‘B’ is for Buonarotti

 ‘Still I learn’ and ‘Ambition lead the way’ are two maxims attributed to Michelangelo Buonarroti.  The first was the motto and the second featured on the club crest of the Buonarotti Club which was part of Melbourne’s artistic and cultural landscape in the mid 1880s.

The 1880s was an especially vibrant decade and a number of amateur literary clubs were formed viz. the Shakespeare Society, the Shelley Society, the Burns Society and the Lamb Society. Similarly, several art societies also emerged or gained prominence including: the Victorian Academy of Arts, the Australian Artists Society and the Victorian Artists Society. The Buonarotti Club was unique in having a professional artist-dominated membership and the inclusion of literature and music to provide entertainment, and also enhance discussion of topics important in the contemporary art world.

The Buonarotti Club was established in 1883 by Cyrus Mason and Edward Gilks who were both senior engravers in the colony. At the first meeting in May, professional painters Tom Humphrey, John Longstaff, and Alexander Colquhoun, were joined by younger practitioners, Theodore Dewey, John Himen and Izett Watson, at Young and Jackson’s Hotel to set out the Club’s mandate: a cross-fertilisation of ideas and the opportunity to exhibit and receive critiques from their professional artist peers in preparation for participation in the commercial Melbourne art world.

Young and Jackson’s had a strong connection to the Melbourne art scene through one of its owners, Henry Figsby Young, whose private collection of paintings and statues was regarded as one of the best in the state. The hotel was decorated with 19^th century European and Australian art and a selection of ‘South Seas weaponry’ on the walls – ensuring an exciting and stimulating environment for the launch of the new club. Later the meetings would move to other central ‘watering holes’ before ending up at the newly-established Melbourne Coffee Palace on Bourke Street, which had a distinctly modern and stylish identity.

The name ‘Buonarotti’ (the Club’s preferred spelling of Michelangelo’s name) was chosen by Mason as Michelangelo was the subject of a resurgence of interest in Europe, Britain and the Empire during the nineteenth century. Importantly, the renaissance artist excelled in a number of artistic disciplines, and there was considerable discussion of the artist’s persona – particularly around how, from the Romantic viewpoint,  the appreciation of art was moving from focussing on the work to the artist himself. The decision to be called ‘Buonarotti’ showed how the club embraced Michelangelo’s ideas and also connected the local group with international counterparts.

The Club rapidly became an important forum, initially for male but soon also for female artists, to discuss ‘art and related topics’ on a fortnightly basis. Club members gave lectures on practical considerations concerning artistic technique, on individuals who were considered important in art history, on literary figures who influenced painting, as well as on art-related issues of the day eg. whether a duty imposed upon imported artworks would prove beneficial to Australian artists.

However, painting and improved technique were particularly important, and topics included: ‘Beauty [in art]’, ‘What constitutes a portrait’, ‘A dream of an exhibition’, and ‘Art in Education’. Mason’s lecture on ‘The horse in motion’ which he asserted resulted in ‘more natural drawings’ is claimed to have influenced Tom Roberts’ (a member of the Club) in his later composition of ‘Shearing the Rams’.

Club members were challenged to review Michelangelo’s approach to art when considering their own drawing techniques. Michelangelo’s fascination with the human body and its movement was discussed by Mason in another of his lectures and these ideas were utilised in the Club’s life classes when members would be given twenty minutes to sketch a fellow member referred to as the ‘comrade victim’.

As well as providing instruction and information, the Club provided an opportunity for artists to display their art. In 1886, Tom Roberts successfully proposed the expansion of the Artistic Committee to five members who were responsible for the exhibition of members’ works at gatherings of the Club. Fred McCubbin, John Mather, Louis Abrahams and Jane Sutherland joined Roberts to ensure that exhibited artists received feedback and advice from more experienced members.

One important component of the Club’s activities was its quarterly ‘conversazione’ (sometimes referred to as The Ladies’ Night). The evening’s entertainment included music, singing and the ‘Artistic Section’ exhibited new works. Members were encouraged to bring guests and supper was provided at one shilling per head. These events emulated similar salons and soirées conducted by London’s Grosvenor Gallery and, as well as exposing a new audience to art, presumably led to private sales and commissions.

The Buonarotti Club was of primary importance in advancing the careers of female artists in Melbourne. Women were admitted as ‘honorary members in the literary and artistic branches of the club’ six months after the Club’s inauguration. Alice Brotherton, a poet and painter, was the first woman elected to the Club in 1883.  Jane Sutherland was another  early member in 1884 who, as well as showing her art, is recorded as playing Mozart sonatas at Club meetings. On one occasion in 1885, she also chaired the meeting – the only female member to take on this role. Sutherland was not the only female artist who benefitted from association with the Club. Clara Southern, Isobel Rae, May Vale, Alice Chapman, Margaret Baskerville, A.E. ‘Lizzie’ Oakley and Elizabeth Parsons were all club members. (The last three would found a similar society – ‘Stray Leaves’ – in 1889 after the Club disbanded).

