Introduction
Jane Sutherland was an Australian impressionist artist, landscape painter, and teacher who was part of the burgeoning late nineteenth-century Australian “Plein-air” movement.
She significantly influenced professional and amateur women artists who followed her ground-breaking advancement in the male-dominated art world.
Sutherland was born in New York, the daughter of George and Jane Sutherland; the Sutherland’s first moved to Sydney, Australia in 1864, then in 1870 to Melbourne.
distinguished members of Melbourne’s Cultural Science, Education and Art scene.
George Sutherland sketch of Jane Sutherland (1880)
Her father, George and Uncles Alexander and John became distinguished members of Melbourne’s Cultural Science, Education and Art scene.
This family influence on the young Sutherland may have significantly affected Sutherland’s decision to study at the National Gallery School of Design.
Sutherland studied at the school between 1871-86 under Thomas Clark and Frederick McCubbin. Around that same period, she attended the School of Painting under Eugen Von Guerard and George Folingsby.
A significant part of her early prospects as an artist was due partly to her family’s ongoing support, enabling her to pursue her art career and live comfortably as an unmarried working woman.
This was totally contrary to the expectations of women of the time, who were expected to marry, have children, and play the supportive role of wife and mother.
Women of the period called for equal access to education and employment, especially the Australian suffragette movement.
It is Interesting that the establishment of the Melbourne Women’s Suffrage Society in 1884 was some 14 years after Sutherland’s enrolment at National Gallery School in 1871.
Sutherland’s talent is by no means credited to her family’s influences and has been widely acknowledged through her many accomplishments.
She exhibited in 1878 at the Victorian Academy of the Arts, then with the Artist’s Association, where Clara Southern, her colleague at the National Gallery School, was later to become the first female member.
Sutherland exhibited at the Victorian Artists’ Society from 1888 – 1911, with works displayed in all decades of that period; at these exhibitions, her landscapes were held and viewed to be as equal as any of her male contemporaries.
Jane Sutherland “On the Last Tramp” (1888)
Also exhibiting at the Society of Women Painters and Sculptors (Sydney), the Royal Art Society (Sydney) whilst living and painting in both Melbourne and Sydney, plus at the Society of Women Artists (London), to name a few.
Heidelberg School Movement
In 1884 Sutherland; became one of the first female members of the Buonarotti Club, joining May Vale, who was already a member, and later Clara Southern in 1886.
The Buonarotti Club played a pivotal role with the group of artists who formed the now-designated Heidelberg School of painters.
The Buonarotti Club is thought to be the birthplace for the ideas around Plein-air sketching trips to the Camps at Box Hill.
It is thought that the Heidelberg School artists were spurred on by their club peers who had previously experimented with the outdoor practice as early as 1883.
For example, artists Fred Mathew Williams painted Lilydale Landscape in 1883, Williamstown in 1884, and Riddell’s Creek sketches were exhibited by Walter Withers in April 1884, plus artist Tudor St. George Tucker, also had his Lilydale studies of 1884 and 1885.
No doubt these members of the Buonarotti Club were already out in the field before Tom Roberts organised the first Heidelberg sketching trip to Box Hill in 1885.
All things considered the club may have laid the foundation for the Heidelberg School, but it was known more at the time for its championing of the advancement of all artists, including its female members, of which Sutherland’s was a prominent member; she was reputed to once chair one of the club meetings.
Sutherland and Southern membership brought the pair closer to the source of inspiration that was to be later immortalized as the Heidelberg School.
Both artist were given the chance to go on the Plein-air sketching trips to Box Hill and Eaglemont Camps, meeting up with Tom Roberts, Arthur Streeton and Charles Conder.
Without this connection, these pioneering women may have never had the chance to be part of that history-making Heidelberg School Movement.
In hindsight it was no surprise that Sutherland and Southern, unlike their male counterparts, could not stay overnight at the campsites and instead had to make the daily train ride to the camps.
A Talented Artist and Teacher
Sutherland’s work mainly focused on Australian landscapes and includes many children and women interacting with nature. The narrative imagery of her work is suggestive, leaving a lasting impression on the viewer.
Jane Sutherland “Obstruction” Box Hill (1887)
Around 1888 Sutherland taught art at Grosvenor Chambers in Collins Street, Melbourne, where she shared a studio with artist Clara Southern.
Jane Sutherland “To the Dandenongs” (1888)
Having a studio at the Grosvenor Chambers, Sutherland had immersed herself within the avant-garde artist community in Melbourne.
A melting pot for Melbourne’s burgeoning Bohemian Culture, the Chambers at the time was considered to be the centre for the Heidelberg School, with Tom Roberts and Jane Price later securing studios there.
With both Sutherland and Southern creating artworks for now famous 1889 9 by 5 Impression Exhibition held in Melbourne.
This exhibition exhibited many artworks by Heidelberg School artists, marking the beginning of the Australian Impressionism Movement.
It is unfortunate, that Sutherland’s and Southern’s works were not exhibited in the exhibition, with the reasons for this hotly debated ever since.
As time went on, Southern found it difficult despite her successes and her skill to compete with other male artists; her works were undervalued and underpriced, with her work exhibited at a fraction of the price of her male contemporaries.
Jane Sutherland “After Autumn Rain” (1893)
A Career Cut Short
The early 1900s were not kind to Sutherland, as she suffered a severe stroke and became reliant on her brother William for assistance. She did, however, continue to paint and use pastels on a much smaller scale, as well as continue to teach.
William died in 1911, putting an end to Sutherland career; she was no longer able to paint; and her reputation began to diminish, soon to be almost forgotten with little recognition.
Jane Sutherland “Field Naturalists” (1896)
Sutherland was a talented and promising artist who lost her ability to create art because of illness.
She was a late 19th Century woman who encouraged her fellow women artists, especially encouraging them to paint outdoors and be seen as artists in their own right.
Little is known of her personal feelings or motivations; perhaps her legacy was her guiding light to a generation of women who chose an art career over a life that others expected them to pursue.
Her niece, Ruth Sutherland, became an artist. National institutions continue to interpret her art nearly 100 hundred years after her passing.
Today women’s art of that period is finally coming into its own, with many collectors and academics recognising the contribution to the evolution of Australian art by women artists such as Sutherland.
Leonard Joel, an Auction House in Melbourne, has conducted women-only sales since 2017, focusing on some of these great pioneering women artists and, to date, have broken new auction records for women who have now been overlooked.
https://auctions.leonardjoel.com.au/custom_asp/searchresults.asp?st=D&pg=1&ps=100&sale_no=LJ8429+
May we never forget the contribution these women had.
Jane Sutherland Circuit in the Canberra suburb of Conder is named in her honour.
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