Herbert Rose, painter and printmaker, was born in Windsor, Melbourne, in 1890, the son of George Rose, a well-known photographer, who established the Rose Stereograph Company and later turned his skill to Rose Series Postcards. After attending school at All Saints Grammar along with his brother Walter, Herbert Rose assisted his father in the family business. However, his interest in art later led him to enroll at the National Gallery School, where he studied under the tutelage of L. Bernard Hall from 1914-18. Following the encouragement of his mother, Rose traveled throughout New South Wales and Victoria, painting oils of the Australian bush.
Whilst drawing inspiration from the Australian landscape, Herbert Rose was also interested in depicting the picturesque scenes of distant lands. Following his interest, he ventured abroad and visited places such as France, England, Italy, Spain, Morocco and Tunis, at the same time recording the sunlit villages, towns and landscapes that he witnessed on his travels. His compositions repeatedly returned to the evocation of natural light, for which he was best well known, receiving glowing tributes from fellow artists and critics Harold Herbert, Arthur Streeton, Will Ashton and Charles Bryant. Described as a ‘Painter of Sunlight’ in the catalogue accompanying an exhibition of his work at Sedon Galleries, Melbourne, in 1937, he experimented with the depiction of full sunlight, overcast, ‘grey’ light and the difficulty of portraying luminous reflected light in sun-baked vistas. Rather than limiting his work in landscape to scenes of the natural environment, Rose developed a keen aptitude for rendering the architectural details of ancient bridges and buildings.
Rose exhibited his work in Australia, the United States of America and Europe. In the 1930s, his work was repeatedly represented at the Royal Academy (1932-33, 1935-36) and the Paris Salon (1935-36), reflecting the critical heights of international recognition that Rose had attained as an artist. According to the Melbourne newspaper, The Argus, in 1937, Rose had also won prizes at an exhibition of etchings at the Los Angeles gallery.
Tragically, at the beginning of 1937, whilst traveling overland from Paris to India, where he intended to sketch, Rose contracted smallpox in Delhi and passed away within a week at the age of 46. Following his death, a collection of his oil paintings, watercolours, drawing and etchings, was exhibited at Sedon Galleries, which had previously held similar exhibitions of Rose’s work, with Arthur Streeton as the speaker for the official opening. Receiving popular praise in local newspapers such as The Argus, The Herald and The Age, critics lamented the loss of an artist at the pinnacle of his career. Another exhibition was held at the Sedon Galleries in 1939, presenting the works that had since been returned to Australia by the artist’s London and Scottish agents.
The art of Herbert Rose is represented in the National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne; Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney and the Art Gallery of South Australia, Adelaide.
- Writers:
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- Date written:
- 2012
- Last updated:
- 2012
