John Peter Russell

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John Peter Russell, around 1888

John Peter Russell (born June 16, 1858 in Darlinghurst , Sydney , † April 22, 1930 in Sydney) was an Australian impressionist painter. He was very much valued by his fellow artists like Vincent van Gogh , Claude Monet and Henri Matisse , whom he inspired. But he never achieved worldwide recognition, even posthumously, and is therefore referred to as a "lost impressionist" (Eng. "Lost impressionist"). This may be due to the fact that Russell did not exhibit his work in public - he was very wealthy and did not have to make a living from his art.

life and work

John Peter Russell: Vincent van Gogh , 1886, Van Gogh Museum, Amsterdam

John Peter Russell was the eldest son of the Scottish engineer John Russell and his wife Charlotte Elizabeth, née Nicholl, who came from London . His father had come to Australia as a boy and became a partner in his brother's engineering office, P. N. Russell & Co. After Russell's training as an engineer, he retained his interest in painting, which he had had since childhood. After his father's death in 1879, he inherited a large fortune. He decided to paint and in January 1881 took courses at the Slade School of Fine Art in London. His teachers during his seven years of study were Alphonse Legros , an émigré French, and later in Paris Fernand Cormon , in whose painting school he met Vincent van Gogh and became friends with him. Russell married Auguste Rodin's Italian model Marianna Antoinetta Mattiocco in Paris on February 8, 1888 . In that year he moved to Brittany on the island of Belle-Île , where he had his residence, called "Le Chateau Anglais", built.

Belle-Île-en-Mer , 1898
Les Aiguilles , 1890, Queensland Art Gallery
Rough Sea, Morestil , circa 1900, Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney

Van Gogh valued Russell's work, and after his first summer in Arles in 1888, he sent twelve paintings to Russell to keep him informed of the progress of his work. Monet often worked with Russell on Belle-Île and influenced his painting style.

In 1897 and 1898 Henri Matisse visited him on Belle-Île. Russell introduced him to the Impressionist style of painting and made him familiar with the works of van Gogh, who was still relatively unknown at the time. Matisse's style of painting changed considerably, and later Matisse stated, "Russell was my teacher and Russell taught me about color theory ".

After the early portrait painting, Russell turned more to landscape and sea paintings, as well as family pictures. He did not exhibit his works in public because he did not appreciate the exhibition business in London and Paris. After the death of his wife Marianna in 1908, he left Belle-Île and returned to Paris. In 1912, in Paris, Russell married a second time: Caroline de Witt Merrill, an American singer. During the First World War he moved back to England in 1915.

After the war ended, Russell moved to New Zealand for two years , then back to Sydney on Watsons Bay, where he often painted watercolors of harbor scenes. When he died in 1930, he left behind his second wife and son and six children from his first marriage. After his death, his work was forgotten. His daughter donated 21 oil paintings to the Louvre , which are now on display in the Musée Rodin . Some works are on display in Australian galleries, but interest in Russell's work came late. In 2002 the Art Gallery of New South Wales in Sydney hosted the exhibition Belle-Île: Monet, Russell & Matisse in Brittany .

Russell was a friend of the sculptors Auguste Rodin and Emmanuel Frémiet ; Rodin portrayed the beauty of Russell's first wife Marianna in his sculpture Minerve sans Casque (also Pallas sans Casque ) in various materials in 1896. The first draft dates from 1888. Russell's portrait of Vincent van Gogh from around 1886 is on display in the Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam .

literature

  • DJ Finley: John Peter Russell: Australia's link with French Impressionism . Royal Society of the Arts, Journal, December 1966
  • Ann Galbally: The Art of John Peter Russell . Sun Books, Melbourne 1977, ISBN 0-7251-0271-3
  • Correspondence between Auguste Rodin and John Peter Russell in the archive of the Musée Rodin , Paris
  • Elizabeth Salter: The Lost Impressionist. A Biography of John Peter Russell . Angus and Robertson, London 1976, ISBN 0-207-95510-7
  • H. Tannhauser: Van Gogh and John Russell; some unknown letters and drawings . Burlington Magazine, 23, 1938

Web links

Commons : John Peter Russell  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ^ John Peter Russell - The Lost Impressionist. theartwolf.com, accessed April 4, 2009 .
  2. ↑ Ann E. Gallbally: John Peter Russell. Australian Dictionary of Biography, accessed April 3, 2009 .
  3. ↑ Jill Kitson: About Hilary Spurling's The Unknown Matisse . abc.net, accessed April 3, 2009 .
  4. ↑ Ann E. Gallbally: John Peter Russell. Australian Dictionary of Biography, accessed April 3, 2009 .
  5. ↑ Jan Batten: Belle-Île: Monet, Russell & Matisse in Brittany . artgallery.nsw, archived from the original on August 29, 2002 ; accessed on October 31, 2012 .
  6. ^ John Peter Russell - The Lost Impressionist. theartwolf.com, accessed April 4, 2009 .
  7. ^ Emmanuelle Macé: Oeuvre musicale d'August Rodin. Cahier Musée des Beaux Arts de Lyon 2002–2006, accessed April 4, 2009 .
personal data
SURNAME Russell, John Peter
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Australian painter
DATE OF BIRTH June 16, 1858
PLACE OF BIRTH Sydney
DATE OF DEATH April 22, 1930
Place of death Sydney