What is under the jacaranda: Keeping the painting under glass

R. Godfrey Rivers, England/Australia 1858-1925 / Under the jacaranda 1903 / Oil on canvas / 143.4 x 107.2 cm / Purchased 1903 / Collection: Queensland Art Gallery | Gallery of Modern Art / Photograpg: Natasha Harth

R. Godfrey Rivers, England/Australia 1858-1925 / Under the jacaranda 1903 / Oil on canvas / 143.4 x 107.2 cm / Purchased 1903 / Collection: Queensland Art Gallery | Gallery of Modern Art / Photograpg: Natasha Harth / View full image

It’s that time of the year in Brisbane when purple reigns with a lavender canopy covering the city from October to November — and of course, our own version, captured in oil — a signal that spring is here and summer is on its way.

The jacaranda painted by R. (Richard) Godfrey Rivers (1858-1925) is believed to be the first tree grown in Australia, planted in the Brisbane Botanic Gardens in 1864. Today they are scattered throughout the city with many of the trees grown from the seeds and cuttings of this first jacaranda — including the saplings given to new mothers in the 1930s and ‘40s to accompany them home from hospital.

When visiting the Queensland Art Gallery’s Australian Art Collection, you will notice that Under the jacaranda 1903 is framed under glass (well, actually under non-reflective acrylic glazing). The frame allows the glazing to be spaced away from the paint layers to prevent any paint transfer or abrasion. Incorporating glazing into a frame is a common preventive treatment to protect paint layers from both an inquisitive viewer’s interaction and the ageing effects of climate. As the tree was blown over by a cyclone in 1979 we are keen to keep this version safe from harm. Read on as we continue our series that delves behind-the-surface of our Collection favourite.

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R Godfrey Rivers ‘Under the jacaranda’ 1903

R. Godfrey Rivers, England/Australia 1858-1925 / Under the jacaranda 1903 / Oil on canvas / 143.4 x 107.2 cm / Purchased 1903 / Collection: Queensland Art Gallery | Gallery of Modern Art / Photograph: Natasha Harth

R. Godfrey Rivers, England/Australia 1858-1925 / Under the jacaranda 1903 / Oil on canvas / 143.4 x 107.2 cm / Purchased 1903 / Collection: Queensland Art Gallery | Gallery of Modern Art / Photograph: Natasha Harth / View full image

Under the jacaranda was surface cleaned in 2009 to remove layers of dirt. Rivers did not varnish this painting, so the dirt is absorbed directly with the paint over time. To reduce the number of times this painting will require cleaning in the future, after the careful cleaning, a protective layer of glazing was incorporated into its frame.

Detail showing surface cleaning

Under the jacaranda 1903 / Detail showing surface cleaning (during treatment) with cleaned area on the left / Photograph: Anne Carter

Under the jacaranda 1903 / Detail showing surface cleaning (during treatment) with cleaned area on the left / Photograph: Anne Carter / View full image

Detail of paint cracking

Under the jacaranda 1903 / Detail of paint cracking in parasol / 18 x magnification / Photograph: Gillian Osmond

Under the jacaranda 1903 / Detail of paint cracking in parasol / 18 x magnification / Photograph: Gillian Osmond / View full image

Under the jacaranda 1903 / Detail of fallen petals in lower right of painting showing paint cracking / 18 x magnification / Photograph: Gillian Osmond

Under the jacaranda 1903 / Detail of fallen petals in lower right of painting showing paint cracking / 18 x magnification / Photograph: Gillian Osmond / View full image

Most importantly, research undertaken found that the oil paint favored by Rivers is susceptible to metal soap formation and in his paintings it manifests as fragile and sensitive paint.

Looking at the painting, you would not imagine the chemical activities going on at a molecular level within the paint layers, however if we look at a cross section, you can see numerous dark round hollows, most obviously throughout the bluer paint sandwiched between the alizarin and madder lake containing layers. These are even more obvious as dark ‘holes’ in the Backscatter electron image.

Under the microscope

Under the jacaranda / Left: Backscatter electron image (Centre for microscopy and microanalysis, University of Queensland) Right: Visible light

Under the jacaranda / Left: Backscatter electron image (Centre for microscopy and microanalysis, University of Queensland) Right: Visible light / View full image

Many of these hollows contain an irregularly shaped core. Unlike the presence of original cobalt blue pigment particles and crimson paint, these hollows reflect changes in paint chemistry that have occurred over time. In this case zinc white pigment, which was present in Rivers’ lead white paint, has reacted away to form ‘zinc soaps’. Unfortunately for Rivers and for us, the presence of these zinc soaps in his painting is not good news. Rivers’ paint is left brittle and fragile by such widespread soap formation.

Detail of paint cracking

Under the jacaranda 1903 / Detail of bottom left corner / Photograph: Anne Carter

Under the jacaranda 1903 / Detail of bottom left corner / Photograph: Anne Carter / View full image

Glazing also allows visitors to get nice and close to the painting without any risk to the paint layers. You can see in the detail where the painting has been poked from the front — likely by an inquisitive finger (illustrated). A concentric circle of cracking has developed radiating out from this contact. Often such cracking will not be noticeable until years after an event. The effects of fluctuations in temperature and humidity allow the stress to the paint layers to become visible over time — especially in paint layers we already know to be fragile.

