William Bustard (18 April 1894–1973) was an important figure in the development of art in Queensland from the 1920s onwards, advocating for artists to capture Queensland’s unique light and landscape. An example of his early work, Evening light 1927 (illustrated) depicts the Brisbane Customs House. Bustard was well aware of contemporary trends and techniques and this painting rather than be highly detailed, portrays an atmospheric mood much favoured by the Australian Tonalists.
Customs House today
The Customs House has had minor changes and repairs over its life, however in 2024, it’s now undergoing essential roof restoration 135 years since it was built — it’s time for the aged, green copper dome to be replaced with a replica one — returning the building’s exterior to its opening days. This will dramatically alter its current appearance, however over time, the bright copper will change colour as it’s exposed to the elements returning to its green ‘patina’. If you’re heading down Queen Street, look up and you’ll see the new dome being revealed.
William Bustard ‘Evening light’ 1927
An interest of Bustard was the Brisbane River and surroundings, the reflection of light and the shadows cast. Evening light is a rare work that depicts the river and the Brisbane Customs House illuminated by the moon. The myriad of different light sources emitted from the glimmer of artificial lights — the red beacon of the ferry terminal, and the yellow glow from neighboring Queen Street city buildings depicted with ghostly projections — combine with the silhouette of the fig tree whose dark shadow merges with the Customs House.
The Gallery also has a linocut by Bustard, Customs House, Brisbane 1931 (illustrated) which depicts the same scene during the day. It was exhibited at the artist’s first solo exhibition in October 1931 at Griffiths Tea Rooms in Brisbane (illustrated). It’s possible Evening light was also exhibited in the same show under the listing Customs House (moonlight), and some years later it was documented in the 1934 Queenslander annual as Customs House at night.
William Bustard ‘Customs House, Brisbane’ 1931
Griffiths Tea Rooms
Brothers James and John Griffiths started producing Australian-grown tea in 1879, they were one of Australia’s first tea and coffee merchants. The Griffiths Brothers tea rooms which occupied much of the ground floor and part of the basement of their six-storey Griffiths House building on Queen Street (1923-24, demolished 1975) — near the intersection of Eagle Street (illustrated) and not far from the Customs House — was the venue for many art exhibitions.
Customs house
Customs houses were built in all major Australian ports in the nineteenth century as customs and excise duties were an important source of revenue, levied on goods from overseas, this was particularly important to Queensland where the manufacturing sector was slower to develop. The Queensland government replaced its existing Customs House on the site (illustrated) with the much grander building at 427 Queen Street, opening in 1889 (illustrated) appropriate for the growing importance of the port of Brisbane.
The two-story Queen Street facade, and the three-storeys visible from the river side is an example of refined Classical style architecture with its copper-sheathed dome viewed from every elevation, whether from Queen Street or from the river at Petrie Bight. After Federation in 1901 the Customs House became part of the commonwealth government’s customs service and the building now listed on the Queensland Heritage Register is still one of Brisbane’s best known buildings.
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William Bustard Archive
William Bustard is represented in the QAGOMA Collection, and the Research Library holds the William Bustard Archive of original material, including his exhibitions book 1931–50, press clippings, photographs of his stained-glass windows and letters.
QAGOMA Research Library
The QAGOMA Research Library is located on Level 3 of the Gallery of Modern Art (GOMA). Open to the public Tuesday to Friday 10.00am to 5.00pm. visit us in person or explore the online catalogue. Access to special collections is available by appointment.
Curatorial extracts, research and supplementary material compiled by Elliott Murray, Senior Digital Marketing Officer, QAGOMA
Once a prominent colonial Queensland artist, Anthony Alder (27 December 1838–1915) and his works had all but vanished from public memory until, in 2011, his descendants’ estate was offered to the State Library of Queensland. Here, we reintroduce you to one of his works Heron’s home 1895 (illustrated).
‘Heron’s home’ | Before Conservation
Art history is a process of continually rediscovering the past and reinterpreting it for contemporary audiences. Alder is a significant Queensland colonial artist, apart from being the most prominent taxidermist in colonial Queensland, and widely admired for his dioramas when he entered employment with the Queensland Museum, he was also a painter of substance. Unfortunately, over the years, the appeal of his dioramas was forgotten and, apart from a major painting, Eagle and Fox (Not Game) 1895 (illustrated), which was occasionally on view at the Museum, knowledge of his work also slipped into oblivion.
