Charles Conder: The Last Bohemian - Hardcover

Galbally, Ann

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0522847749 ISBN 13: 9780522847741

Publisher: Melbourne University Publishing, 2005

Synopsis

Charles Conder was one of the youngest, most original and most talented members of the Heidelberg School of impressionist painters, and one of the few to achieve a lasting reputation outside Australia. His work is in many major collections, including the Tate Britain, the Victoria and Albert Museum and the National Portrait Gallery in London and the Metropolitan Museum in New York.
Conder painted the Hawkesbury region and Sydney's beaches, including Coogee with Tom Roberts - who invited him to Melbourne. There he joined the artists' camps at Box Hill and Heidelberg, painted urban and bayside scenes and was a major instigator of the famous '9 x 5' Exhibition in 1889. As in Sydney, his carefree charm and delicate, witty paintings endeared him to literary and artistic circles.
Paris beckoned early, and he soon fell in with the fin de siecle generation led by Oscar Wilde, Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec and Aubrey Beardsley. He embraced Bohemia, was forever in debt, worked erratically but inceasingly and lived as if there were no tomorrow.
Although Conder was rescued from poverty by marriage to a wealthy Canadian widow, his bohemian past eventually called in its account. Tragically. he descended into syphilitic madness and died in his fortieth year.
This is a biography of a gifted artist whose personal style and unconventional life will appeal to another fin de siecle generation of readers.

About this title

About the Author:

Ann Gallbally, associate professor in the department of fine arts at the University of Melbourne and one of the most widely published art historians in Australia, is the author of Redmond Barry: An Anglo-Irish Australian and Frederick McCubbin, and the editor of The Collections of the National Gallery of Victoria.

Review:

"Charles Conder: the last bohemian is a book for anyone interested in art. Lovers of the impressionist style will enjoy reading about one of its finest exponents, while whilst those interested in the history of art . . . will appreciate the story behind some of the finest works produced by the fin de siecle generation. Everyone though will enjoy the exquisite paintings, sketches and lithographs . . ."  —JAS Review of Books

"[a] rigorous, insightful, detailed and eloquently written biography."  —Readings Books & Music Monthly

"Read this biography with a glass of red wine and it will be sure to transport you to a romantic and inspiring era."  —Law Society Journal

"Galbally’s biography of Charles Conder is exemplary."  —Sasha Grishin, Canberra Times

". . . a meticulous, well-researched and detailed account of [Conder’s] life and art."  —Sydney Morning Herald

"Ann Galbally’s beguiling biography is the first complete study of Conder’s colourful but all too brief life for more than half a century. Beautifully written and patiently researched, it’s a valuable addition to the annals of Australia’s Heidelberg School of impressionist painters. . ."  —Benjamin Genocchio, Weekend Australian

About this edition

• Publisher: Melbourne University Publishing
• Publication date: 2005
• ISBN 10: 0522847749
• ISBN 13: 9780522847741
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 348