This morning I went along with one of my friends to Carrick Hill in Springfield (a suburb of Adelaide) to a morning tea where two old friends of the iconic Australian painter, Jeffrey Smart, along with his biographer, were giving a talk at the launch of a major retrospective of his work that opened last night in Adelaide.
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| Back of Carrick Hill |
As we had snow on Mt Lofty yesterday (unusual in the middle of Winter, let alone in Spring), you could say that the weather this morning was not ideal for a spring garden party - we were in a marquee for the talk, and it was rather chilly. I dressed for the weather in my trench coat (sourced at the netaporter sale around 3 years ago, still unsure whether I like it) and a fur collar with knee length boots. Ridiculous. Had this talk been on, say, Monday, I would have been in a sleeveless dress.
Carrick Hill is hosting the early period of his work - 1940-1951 and the paintings are from when he was developing his distinctive style. His latter period (the paintings that are very recognisable as his developed style) is being housed in the
Samstag Museum in the West End of the CBD. Two of his friends, and painters themselves, Barry Pearce and Geoff Wilson gave the talk, which was largely anecdotal chat about how he was developing his style, and the way in which he worked in the early period of his career when he was their Art teacher.
Barry told me when I bailed him up during the walk around the exhibition that he was sitting drawing with Jeffrey when he painted this, and that the station master came out of the house and yelled at them.
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| "The Wasteland 2" source - Flinders Ranges, South Australia |
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| "Vacant Allotment, Wolloomooloo" source |
The sky in the painting above was quite luminous.
It was a really interesting exhibition, as it also contains personal letters, sketches, postcards and other ephemera relating to this period. Here's one of his latter, very recognisable images that is in the Samstag Museum part of the exhibition
The talk was very entertaining. Jeffrey Smart taught Art at Goodwood Technical College, and from the anecdotes, he has always nurtured other artists (and apparently still does). They were there when he painted several of the paintings in the exhibition, either sitting alongside him sketching and painting too, or viewing them in progress in the studio he had out the back of his mothers house. He left Adelaide in the early 1950's for Europe, then back to Sydney and then eventually settled in Tuscany, where he lives still aged 91.
After the talk, we went into the house to view the exhibition, and then had a little walk through the house and garden.
Carrick Hill was built by Sir Edward and Lady Ursula Hayward in the late 1930's using parts of a demolished Tudor era estate in Staffodshire, England. They bought the staircase, panelling, windows and other things while they were in England on their honeymoon, and shipped the pieces back, designing their new house around them. As you do. Here are a few terrible iphone photos (I was taking them on the sly, so some are a bit blurry).
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| Entry Hall with staircase bought in England and designed around it |
The Haywards derived their fortune from the John Martin's department store, which was the major department store in Adelaide (subsequently bought by the David Jones department store in the late 80's, who ran it into the ground, as they did to Georges in Melbourne), and Ursula was the daughter of a wealthy pastoral family, the Barr Smith family. They were great patrons of the arts. Hanging in the permanent collection at Carrick Hill are many Streetons, Drysdales, Heysons etc. along with European paintings dating back to the Renaissance period. They were also patrons and friends of Jeffrey Smart when he was largely unknown.
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| Ursula's bedroom |
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| Sewing room upstairs |
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| Library |
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| Bar in Library (hidden in cupboards) |
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| Dining room with old oak panelling |
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| original kitchen with china settings |
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| Steel windows in the enclosed veranda |
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| entry |
The garden that was developed around Carrick Hill is beautiful and has a lot of roses (looking a little sad after the torrential rain from the past few days)
It was such an interesting morning, and Jeffrey's friends were quite hilarious (and gave some interesting insight into his working style). Definitely worth a look in you're in Adelaide during the period of the exhibition.
