Design and Art Australia Online

John Wesley Burtt, painter, was born in London, the eldest son of John and Mary Anne Burtt. His father John Goulson Burtt (1809 -1901) was an ironmonger. Burtt Snr arrived in Port Phillip in the Strathfieldsaye in April 1853, bringing a cargo of hardware. He established a retail store in Russell Street and appears to have made more than one voyage between England and the colony. In 1858 he again sailed from Britain with his wife Mary Anne, three other sons and a daughter, in the Eagle. The exact date John Wesley emigrated has not been confirmed, but he was resident in Melbourne by 1860 when the Melbourne Directories list him as the proprietor of a family business at the Eastern Market in Bourke Street.

John Goulson Burtt became reasonably prominent in Melbourne public life. He was a vocal advocate of social reform, a supporter of the Temperance movement and the Church of Christ. He was elected to parliament, representing North Melbourne from 1864 to 1874.

Why John Wesley Burtt chose to become a painter is unknown. It appears unlikely Burtt had any formal art training in Britain before emigrating. The earliest notice of Burtt’s work as a painter is in the Argus describing him as a “young artist” and mentioning the “...slight means he has had of acquiring art-education…” (27 August 1869 p.4).

Burtt appears to have had the support of his family in this choice of career. When the Victorian Academy of Art was established in 1870 J W Burtt is listed as a foundation member, and J G Burtt MLA as a subscriber. Burtt Snr supported the interests of his sons and son-in-law during his parliamentary career, giving rise to accusations of nepotism (see for example the Argus, 17 January 1868 p.6, 30 April 1879 p.8 and Melbourne Punch 7 March 1872 p.73). Father and son shared a home in North Fitzroy until Burtt Snr died aged 92, in 1901.

Burtt exhibited a number of works in colonial exhibitions during the late 1860s and 1870s. These were predominantly copies of paintings in the Melbourne Art Gallery (later the National Gallery of Victoria), or portraits of public figures, such as Members of Parliament.

The first public display of Burtt’s work was the inclusion of six portraits of unidentified 'gentlemen’ and eight copies of works in the 1869 Melbourne Public Library exhibition. The copies included Rachel at the Well, Sheep in Repose, Melancthon and News from Australia.

Burtt exhibited these copies, and some identified portraits, in subsequent exhibitions: the Geelong Mechanics Institute exhibition of 1869, the Ballarat fine arts exhibition in July 1869 and the Intercolonial Exhibition held in Sydney during August 1870.

Burtt contributed three portraits to the First Victorian Academy of Fine Arts in 1870, copies being ineligible for hanging in the Academy show. The critics were not kind – the Argus thought the portraits of Sir Charles Darling KCB and the Hon Sir James McCulloch were characterized by “imperfect drawing” and the “Portrait of a Lady” seemed to be wearing a wig put on “all awry” (Argus 1 December 1870 p.7).

It has been speculated this portrait of Sir Charles Darling is the painting now in this State Library of Victoria collection. There is no evidence to support this claim. Indeed the portrait was presented to the National Gallery in 1890, when both the artist and his father were alive, and they would surely have claimed credit for the work if it had been painted by Burtt.

Later Burtt exhibited a View of Hobart Town in the Victorian Intercolonial Exhibition of 1875, and twelve paintings in the Intercolonial Exhibition of 1876 held in Brisbane. Two of his works, Suburban Melbourne and Portrait of J. Bosisto MP were included in the Victorian court of the Intercolonial exhibition held in London in 1886. In 1888 the Melbourne Turn Verein (German choral society) commissioned a portrait of their president, Her W. Weibaden, from him (Argus 28 April 1888 p.13).

The current location of these works is unknown. The only painting positively attributed to Burtt is the large work, Batman’s treaty with the Aborigines at Merri Creek, 6th June 1835, now in the State Library of Victoria collection.

Exactly when Burtt created this work has been open to speculation. The painting is not dated, and the date of publication has been erased from the pamphlet Burtt produced to promote the work. (Only two copies of the pamphlet are known to exist, both held by the National Library of Australia.)

The first identified report on the painting is an article in Table Talk in 1892. The journal notes a “collection of paintings by Mr Westley (sic) Burtt” now on view in a Gallery at 263 Collins Street and goes on to describe in some detail the principal picture of the exhibition as “a large canvas representing Batman completing his treaty with the aborigines by which he acquired…nearly the whole of the land between Merri Creek…” (Table Talk 23 December 1892 p.3). This is most likely the painting now in the Library collection.

Burtt made a lithographic key for the Batman painting. A copy of the lithograph has been held by the State Library of Victoria since the early 1930s, and originally described as The First Victorian Land Syndicate. This was also the title used by Burtt for an item exhibited at the Centennial International Exhibition, Melbourne 1888-89. No reviews of the exhibition mention this work (which for some reason was included in the Tasmanian court) so it is difficult to determine if this is the Batman painting, the lithograph or another now unknown work.

Contemporary reports indicate the Batman painting hung in the Executive Chamber of the Victorian Treasury building during the 1890s (Table Talk 12 June 1896 pp.3-4).

The Batman painting was one of three works exhibited by Burtt at the Australian Natives Association exhibition in 1907, alongside a portrait of William Haines, first Premier of Victoria, and a landscape of the Buffalo Ranges.

At the ANA exhibition Burtt sold the Batman painting to an estate agent, W G King, for £50. The work changed hands at least three times in the next few years. In 1911 a dispute over the ownership of the painting lead to a court case (Argus 25 January 1911 p.15, Age 16 February 1911 p.10).

After an appeal the court awarded joint ownership of the painting to two men, Mr Robert Allen and Mr W. Blackden Worsley. (Burtt was described during the court case as a clerk employed by Mr Allen, of Allen Brothers leather merchants, Collingwood.) Worsley then arranged for the painting to be hung in Northcote town hall, close to the scene depicted in the work.

In 1932 the painting was borrowed by the Trustees of the Public Library for a historical display. It remained on loan and was included in the Victorian Historical Exhibition of 1934, held to mark one hundred years of white settlement in Victoria. At the outbreak of World War II the owners, Mr Allen and Mr Worsley, expressed a wish that the painting remain in the Library’s care, and it was formally accessioned into the collection in 1992.

At the time of the court case in 1911, Burtt stated his studio was located in St Kilda. The location of the studio and any public exhibitions of his work after 1907 are currently unknown.

Burtt died in Fitzroy in 1917. He was buried in Melbourne General Cemetery near his mother and brothers, who had all predeceased him. He left no estate for probate.

Writers:

Say, Madeleine Note:

Date written:

2010

Last updated:

2011

Status:

peer-reviewed