Max Meldrum was born on 3 December 1875 in Edinburgh, Scotland, the son of a chemist. In 1889, aged 14, he emigrated to Australia with his family. He studied at the National Gallery School, Melbourne, from 1892-1899.
In 1900 Meldrum travelled to Europe with the assistance of a National Gallery Travelling Scholarship, and in 1900-1901 he studied at the Académie Julian and the Académie Colarossi in Paris. Finding he was out of sympathy with the academic theories being taught, he soon abandoned formal study. Like others at this time, he was influenced by Velasquez’s paintings and approach to art. After visiting his family in Edinburgh, he returned to Paris in 1902, and subsequently moved to Pacé, a village in Brittany, to study in 'the school of nature’. Among his best known work is Pitcherit’s Farm c.1910 (National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne).
Meldrum returned to Melbourne in 1911, and from 1916-1926 he ran the Meldrum School of Painting. Here he advanced his theory of painting as a pure science, a science of optical analysis, and his belief that tone was the most important component of the art of painting, to the exclusion of all but the barest elements of drawing and colour. From 1926-1931 he lived in France, apart from six months in the United States of America in 1928 lecturing on his theory and methods of painting. He returned to Australia in 1931, and in 1937 opened a new school in Collins Street, Melbourne. He became, and remained a figure of controversy, as he was uncompromising in the advocacy of his views. He died on 6 June 1955 at Kew, Melbourne.
- Writers:
- Gray, Dr Anne
- Date written:
- 2006
- Last updated:
- 2011
