Charles Conder: 1868-1909
Sydney

Conder’s career as an artist began in New South Wales. Sent out by his father from England in 1884 to train as a surveyor, he first made sketches and watercolours of his surroundings as an apprentice based at various locations around the countryside. In late 1886 he abandoned surveying to settle in Sydney.

Here Conder was employed as a lithographer. He also took up formal art classes and linked up with a milieu of aspiring painters. Through Julian Ashton he was introduced to the idea of painting landscape out-of-doors (en plein air), joining sketching excursions to the Hawkesbury and Richmond/Windsor regions and Sydney beaches.

In the autumn of 1888, Conder’s painting displayed a marked development under the more sophisticated painterly influence of Tom Roberts, who was visiting Sydney from Melbourne. Recently returned from London and the Royal Academy schools, Roberts had an idealised view of an artist’s life. Inspired by the new ideas of Whistler, and colour experiments, he lifted Conder’s ambitions to the realms of ‘higher’ art. Conder became convinced of the artistic value of being suggestive rather than literal in his approach.

His new mastery of form and brushwork culminated in his greatest Sydney painting Departure of the Orient – Circular Quay. Following successful sale of this work to the Art Gallery of New South Wales, Conder departed for Melbourne in October 1888 to join Roberts and the circle of painters working there.

Charles CONDER
Great Britain 1868-1909
worked in Australia 1884-90
Departure of the Orient, Circular Quay 1888
oil on canvas
45.1 x 50.0 cm
Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney
Purchased 1888

Top image:

Charles CONDER
Great Britain 1868-1909
worked in Australia 1884-90
Coogee Bay 1888
oil on cardboard
26.8 x 40.7 cm
National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne
Purchased with the assistance of a special grant from the Government of Victoria, 1979