Anthony Alder ‘Eagle and Fox (Not Game)’ 1895
Staff of the Queensland Museum 1912
Alder was born at Stroud, Gloucestershire and trained in the family’s taxidermy and casting business, Alder and Company, in Islington, London. He spent time working in Queensland from 1862 but returned to England on the death of his father in 1864, after the death of his mother in 1874, he returned and settled permanently in Queensland. Although he did not exhibit with the Queensland Art Society (est. 1887), Alder established a significant exhibition profile, he produced grisaille watercolour sketches that were published from 1894 in the Queenslander, the state’s most important weekly newspaper (illustrated).
He sought to emulate the work of ornithologist Silvester Diggles (1817–80) (Leadbeater’s cockatoo (Cacatua leadbeateri) c.1875 illustrated) who was Queensland’s most famous bird painter, and published Ornithology of Australia and Synopsis of the Birds of Australia. Diggles and his family arrived in Brisbane in 1854 and he soon became a key figure in the early cultural life of the city. He taught art and music, became our first photographer, helped found musical societies and the Queensland Philosophical Society (which subsequently developed into the Queensland Museum). Beginning in October 1863, Diggles single-handedly drew, coloured and described over 600 birds in eight years. He eventually published prints of 225 birds with descriptions of their habitat and life cycle in 21 sections from 1865 to 1870. When bound together, these became his major publication Ornithology of Australia.
Silvester Diggles ‘Leadbeater’s cockatoo’ c.1875
Painted for the ‘Queenslander’ by Anthony Alder
Alder also produced oil paintings and submitted several of these in what were essentially the first of the Queensland National Agricultural and Industrial Association (QNA) annual exhibitions. He received an award for Eagle and Fox (Not Game) in the QNA of 1895, from where it was purchased by the state government for the Queensland Art Gallery but is now in the Queensland Museum’s Collection, and was also awarded the prize at the same exhibition for Lincoln sheep, homeward Laddie (illustrated), also 1895, which depicts the renowned stud flock at ‘Glengallan’, just outside Warwick.
Anthony Alder ‘Lincoln sheep, Homeward Laddie’ 1895
A reassessment of Alder’s work was inspired when the work Lincoln sheep, homeward Laddie emerged from the collection of Alder’s descendants and was offered to the State Library of Queensland in 2011. The State Library has a special interest in ‘Glengallan’, as it holds the archive of the property which was donated by the widow of William Ball Slade’s eldest son, Oswald, in 1958.
At Slade’s time, the property was one of the showplaces of the Darling Downs; the homestead itself, a sandstone mansion built in 1867, was rescued from dereliction and restored as the Glengallan Homestead and Heritage Centre.
Slade called on Alder’s skills as a taxidermist, and this may have been the occasion for Alder to produce the work which, in a sense, is a record of the passing of the colonial squattocracy, as the property began to be broken up in 1895. Large-scale landscapes such as this are extremely rare in colonial Queensland.
Glengallan homestead
In mid 2011, the State Library’s Curator of Heritage Collections, advised the Gallery that Heron’s home was also available to a public collection. It was one of the two works Alder included in the 1897 Queensland International Exhibition (cat.95), and shared the exhibition with Josephine Muntz-Adam’s Care c.1893 (illustrated), the first Australian work purchased by the Queensland National Art Gallery.
Josephine Müntz-Adams ‘Care’ 1893
Now restored, Heron’s home provides a marked counterpoint in detail and decorative appeal, and represents his skills in depicting natural history subjects — the area in which Alder forged his reputation.
The subject of this important painting is a pair of Nankeen night herons (Nycticorax caledonicus), which are named after the buff-coloured Nankeen cloth formerly produced in the Chinese city of Nanjing (Nanking). These herons are native to large parts of Australia and frequent well-vegetated wetlands, river margins and mangroves around Brisbane. Here, they are depicted in a beautifully rendered naturalistic riverine setting within a larger Queensland landscape.
Heron’s home | After conservation
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