Design and Art Australia Online

Rudolph David Buchner was a Sydney photographer whose parents Abraham and Leah lived in Manly.

There is no record of Buchner’s training as a photographer, but from the age of twenty-one he worked with evident accomplishment from a studio in the Albert Buildings, 110 Bathurst street, Sydney, advertising that his portraits “possess Individuality, Character, and much Charm.”

His sitters included leading English actress Dame Alice Ellen Terry GBE (1847 – 1928) whom Julia Margaret Cameron had photographed in 1864; architect Walter Burley Griffin, Louise Lovely (born Nellie Louise Carbasse) credited as being the first Australian actress to have a success in Hollywood; artist Elioth Gruner on the eve of his departure to Europe in 1923; writer Dame Mary Gilmore; the trick roller-skater Jacob ‘Yarka’ Lewis; Will Lawson (1876 – 1957) a popular bush poet, novelist, journalist and historian of Australia; Australian politician Hector Lamond (1865 – 1947) Nationalist Party member of the Australian House of Representatives 1917-1922, representing the electorate of Illawarra; Raymond Gosford Watt (1889-1967), lecturer, broadcaster and public relations consultant and foundation member of the New South Wales League of Nations Union (LNU); Mary Proctor FRAS FRMetS (1862 – 1957) a British-American populariser of astronomy; Alexander Prince (1874 – 1928) Scottish early 20th-century vaudeville musician and recording artist who played the concertina; Australian novelist and playwright Louis Stone (1871 – 1935); American pioneer film actor, director and producer Fred Niblo (Frederick Liedtke; 1874 – 1948); stage and film actor Field Fisher; British actor and vocalist Derek Hudson; English musical comedy actress Gertrude Glyn; English baritone singer Robert Henry Kennerley Rumford (1870 – 1957) was an ; and Australian stage and film actor Gertrude Boswell.

Buchner’s portraits, signed by him in an art nouveau lettering style, were of significant Australians and visiting performers from overseas. They appeared from about 1912 in The Lone Hand, The Home, The Bulletin, The Sydney Morning Herald and other publications.

In 1914, Buchner donated a guinea to the Central Sydney Synagogue building fund. The outbreak of World War I interrupted his practice as he was relocating to San Francisco and Porterville, California . In Victoria, British Columbia, Canada in September 1917 he joined the Canadian Expeditionary Forces hoping “to be transferred to the Australian forces when he reaches London” where the family had relatives. However, on 23 November 1917 he was discharged 'unfit for service’ due to an unspecified cause under Kings Regulations and Orders for the Canadian Militia 1910 Para 322 (2) C., and after 'good conduct’.

Buchner returned after the War and operated his studio, at least after his father’s death in 1925, from the seventh floor of the Manchester Unity Building, 51 Castlereagh Street, Sydney, after which his pictures were published less frequently. His distinctive full-length portrait of Elioth Gruner was made in during this period in 1923 and the more conventional head-and-shoulders framing of Raymond Watt was made in 1936. In an effort to regain a more illustrious clientele he advertised in 1931 for a 'lady…well known socially’ to represent him.

In his years after 1945 Buchner was an art dealer and may have spent time overseas, but applied in 1956 for registration of a shop in Wentworthville, and lived in Turramurra and North Ryde.

Buchner died on 19 Jan 1972 and is buried in Rookwood General Cemetery in Sydney. He was declared intestate on 27 Oct 1972.

Grace Bros. Pty Ltd. under the Warehousemens Liens Act advertised overdue storage charges on Buchner’s goods in their possession, warning that they would be auctioned to cover costs. F. R. Strange conducted the auction of the “collection in the Estate of the late Rudolph Buchner [of] over 300 paintings, 17th, 18th and 19th century British, Conntnental and Australian schools. Also a wide range of drawings and prints, some pantings by Mr Buchner, art books and specially made painting transport cases.” Advertising for the auction reached The Washington Post which on 25 March 1972 announced a “Big Art Collection Sold for $13,000” but erroneously states that Buchner had come to Australia in the 1930s.

Buchner’s photograph of Dame Mary Gilmore in 1912 is collected with several others in the Mitchell Library (State Library of New South Wales) and was included in Helen Ennis’s exhibition Mirror with a Memory (Canberra: National Portrait Gallery, 2000) and his portrait of silent film actress Louise Carbasse appeared in Glorious Days at the National Museum of Australia from 7 March to 13 October 2013.

Writers:

Staff Writer
James McArdle

Date written:

1999

Last updated:

2024