Robert Prenzel

Sixty years ago J.J. Simons predicted that one day there would be ‘connoisseurs who will look at a magnificent wood carving and say with conviction, “That’s a Prenzel”, just as they say now, “That’s a Rembrandt”, or “That’s a Corot”. In 1972, when the National Gallery of Victoria acquired the Mathias suite, Robert Prenzel’s name was all but forgotten. The first recent official champion of Prenzel was Terence Lane who is also the curator of this exhibition. His enthusiasm for the work of Prenzel over the past twenty years has resulted in curatorial awareness of the artist’s work throughout Australia and it is now our task to follow up on his enthusiasm by presenting the work of this artist to a wide public.

Many more works and a great deal of additional information have come to light since Terence Lane’s article ‘Gum-nut Art Noveau: A suite of furniture by Robert Prenzel’, was published in the Art Bulletin of Victoria, in 1973, and we now have a much clearer picture of Prenzel’s life and the work he did. His story is an interesting and at times poignant one – a very talented Prussian carver lured to this country in 1888 by tales of ‘Marvelous Melbourne’, his formulation of a style of furniture that captured the mood and aspirations of newly-federated Australia, and his abandonment by his patrons during the anti-German campaign of the First World War. In a working life of almost five decades in the country he enjoyed barely ten years of real success. How harshly we have treated on of our most talented artists!

Robert Prenzel: His Life and Work is the latest in a series of retrospective exhibitions mounted by the National Gallery of Victoria to enable the public to assess the work of important Australian artists. To date, all those we have shown have been painters, sculptors or potters. It is fitting that Robert Prenzel, who devised a uniquely Australian style in his furniture and carvings, should be included in the programme.

Sourced from: Robert Prenzel 1866-1941: His Life and Work, National Gallery of Victoria, 1994