Church interiors

William Bustard, England/Australia 1894–1973 / St. John’s Cathedral, Brisbane (detail) 1941 / Oil on plywood / 50.1 x 39.6cm / Purchased 1942 / Collection: Queensland Art Gallery | Gallery of Modern Art / © QAGOMA

William Bustard, England/Australia 1894–1973 / St. John’s Cathedral, Brisbane (detail) 1941 / Oil on plywood / 50.1 x 39.6cm / Purchased 1942 / Collection: Queensland Art Gallery | Gallery of Modern Art / © QAGOMA / View full image

Three works by three Australian artists born within three years of each other, all with different life experiences, immerse us in the solemn atmosphere of the church interior where light gleams through stained glass onto the altars below.

Ian Fairweather

Born in Scotland and schooled in Britain and Switzerland, Ian Fairweather (29 September 1891–1974) was raised in a military family with the expectation that he, too, would serve in the British Army. With the declaration of World War One (1914–18), the 23 year old served as a second lieutenant and was sent to the Western Front with his battalion. Captured in the early days of his combat, he remained a prisoner of war in Germany for nearly four years.

During his captivity, Fairweather’s artistic career began, as he sketched and painted and had access to the POW camp library. In his lifetime, Fairweather was one of Australia’s greatest artists who painted some of his most celebrated works in Queensland, on Bribie Island.

Created between 1916 and 1918, this early interior study demonstrates Fairweather’s astute use of line and colour to recreate a moment in time, while also showing his development as an artist. In (Church interior with female figure) c.1916–18 (illustrated), there is a lightness of touch to the simplicity with which Fairweather captures the scene.

Church interior with female figure c.1916-18

Ian Fairweather, Scotland/Australia 1891–1974 / (Church interior with female figure) c.1916-18 / Pencil, watercolour, gouache and ink on grey laid paper / 30.2 x 23cm (irreg.) / Purchased 1983 with the assistance of the Philip Bacon Galleries. John Darnell Bequest / Collection: Queensland Art Gallery | Gallery of Modern Art / © Ian Fairweather/DACS/Copyright Agency

Ian Fairweather, Scotland/Australia 1891–1974 / (Church interior with female figure) c.1916-18 / Pencil, watercolour, gouache and ink on grey laid paper / 30.2 x 23cm (irreg.) / Purchased 1983 with the assistance of the Philip Bacon Galleries. John Darnell Bequest / Collection: Queensland Art Gallery | Gallery of Modern Art / © Ian Fairweather/DACS/Copyright Agency / View full image

Grace Cossington Smith

Grace Cossington Smith (20 April 1892–1984) played a leading role in the development of early twentieth-century art in Australia, her striking paintings symbols of modernity. Church interior c.1941–42 (illustrated) depicts the then-new St James Anglican Church in Turramurra, Sydney (built in 1941), where the artist and her family worshiped, it is one of a small but important group of works the artist made on religious themes. The painting also encapsulates the artist’s concern with colour.

Cossington Smith wrote: All form — landscape, interiors, still life, flowers, animals, people — has an inarticulate grace and beauty; painting to me is expressing this form in colour, colour vibrant with light — but containing this other, silent quality which is unconscious, and belongs to all things created.

Church interior alludes to the impact of World War Two on the home front by the absence of men of enlistment age in the congregation.

Church interior c.1941-42

Grace Cossington Smith, Australia 1892–1984 / Church interior c.1941-42 (inscr. 1937) / Oil with pencil on pulpboard / 55.2 x 42.2cm / Purchased 2001 with funds raised through The Grace Cossington Smith QAG Foundation Appeal / Collection: Queensland Art Gallery | Gallery of Modern Art / © Grace Cossington Smith Estate

Grace Cossington Smith, Australia 1892–1984 / Church interior c.1941-42 (inscr. 1937) / Oil with pencil on pulpboard / 55.2 x 42.2cm / Purchased 2001 with funds raised through The Grace Cossington Smith QAG Foundation Appeal / Collection: Queensland Art Gallery | Gallery of Modern Art / © Grace Cossington Smith Estate / View full image

William Bustard

William Bustard (18 April 1894–1973) was a prolific and talented designer of stained glass windows. This was a skill which he perfected in Europe before emigrating to Australia in 1921. Bustard designed and executed hundreds of stained glass windows in cathedrals, churches and schools in Queensland. Among these were twenty windows for St John’s Cathedral in Brisbane (Sketch for St. Etheldreda illustrated).

The artist’s painting of the interior of the cathedral depicts several of the windows which he had designed and made himself. Bustard apparently took great pleasure in designing windows for the Australian climate with its high key light which was so unlike that which he had been used to in England. In many of his paintings also, Bustard demonstrated his fascination with light. St. John’s Cathedral, Brisbane 1941 (illustrated) is one example of this, and is also one among several paintings he made during this period of similar subjects.

St. John’s Cathedral, Brisbane 1941

William Bustard, England/Australia 1894–1973 / St. John’s Cathedral, Brisbane 1941 / Oil on plywood / 50.1 x 39.6cm / Purchased 1942 / Collection: Queensland Art Gallery | Gallery of Modern Art / © QAGOMA

William Bustard, England/Australia 1894–1973 / St. John’s Cathedral, Brisbane 1941 / Oil on plywood / 50.1 x 39.6cm / Purchased 1942 / Collection: Queensland Art Gallery | Gallery of Modern Art / © QAGOMA / View full image

Sketch for stained glass window, St John’s Cathedral

William Bustard, England/Australia 1894–1973 / Sketch for stained glass window, St John’s Cathedral, Brisbane (St. Etheldreda) / Pencil and watercolour on paper / 115 x 50.5cm / Gift of the John Oxley Library, Brisbane 1977 / Collection: Queensland Art Gallery | Gallery of Modern Art / © William Bustard Estate

William Bustard, England/Australia 1894–1973 / Sketch for stained glass window, St John’s Cathedral, Brisbane (St. Etheldreda) / Pencil and watercolour on paper / 115 x 50.5cm / Gift of the John Oxley Library, Brisbane 1977 / Collection: Queensland Art Gallery | Gallery of Modern Art / © William Bustard Estate / View full image

Curatorial extracts, research and supplementary material compiled by Elliott Murray, Senior Digital Marketing Officer, QAGOMA

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