There are many reasons why this much loved painting requires our ongoing care and protection, just some of these have been detailed in this art conservation series.

Anne Carter is Conservator, Paintings, QAGOMA
Gillian Osmond is Conservator, Paintings, QAGOMA
Paint samples were originally prepared in 2001 by former Senior Conservator John Hook, QAGOMA

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    Go back in time when Brisbane was a busy shipping port

    Paintings of Brisbane by Isaac Walter Jenner (1836-1902) such as Brisbane from Bowen Terrace, New Farm 1888 (illustrated) and View of Brisbane 1885 (illustrated) are on display in the upcoming exhibition ‘Isaac Walter Jenner: A feeling for Light’ at the Queensland Art Gallery from 2 September 2023 – 28 January 2024. The exhibition explores the evocative paintings of the English born artist, a self-taught marine and landscape painter who spent eighteen years in Brisbane and was a major force in the city’s burgeoning cultural life. Such paintings at the time of their execution supplied the population of Brisbane with artistic impressions of their new home, and in some ways validating it — art as a sense of place — and for us viewing the paintings today, as historical records of the busy shipping life of the young port city. At the age of 47 Jenner travelled to Australia with his wife and seven children, and his eldest daughter Mary Ellen’s fiance. During his stay, Jenner worked tirelessly to secure opportunities where artists could show and sell their work. Jenner spent eighteen years in Brisbane and was a major force in the burgeoning cultural life of the young city. Following his arrival in Brisbane in 1883, he lobbied for a public art gallery, exhibited widely, held art unions, and with fellow artists Oscar Friström (1856 –1918) (illustrated) and LWK Wirth (1858 –1950) was instrumental in the development of, and a founding member of the Queensland Art Society in 1887 and also lobbied consistently for the establishment of a national gallery in Queensland. From 1887 Jenner had a private teaching studio at the Brisbane Technical College and from his studio at Taringa attracted leading Queensland artists, among them he encouraged Brisbane artist JJ Hilder (1881–1916) (illustrated). Oscar Friström ‘View of Scarborough’ 1899 JJ Hilder ‘Island schooner, Moreton Bay’ 1910 When the Queensland National Art Gallery opened in 1895, Jenner was one of the first three artists to present a painting for the Gallery’s founding collection with Cape Chudleigh, Coast of Labrador 1893 (reworked 1895) (illustrated), together with R Godfrey Rivers (1858-1925) with Woolshed, New South Wales 1890 (illustrated), and Oscar Friström with Duramboi 1893 (illustrated). The painting of the Coast of Labrador, imagined fifty years after the event and half a world away, is a romantic recollection from Jenner’s voyages to the frozen North with the distant crimson glow suggesting the fate of a ship which disappeared during a failed expedition to discover the North-West Passage from the Atlantic to the Pacific Ocean. The tragedy captured popular imagination during the nineteenth century. Isaac Walter Jenner ‘Cape Chudleigh, Coast of Labrador’ 1893 R. Godfrey Rivers ‘Woolshed, New South Wales’ 1890 Oscar Friström ‘Duramboi’ 1893 Jenner was an untrained artist, who, after serving as a seaman with the Royal Navy (illustrated), retired at the age of 29 to Brighton, England, to pursue a career in art. Though this might be perceived as a somewhat unconventional decision, Jenner undoubtedly had a natural, conservatively expressed talent and he achieved moderate success in England. His first-hand experience of ships and the sea made it inevitable that he should become primarily a marine painter. As a seaman, Jenner was knowledgeable about the construction and rigging of ships; he also worked as a ship’s painter, which included doing decorative work and signwriting.It is likely that Jenner would have observed marine artists at work on board ships throughout his naval career. Isaac Walter Jenner serving in the Royal Navy As historical documents, Jenner’s paintings of early Brisbane record the busy shipping life of the municipality. This is particularly true of Brisbane from Bowen Terrace, New Farm, not only for its depiction of early Brisbane, but especially of the rigging of the ships, which testify to Jenner’s love and knowledge of the sea. The main ship in the painting is the RMS Quetta (illustrated), which was regularly used on the London-Brisbane ocean mail service. A photograph of a similar view appeared in a local paper in 1895. In 1890, two years after Jenner completed this painting, the RMS Quetta sank in Torres Strait. Isaac Walter Jenner ‘Brisbane from Bowen Terrace, New Farm’ 1888 RMS Quetta The outlook employed by Jenner in Brisbane from Bowen Terrace, New Farm was ideal for capturing the impressive sweep of the Brisbane River and its lively traffic, with the rising cityscape in the background. The popularity of this vantage point is confirmed by several contemporary photographs, and by engraved illustrations in the Picturesque Atlas of Australasia that feature the same scene. Quite a few of Jenner’s compositions resemble individual engravings in the volume of the atlas that deals with views of Queensland. Though it has been suggested that the artist produced some of these paintings as ‘speculative’ works for the publication, it is more likely that Jenner himself was taking inspiration from the large pool of popular illustrative material that was in circulation at this time. The engravings appeared in the first volume of the atlas published in 1883, thus pre-dating Jenner’s paintings by several years. Onésime Reclus ‘Contemporary views of Brisbane’ Brisbane from Bowen Terrace Frederic B Schell ‘Brisbane from Bowen Terrace’ RMS Quetta Jenner’s View of Brisbane (illustrated) also seem to be based on sources available in the Picturesque Atlas. This is not to suggest that Jenner was not personally familiar with the sites featured. Rather, his adoption of the viewpoints indicates that the rendering of these scenes had already become a pictorial convention. 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    Go back in time to an evening at Dutton Park in Brisbane

