Alfred Benjamin Coleman is an interesting example of an artist who was able to turn a hobby into a profession in his mature years at a time when the local art scene was flourishing, professional bodies such as art societies were being formed and there was a market for paintings depicting local scenes. Son of Alfred Coleman and Henrietta Palmer, he was born in Collingwood, Melbourne, in 1885, and he worked in the family furniture-making business before devoting himself to art in the 1930s when he was aged in his late forties. At this time he not only painted prolifically, but also developed connections in the local art world. When he died aged sixty-two in 1948, he was eulogised in the Melbourne Argus (4 December 1948, p. 5) as a “well-known landscape and seascape artist” who “frequently exhibited his oils and water-colours in Melbourne galleries.” Furthermore, it was noted that he was “on the council of the Victorian Artists’ Society” and was “a member of the Twenty Painters’ Society, the South Australian Artists’ Society, and the Arts and Crafts Club.”
Whether he undertook any professional artistic training in his youth is unknown. What is clear is that his main occupation listed in entries in Electoral Rolls between 1909 and 1942 was “furniture-maker”. This provided a comfortable income, enabling Coleman to marry Millicent Gagg in 1912 and have a family, a daughter and a son. Beginning in the early 1920s, he lived with his family at “The Wattles”, 259 Como Parade in Mordialloc, a Melbourne suburb on the eastern edge of Port Phillip Bay. In addition to his painting, he seems to have taken an artistic approach to his furniture making: in 1929 “Alfred Coleman (furniture)” was included “among exhibitors who have added fresh laurels to their records” at the annual exhibition of the Arts and Crafts Society of Victoria (Australasian, 5 October 1929, p. 15). And his public career as an artist began in 1930 when his “thoroughly Australian oil painting” (according to an advertisement in the Perth Sunday Times [21 December 1930, p. 26] and other papers), “Near Buchan, Gippsland, Victoria” was reproduced as a “full-page colored supplement” in the “twenty-sixth issue of ‘Australia To-day,’ the national annual produced by the United Commercial Travellers’ Association of Australia.”
Overall, Coleman’s work drew on the example of artists such as Tom Roberts and Arthur Streeton and he concentrated on landscape and coastal scenes, often situated close to his home on Port Phillip Bay. Conservative critics praised his colour and light along with his brushwork, although this could be criticised for being too facile. In the 1940s his approach was seen as old-fashioned by those who advocated a modernist style, but his work appealed to patrons who wished to own an affordable and decorative original painting depicting a recognisable local scene.
Coleman began exhibiting with the Victorian Artists’ Society in 1932: reviewer Harold Herbert included his oil paintings among “works of merit” shown at the April exhibition of the society (Australasian, 30 April 1932, p. 15; see also “Victorian Artists’ Society. Autumn Exhibition”, Age, 23 April 1932, p. 20). From 23 April to 5 May 1934 he held the first of many solo exhibitions at the Athenaeum Gallery. Before he had seen the show, Herbert, writing in the Australasian newspaper (28 April 1934, p. 16), suggested:
‘Artgoers’ will remember his work at exhibitions held by the Victorian Artists’ Society. It was always marked by a strong feeling for colour, and he succeeds in giving us a true version of Australian landscape. The show should be worth while [sic].
Arthur Streeton reviewed the exhibition (Argus, 24 April 1934, p. 5), commenting:
There is considerable diversity in the choice of subjects, and the artist appears at his best in sunny transcripts of the seaside and pictures of old cottages.
But he goes on to suggest,
As far as they go the canvasses are brilliant in light and general effect. Perhaps in some future exhibition we may look for interest in cloud forms. The wonderful form and colour that fill the skies are just as beautiful as anything on the earth: and in a show of landscape, one looks for some of the grandeur constantly moving overhead.
When he reviewed the show (Australasian, 12 May 1934, p. 15), Herbert praised the work as “that of a happy man, untrammelled by the ‘isms’ that engulf others”, albeit somewhat technically deficient in some instances and overly bright in colour on occasion. It is interesting that Coleman included “examples of his carved furniture … all of it the work of a consummate craftsman”, prompting Herbert to conclude: “Two strings to a bow! He must surely be a happy man.”
In September 1934, Coleman included his carved woodwork in the Annual Exhibition of the Victorian Arts and Crafts Society:
stools ready for tapestry coverings, solid carved and polished book-ends, boxes, and a beautiful tray carved out of a solid piece of Queensland maple, copied from an antique (Australasian, 22 September 1934, p. 15).
