Walter Renny

  • Artist (Painter)
Walter Renny, painter and decorator, was proprietor of the Royal Blue House, which derived its name from being 'painted in blocks of blue and white with all woodwork picked out in blue', on Pitt Street, Sydney. Renny is renowned for his transparencies in all Government Buildings in Sydney painted between 1863 to 1868.
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painter and decorator, was proprietor of the Royal Blue House, which derived its name from being 'painted in blocks of blue and white with all woodwork picked out in blue’, 170 Pitt Street, Sydney. He sold 'paperhangings, sheet and stained glass, gold leaf &c.’ from 1858 to 1873. In 1861 Walter Renny, painter and paperhanger of Pitt Street, exhibited a work table at the preliminary Sydney exhibition to the 1863 London International Exhibition, 'painted in imitation marble with plate glass’. It was sent on to London and is still believed to exist. For the Sydney celebrations on 11 June 1863 for the marriage of the Prince of Wales, Renny claimed to have painted transparencies for all the government buildings, including the Colonial Secretary’s Office, Parliament House, the Supreme Court and the Treasury. He also was responsible for the large transparency hung over the entrance to Government House showing the Prince and Princess full-length in a 'richly ornamented proscenium’. This transparency, the largest in the city, was said to have been painted by Renny’s firm from a design 'by Mr Wilson, from Tasmania’, i.e. J. H. Willson , the architect who designed Sydney Town Hall, rather than William J. Wilson , formerly of Melbourne, who was then working in Sydney in partnership with Alexander Habbe .

In the weeks leading up to the marriage celebration Renny advertised widely, even renting the bowling saloon opposite the Royal Victoria Theatre where prospective buyers could view over 50 transparencies lit up at night. On 6 June he advertised that he had three especially large, 36 × 9 foot (10.9 × 2.7 m), transparencies for sale. Apparently painted on speculation, there was only one left by 9 June, which he was then offering to sell 'cheap’. His enterprise was effective: 'no less than one hundred transparencies were exhibited by Mr Renny throughout the city’, according to the Empire . His own pictorial transparency for the front of Royal Blue House, however, was not finished on time 'in consequence of the pressure of business’ and Renny was obliged to beg the public’s indulgence until the following Saturday.

Of course Renny and the artists he employed painted several large figurative transparencies for the visit of the Duke of Edinburgh to Sydney in 1868. That painted for the Treasury Building in Bridge Street included contrasting scenes of life on the goldfields and commercial life in the city. For his own premises in Pitt Street, he painted a representation of 'Neptune drawn by three spirited-looking sea horses over the boundless ocean, and attended by two mermen and dolphins’. Knud Bull painted the firm’s transparency on the front of the Customs House, and the artist W.T. Jordan also worked for him. The transparency for the Government Printing Office in Phillip Street 'illustrative of the process of printing’ showed Caxton presenting a copy of the first printed Bible to King Edward in the centre, flanked by incongruous views of Aborigines 'in their wildest state’ and playing cricket – 'thereby showing their progress from utter barbarism to the highest state of civilisation to which they have attained’. It was stated only as having been painted at his shop, as were others. Three for the chemist and photographer E.H. O’Neill, however, were reported as having being painted by Renny personally, as were those for his own premises and for the Treasury building.

Following a term as lord mayor of Sydney in 1867-69, Renny’s portrait was painted by William Reay in 1870 (Sydney Town Hall). During the 1870s advertisements for Renny’s Royal Blue House ('oil, colour, glass, and paperhanging importer’) featured an engraving of the building, possibly after a drawing by the proprietor. Although he subsequently left New South Wales for health reasons Renny 'retained a deep interest in Sydney and its institutions’ and was found to have left bequests to local charities when his will was proved in 1885. Probate was granted in 1879 [http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article70937965] giving his wife and mother a life interest, with the residue to be donated to Sydney charities on their death.[http://access.prov.vic.gov.au/public/veo-download?objectId=090fe273801945f7&format=pdf&docTitle=Image&encodingId=Revision-2-Document-1-Encoding-1-DocumentData]

Writers:
Staff Writer
Oronsay
Date written:
1992
Last updated:
2021