    Evening (Mt Coot-tha from Dutton Park) 1898 (illustrated) is an accomplished work of a painter aware of the work of his Australian contemporaries Tom Roberts, Arthur Streeton and Charles Conder. FJ (Frederick James) Martyn Roberts, born in 1871 was 27 at the time he completed Evening using the Australian impressionists broad-brushed technique to depict the landscape looking toward South Brisbane with Mt. Coot-tha in the distance. Dutton Park, an inner southern suburb is bordered by Highgate Hill, Fairfield and Woolloongabba, and is only 3kms from Brisbane’s CBD. Development in the suburb was relatively slow because of difficult terrain as the area was originally heavily timbered with deep gullies, initially a farming area, however by around the 1890s, the area became increasingly populated. You can see similar perspectives photographed in 1884 taken from O’Rielly’s Hill (now Highgate Hill) looking across West End (then South Brisbane) towards Toowong, with Mt. Coot-tha in the distance with the unsealed road now Dornoch Terrace. Contemporary photography of the Brisbane River from Dutton Park in 1914 and later are a good indication as to what Martyn Roberts would have seen, with views documented from Mt Coot-tha looking back to Dutton Park showing the Brisbane River snaking through the recently formed municipality. Contemporary views from Dutton Park Contemporary view from Mt. Coot-tha to Dutton Park Although artists like R Godfrey Rivers, perhaps Brisbane’s most prominent artist of the time when Evening… was painted, best known for Under the jacaranda 1903, he was not overtly influenced by the techniques of the Australian impressionists, however, the style was not unknown in Brisbane. All the significant artists working in the style came from the southern states — a number of works that had been influenced by the movement were being created and exhibited in Brisbane. The inclusion of works by prominent southern artists, including Julian Ashton, Sydney Long and Tom Roberts, in the Queensland Art Society Annual Exhibitions during the 1890s was greeted with enthusiasm by local reviewers and artists. There was optimism that a continued presence by these artists would assist the development of the local art scene, and although few continued to exhibit with the Society after the turn of the century, and the works sent were not of the highest quality, Brisbane did experience at least a limited exposure to their work. The most notable Brisbane artist experimenting with the style was a student and colleague of Rivers, FJ Martyn Roberts, whose painting Evening shows that by 1898, at least one influential local artist was using the impressionists technique to depict a landscape in the afterglow — a favourite pictorial device of the Heidelberg School artists. Roberts had spent a short time in Sydney during the 1890s under the tutelage of Julian Ashton, and he had painted en plein air with a number of other members of Sydney’s avant-garde. FJ Martyn Roberts ‘Evening (Mt Coot-tha from Dutton Park)’ 1988 Evening was immediately recognised as a ‘modern’ work at its display in the Queensland Art Society’s 1898 Annual Exhibition. Roberts’s painting shared the Society’s prizes that year and the Brisbane Courier reviewed the work with guarded enthusiasm: Mr Roberts is an impressionist, and an exponent of much of the broad modern school of work… Altogether the picture is a very vigorous and distinctly convincing suggestion, and a promise of the future excellence of the artist is contained in it. Roberts’s style attracted much local attention, and many years later it was regretted that he had not been able to paint more prolifically, due to his teaching commitments at the Brisbane Technical College where he succeeded Rivers as Supervisor of the Art Department. He was somewhat in advance of his time … had the opportunity been his to continue more as a practising painter than as a tutor he would have held a place to-day with Streeton, Gruner, and Lambert. His work and that of Streeton was [sic] very similar in those far-off days. Edited extract from ‘Looking for the ‘Beau Mode’ in Brisbane: Godfrey Rivers Under the jacaranda‘ by Sara Tiffin from Brought to Light: Australian Art 1850-1965, Queensland Art Gallery, 1998. Curatorial extracts, research and supplementary material compiled by Elliott Murray, Senior Digital Marketing Officer, QAGOMA FJ Martyn Roberts FJ Martyn Roberts was a major influence on students and artists in Brisbane. He began teaching in 1894 at the South Brisbane Technical College and after a number of moves within the system was appointed Supervisor of the Arts Department at the Central Technical College in 1916 following the resignation of R Godfrey Rivers in 1915. Roberts held this position until his retirement in 1936 despite widespread public agitation to have his appointment extended. Noted artists among his pupils at the Technical College were Lloyd Rees and Daphne Mayo.