In April 1935, he again exhibited with the Victorian Artists’ Society at their autumn exhibition; Streeton wrote that Coleman, “in No. 50, ‘Idle Boats,’ and No. 53, ‘In the Hills, Corryong,’ shows expressions of Nature of great promise” (Argus, 25 April 1935, p. 5). Later that year, responding to a solo exhibition at the Athenaeum Galleries, Louis McCubbin concluded:
Impressionistic in aim, Mr. Coleman exploits a wide field of subjects, ranging from the seaside and shipping on the Yarra, to the rivers and snow-capped mountains of Northern Victoria. Though his pictures do not give any sensation of weight or substance in the country and objects he portrays, his colour is pleasant and harmonious.
Mr. Coleman’s best work is to be seen in two panoramic views No. 11, ‘Neerim,’ and No. 12, ‘Murray Valley,’ No. 5, ‘The Fog,’ a charming atmospheric study; No. 30, ‘Idle Boats,’ No. 40, ‘At the Foot of the Ranges,’ fresh and sparkling in colour; and No. 48, ‘The Schnapper Fleet’ (Argus, 22 October 1935, p. 10; see also Harold Herbert, ‘Landscapes in Oils’, Australasian, 9 November 1935, p. 17).
More furniture was included in this exhibition, described in the Age (22 October 1935, p. 9) as “a number of articles of furniture designed as replicas of Elizabethan and medieval models” whose “construction shows skill and adaptability.”
After this time, Coleman seems to have concentrated on exhibiting his paintings. Herbert continued to champion his work, arguing in 1936 (Australasian, 9 May 1936, p. 18) that he “is a keen observer, and his work is improving every year” and assuring the public that “his work is good” in 1938 (Argus, 1 November 1938, p. 7; see also Age, 1 November 1938, p. 16). In the latter year, Coleman’s solo exhibition was at the Kozminsky Galleries in Collins Street, Melbourne. In 1941 Herbert considered that Coleman “has gone ahead by leaps and bounds in the last year or so” (Argus, 4 November 1941, p. 3) while in 1944 he had “made almost a meteoric episode of his art career”:
It is not many years ago since he first exhibited with the Victorian Artists’ Society. I liked his work then. I like it now, and to me it symbolises a simple purity, both of colour and the painting of light. These sound and desirable principles were adhered to by Streeton, Longstaff, Roberts, and others. There is no bunkum about Mr Coleman’s work. He paints in a trained, workmanlike manner with a fine touch of able discretion, which lifts him completely above the ordinary. He possesses good taste in both subject matter and selection. His technique is brisk and sure (Argus, 25 July 1944, p. 6).
The anonymous Age critic was more circumspect in the early 1940s, being concerned in 1941 about a slight “tendency to ‘slickness’ of brush work and the over-stressing of color [sic]” in some of Coleman’s work (4 November 1941, p. 7; see also Age, 13 October 1942, p. 4). However, Coleman’s 1944 exhibition at the Athenaeum received a glowing endorsement in the Age with the artist being described as “one of our deservedly notable painters” who “maintains his vim and his quality in 60 painted scenes, none like the rest, but each full of animation and radiant pictorial happiness” (25 July 1944, p. 3). It is interesting that some of the variety was made possible by the practice of touring the countryside with a caravan to seek out new subjects (Argus, 4 January 1947, p. 11).
Alan McCulloch’s more critical voice is first heard in 1945, when he described Coleman as being “handicapped … by a penchant for picture making” (Argus, 11 September 1945, p. 12). Likewise in 1946, McCulloch accused Coleman’s work as being “well pleased with itself. The obvious result of much hard practice, it deals with the clever and efficient representation of subjects dear to the heart of most Australians” (Argus, 12 June 1946, p. 6). It was populist work designed for easy appeal. A friend of the artist, John S. Loxton, continued in the more laudatory vein, however, arguing in 1948:
Mr Coleman has played his part by precept and example in the maintaining of those standards of sane, sound observation and trained craftsmanship which are the basis of expression in art (Argus, 20 April 1948, p. 5).
Coleman also sought recognition in competitions. In 1940, his work received a mention from the judge, conservative art critic and gallery director James Stuart MacDonald, when it was entered for the Woodward Prize at the Bendigo Art Gallery (Age, 8 May 1940, p. 12). He was a finalist in the Wynn Art Prize in 1940 (Timber Bridge and Golden Point, Castlemaine) and again in 1942 (The Murray Valley). His work was also included in some collections: three of his paintings were in an Australian Academy of Art painting collection loaned to the Governor-General of Australia in 1946 (Telegraph [Brisbane], 9 February 1946, p. 5), and “the municipal collection at Shepparton” had some examples (Argus (Melbourne), 15 July 1950, p. 8). After his death, his oil painting entitled Autumn Charm was awarded the Albury Art Prize for 1952 by William Dargie. This is one of two works by Coleman now in the collection of the Murray Art Museum Albury.
- Writers:
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- Date written:
- 2016
- Last updated:
- 2016
