Elizabeth Gould: wife, mother, artist

Who remembers the Gould League? John Gould was an English ornothologist who came to Australia in the 1830s to collect and identify Australian birds. To commemorate his work, the Gould League was established to promote an interest in birds. By the 1950s when I was in primary school it was concerned with environmental education, and all schools were given material and encouragement to study the local environment. I can remember having a Gould League badge and a calendar with bird pictures. I wonder if anyone remembers anything else?

Why this memory arose is because I've just read an account of Gould's wife Elizabeth, who was an artist in her own right and illustrated hundreds of his collections, though she was eclipsed by his fame, died an early death and was thereafter relegated to a footnote in history. The book is called The Birdman's Wife by Melissa Ashley and seeks to remedy this. It's one of those books that I refer to as 'rescuing women from obscurity'.

Elizabeth has always remained a shadowy figure and not a lot is known about her. The book is a fictional account of her short life (she died when she was 37).

Source: Wikipedia

The couple travelled extensively in Australia from 1838 to 1840 during which John Gould collected bird specimens and subsequently published his monumental work Birds of Australia.
Although the author has done a lot of research and there is a good sense of the times, I never like fictional accounts. Why not write a decent biography?

So while I enjoyed much of the narrative (and learnt that a young Edward Lear was an early friend) there seemed to be a lot of padding with descriptions of birds, the problem with being a woman artist, and the actions of her impetuous husband. But the poor woman had to run a household, give birth to eight children, as well as concentrate on producing illustrations at breakneck speed for her demanding husband. And to top it all, after she died, her illustrations were made into lithographs and bore the name of the lithographer! So it's good that she has finally been given this recognition. And it's a gorgeous cover, isn't it!

Discovering Hans Heysen

On a perfectly perfect autumn morning we headed north to the Adelaide Hills, celebrating our 31st wedding anniversary with a visit to The Cedars, the home of renowned Australian artist Hans Heysen just outside the village of Hahndorf.

The landscape was resplendent: lush green hills, secluded valleys, paddocks dotted with cattle and the occasional thickly wooded forest. As usual Hahndorf was crowded and bustling with tourists, cars and buses.

We nicely filled up three hours! First, we toured Heysen's studio which is a little distance from the house, then did a house tour, then explored his artist daughter Nora's studio, and finally, walked the Artist's Trail which highlights some of Heysen's favourite locations for his paintings.

A bit of background history
Hans Heysen was born in Germany but came to South Australia with his family in 1884 when he was seven. He showed an artistic talent early on and, when he was 20, a group of Adelaide art enthusiasts sponsored him to study art in Europe which he did for four years, absorbing his favourite impressionists and honing his craft.

Back in Australia he established himself as a pioneer in depicting Australia's gum trees, always in stunning ethereal light, and often with sheep, cattle and drovers. His iconic 'Droving into the Light' remains the benchmark, and my lucky Perth readers can see it at the Art Gallery of Western Australian.

He sold enough paintings to be able to purchase The Cedars in 1912.

Later in life he visited the Flinders Ranges, before other artists fell in love with this part of the world. There he produced many paintings of this arid landscape with its harsh terrain and jagged, time-worn mountains.

Foothills of the Flinders 1929 (Art Gallery of South Australia)

Heysen's studio
The studio was set on a small rise and was absolutely huge inside, with a large frosted window at one end to let in light but no shadows.

Here we saw his easel, his oils and paints, preliminary sketches, and paintings, every single one of them original. Our tour guide showed us a beautifully carved timber case which opened out to display some paintings; this was how he stored them to show prospective buyers.

I was amazed that he was such a meticulous artist, first doing a number of sketches that became ever more detailed before transferring to canvas. Here he established grids to ensure that everything was in scale. We could see the grids marked out on an unfinished painting that sat on the tall easel before the window - just as if he had stepped outside for a bit.

I loved this evocative painting of the countryside. Next to it were the preparatory sketches he had done. It's called The Way Home and was painted in 1908 just as he was getting started on his love affair with gum trees. You are not allowed to take photos inside the studio so I took a photo of the postcard I bought.

The following photos showing the inside of the studio and Heysen at his easel were taken from an information booklet, so the quality is not that great but I hope it gives you an idea of what we saw.

 The Cedars
The house was built in the 1870s; Heysen bought it in 1912 and in 1919 made the substantial alterations in the current Arts and Crafts style to cater for his growing family of eight children.

We did the house tour with a small group of people. It was fascinating, not only for its history and the information we learnt about Heysen, but for the fact that little seems to have changed since the family left. The rooms are filled with family furniture, objects, textiles and personal items, not to mention his artworks which hang everywhere. Many items we saw are those that found their way into his paintings, such as a copper pot, a vase, a tea set. It seems that when he lived here the walls were hung with painting by his artist friends Tom Roberts, Arthur Streeton and Frederick McCubbin among others, certainly not his own. But the family had to sell these to cover his death duties, and now the walls depict Heysen's life's works, from his early European days to his final Flinders Ranges paintings.

It was fun to hear about the famous people who visited: Anna Pavlova, Vivien Leigh and Laurence Olivier, Dame Nellie Melba, and French mime artist Marcel Marceau who did a mime in the living room.

It is called The Cedars after the huge trees
 that have been on the site for years.

The garden showed tinges of autumn colour.

In a garage was Heysen's car that his son used to drive him to painting locations (he never drove himself), and the 'caravan' (with the top that could be raised) which he used on his forays into the outback.  

 
Nora's studio
Near the house was his first studio which he later transferred to his daughter Nora.
It was here in 1913 that he painted one of his most popular paintings: Sewing (the artist's wife).
Here am I taking a photo of the scene.

And here is the scene he painted.

And here is the painting which I photographed from the card I bought at the gift shop (printed with the permission of Chris Heysen).

Heysen's daughter Nora mainly concentrated on still lifes and portraits as she said her father had cornered the market with landscapes! In 1938 Nora won the Archibald Prize for her painting of Madame Elink Schuurman, the first time it had been won by a woman. She garnered criticism from fellow artist Max Meldrum who reportedly said that women could not be expected to paint as a well as men!

Nora's Archibald Prize winner

She also became the first Australian woman war artist during World War II.

The delightful little studio is filled with her paintings...

... and her painting equipment...

... and a self portrait.

The Artist's trail 

We then ventured outside and followed the marked trail which led past many of the sites where Heysen painted.

At intervals were table-like structures that, upon opening the lid, featured paintings he had done at that spot and a quote from him.

Here is the Shady Pool, another of his favourite sites.

Gum trees were everywhere. As a passionate conservationist Heysen would buy more and more land as money became available in order to save these stately trees.

And just to show you that Steve was along on our anniversary trip...

We lunched in Hahndorf and intended to visit a winery on the way back but lost our way (we thought a road sign saying 'Victor Harbor' would have led us home, but no, it meandered off to Goolwa first),  so we resorted to our gps and that saw us safely home, tired but thoroughly satisfied with our anniversary trip.