turned to new mythological and religious subjects imbued by a strong sense of music, rhythm and modern dance in a brighter colour range which includes his ravishing Salome, c.1919.

His work entered Australian collections as early as 1892 when his symbolist Sea idyll, c.1890, a painting he sent to Melbourne for the Royal Anglo-Australian Society of Artists exhibition, was purchased by Alfred Felton and presented to the National Gallery of Victoria. By then Bunny was the first Australian to receive an honourable mention at the Old Salon (Salon des Artistes Français) in 1890 for his mythological painting Tritons, c.1890. When Angels descending was acquired by the Art Gallery of South Australia in 1904, it was the first Bunny painting purchased by an Australian gallery.

He was also the first Australian to have a painting, Après le bain, acquired by the French state for its Musée du Luxembourg in 1904. That same year he was elected a membre associé of the Societe Nationale des Beaux-Artes, and a sociétaire of the Salon d'Automne. Bunny retained his ties to Australia, bringing out paintings to exhibit in 1911, and 1926-28. He returned permanently in October 1932 due to the Depression's devastating effects on artists living in Paris. His wife was seriously unwell. He planned to return to Paris to bring her to Melbourne, but sadly she died in April 1933.

Despite participating in the Melbourne art world, and having some limited exhibition exposure, it wasn't until June 1939 that Bunny's work was sought after in Australia. And this occurred in Sydney. Lucy Swanton and Treania Smith, who had taken over Macquarie Galleries, showed his south of France landscapes, smaller figure compositions and flower pieces in a highly successful exhibition, as were annual exhibitions of his work thereafter, attracting positive critical notice and prompting the Art Gallery of New South Wales to acquire his painting Étaples, c.1902. In 1946 the National Gallery of Victoria held a major retrospection exhibition, which led to acquisitions from numerous galleries. Sadly Bunny didn't get to enjoy the fruits of his commitment to his art, he died on 25 May 1947, before Sydney Ure Smith published his book on the artist in 1948, with a fulsome appreciation by Clive Turnball and Tristan Buesst.

By Dr Catherine Speck

Catherine is a Professor Emerita of Art History and Curatorship at the University of Adelaide. She acquired a PhD in Visual Arts from Monash University and a Masters Degree in Art Education from the University of Canberra. Prior to joining the University of Adelaide in 2002, she was Head of Art History and Theory at the SA School of Art, University of South Australia. She is a Fellow of the Australian Academy of Humanities and on the editorial Board of the Design and Australia Online (DAAO).


(1) Deborah Edwards, Rupert Bunny: Artists in Paris, Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney, 2010, p.18-19.
(2) Edwards, Rupert Bunny: Artists in Paris, p. 14.
(3) Henri Franz cited in David Thomas, The Life and Art of Rupert Bunny: A Catalogue Raisonné in Two Volumes, Volume 1, Thames and Hudson, Port Melbourne, 2017, p. 117.
(4) Rupert Bunny quoted in David Thomas, The Life and Art of Rupert Bunny, vol 2, p. 46.