Painter John Peter Russell was born on 16 June 1858 in Darlinghurst, Sydney, the son of John Russell of P.N. Russell & Co, which was responsible for much of 19th century Sydney’s ironwork. As he was destined to be an engineer he was not educated in a grammar school but instead attended Garroogigang boarding school in Goulburn before departing for Lincoln where he became a “gentleman apprentice” at Robey & Co in Lincoln, England. He returned to Sydney in 1879, making watercolour sketches on the way. After his father, who had relocated to London, died suddenly in December 1879 Russell reconsidered his career. His considerable inheritance gave him the freedom to become an artist. In 1880 he returned to Europe via Auckland Honolulu and San Francisco. In London, on 5 January 1881, he enrolled in the Slade School of Art in London, where he studied under under Alphonse Legros. He took a break from his studied in early 1882 to return to Sydney where he publicly advocated for art education in NSW and exhibited with the Art Society of NSW in 1882 and 1883. He also donated prizes for “the best designs in figure and foliage subjects in black and white”.
On his return to Europe in the summer of 1883 he met again with his friends Tom Roberts and William Maloney, and with his brother Percy they travelled to Spain – admiring the art of the Prado and the architecture of the south, especially Granada. He re-enrolled at the Slade in October. In early 1884 he visited Paris to see the Manet retrospective and later that year painted in Cornwall, but by November he was living in Paris, at 73 Boulevarde de Clichy, Monmartre.
After initially enrolling at the Académie Julian, popular with international students, he changed to the Atelier Cormon, also in the Boulevarde de Clichy. His fellow students included Toulouse Lautrec, Emile Bernard and Vincent van Gogh, who became a close friend. In 1885 he began living with the beautiful Sicilian model Marianna Mattiocco, who later became his wife.
In 1886 they visited Belle-Île, off the coast of Brittany. Russell introduced himself to Claude Monet who was painting the wild coast, and was able to accompany him, absorbing his technique. The following year Russell bought land at Belle-Île and built a large house, known in the district as “Le Château Anglais”. In 1888 Russell and Marianna married and to honour his beautiful wife Russell approached the sculptor Auguste Rodin to make a portrait bust of her, cast in silver. The sculptor became close friends with the Russell family, and made further sculptures with Madame Russell as the subject.
In 1895 and 1896 the Russell family wintered in Antibes, which became the subject of many of his paintings. In the summers of 1896 and 1897 Russell befriended the young Henri Matisse, who made a series of loose painterly works under the Australian’s influence. Later Russell was to give Matisse one of his Van Gogh drawings, Haystacks, 1888.
Although the Russells frequently visited Paris it was not until 1904 that they established a permanent home at Neuilly-sur-Seine, which enabled them to send their sons to school in the capital. They still spent at least six months of the year at Belle-Île, and it was here, after Marianne’s death on 30 March 1908 that she was buried.
After her death Russell sold the house at Belle-Île, ended the lease on the house in Paris and travelled with his daughter Jeanne to Switzerland and then Italy. In 1912 he remarried Caroline de Witt Merrill, a singer who was his daughter’s friend.
In 1915 the family moved to London, where Russell assisted in the War effort, making wheelchairs for the wounded. His five adult sons served in the army and Cedric was awarded a Military Cross. Russell had previously been visited in Paris by his cousin Thea Proctor and their friendship was renewed in London. After the War the Russell family returned to France and Italy, but in 1921 they left Europe for Australia.
In Sydney Thea Proctor encouraged him to engage with the art community, but other than a small exhibition for the Sydney Camera Circle in 1922 he did not do so. The same year he and Caroline travelled to New Zealand to establish his son Siward on a citrus farm and returned to Sydney two years later to live in a fisherman’s cottage at Watson’s Bay on Sydney Harbour. He was visited there by his old friends Tom Roberts and William Maloney, and on 22 April 1930 in Sydney, aged 71, died of a heart attack.
- Writers:
- Gray, Dr Anne Note: Head of Australian Art, National Gallery of Australia, Canberra, ACT
- Date written:
- 2004
- Last updated:
- 2018