When looking at the Australian Impressionists, it is interesting to consider their connection with the Club. Fred McCubbin was an early member (joining in 1883), followed by Louis Abrahams the next year and then Tom Roberts – a Club visitor in the second half of 1885 – before being elected a member in 1886. This corresponds with the period the artists were involved with their early outdoor painting camps in Box Hill in 1885.

However, these Impressionists should not be viewed in isolation as they were part of the Club’s encouragement for members to paint in the plein air tradition established by earlier artists and teachers like Thomas Clark, Louis Buvelot and Eugene von Guérard. Club members had already painted at similar camps and exhibited their works for critique at Club meetings. Fred Matthew Williams showed landscapes painted at Lilydale in 1883 and at Williamstown in 1884; Tudor St . George Tucker with Lilydale studies from early 1884 and 1885; and Walter Withers with oil sketches of Riddell’s Creek and Alphington from 1884. (That plein air painting was encouraged by the Club is shown by the Club’s secretary writing to the Secretary for Railways ‘requesting travel at reduced rates’ to facilitate this endeavour).

Indeed, the recollections of Club member, composer, musician and writer – Louis Lavater, indicate that not only painters but other Club creatives were part of overnight camps in Eaglemont and near Mason’s property at Tynong. In describing the ‘happy go-lucky’ painting camps on the shores of the Koo-wee-rup Swamp, Lavater said: “with a loaf of bread, bag of tomatoes, a bag of oysters, bottles of beer, and plenty of cigarettes … painting was the first object of the expeditions, but the rough life had a zest all of its own which appealed strongly to all of us”.

Several major paintings by the Australian Impressionists were produced by Club members during the Club’s existence. Fred McCubbin, (chairman of the Club’s Art Committee in1884), painted Home Again and The Letter (1884), Picnic at Studley Park (1885) and Lost and Winter Evening, Hawthorn (1886). Tom Roberts was also prolific during his Club association and produced A Quiet Day on Darebin Creek  and The artists’ camp (1885), Charcoal Burners (previously known as Wood Splitters) and A Summer Morning Tiff (1886), and The Sunny South and Mentone (1887). Likewise, Jane Sutherland painted her popular picture of a young girl confronting a bull – Obstruction, Box Hill – in 1887. It is interesting to speculate what role the Buonarotti Club played in the production of these works.

While the foregoing suggests that the Buonarotti Club was a serious institution, there is also considerable evidence acknowledging its playful and Bohemian elements. A ‘bohemian appearance’ was accepted (if not encouraged to challenge the mores of conservative Victorian Melbourne), and this was especially taken up by Tudor Tucker and Tom Roberts. Tucker is recalled as sauntering down ‘The Block’ (arcade) carrying a lily or sunflower (a motif of Aestheticism); and Roberts is remembered flourishing a red satin-lined opera cape and brandishing a collapsible top hat.

Other evidence of the Club’s ‘Bohemianism’ is found in the humorous monologues, satirical lectures, costume events and men’s monthly Smoke Nights.  During the nineteenth century, smoking was identified as part of a ‘bohemian persona’ and the Smoke Night became an opportunity for the expression of unconventional and irreverent views. At an early Smoke Night in 1883, Mason gave a ‘lecture’ on ‘Drink and its relation to Art’ in which he concluded that: ‘drink can be used as a faithful servant to the artistic mind’.

The Buonarotti Club lasted for four years and its demise was related to the loss of stalwart members (either retiring or moving overseas) and a lack of leadership by the Artistic Section for continued meetings. More than 30 members attended the final meeting including: Mason, McCubbin, Abrahams, Sutherland, Brotherton, Humphrey and, as a guest, Arthur Streeton. All joined hands and sang Auld Lang Syne to conclude the evening.

Although only lasting for four years, the Buonarotti Club occupied an important and formative role in an exhilarating period of Melbourne’s art production. It was clearly a welcoming and creative space where as art historian, Mary Eagle, points out: ‘art and intellectual ideas were debated without fear or favour’.

I am indebted to Stephen F. Mead for his excellent essay: ‘The Search for Artistic Professionalism in Melbourne: the activities of the Buonarotti Club, 1883-1887’ published in the LaTrobe Journal, No 88, December 2011.