TOM ROBERTS (AUSTRALIAN 1856-1931) PORTRAIT OF MARY LUSHINGTON BERNARD D'OYLY, WIFE OF A. F. BERNARD OF COMBE RALEIGH, HONITON AND DAUGHTER OF SIR CHARLES D'OYLY BART Oil on canvas Signed and dated '1921' (lower left) 76 x 63cm Unframed Provenance: Marjorie Churchill, daughter of the sitter Thence by descent to the current owner Thomas William (Tom) Roberts (1856-1931) was born in Dorchester, Dorset, but migrated to Melbourne in 1869. Roberts was the first major Australian painter to be selected to study at the Royal Academy of Arts which he attended from 1881 to 1884, where he was strongly influenced by painters such as James Abbott McNeill Whistler, Jules Bastien-Lepage and his followers in Newlyn and Glasgow, as well as other plein air artists which Roberts met on a tour of Spain in 1883. After returning to Melbourne in 1885 he was at forefront of the development of Australian impressionism, becoming one of the founding members of the Heidelberg School. Working alongside Frederick McCubbin Arthur Streeton and Charles Conder he attempted to capture Australia's light, heat and the special character of the Australian landscape with the same plein air principles imbued with a sense of nationalism. Roberts would return to England in 1903, keeping a studio in London for nearly twenty years before finally returning to Melbourne in 1923. From London he would make several excursions from Lake Como to Dorset, and in The Oil Paintings of Tom Roberts in the National Gallery of Australia (NGA, Canberra, 1997) Dr. Mary Eagle, noted that 'In the third week of August [1921] he went to Combe Raleigh, near Honiton in Devon, to paint a portrait of Mrs B D'O', which she now believes to be the present portrait of Mary Lushington Bernard D'Oyly (private communications 28 April 2023). In a letter to Roberts' wife dated 24th of August that year, he includes a little sketch of the portrait and mentions 'The colour is a good pale blue on Gold B'ground'. He also relates: 'I haven't written as there was no news, except I wasn't getting on too happily with the portrait - I've got hold of it now & it goes well - There is much difficulty in working in an ordinary room - one gets jammed up, the light deceives one - when the place is not spacious & you are right against the window. They are very pleased & there is the best to go into it yet. They are off to Exeter, motoring to some races, the daughter in something dark the mother my sitter very spring like & lace & pearls.' (Mitchell Library, State Library of New South Wales, ML MSS 4586 2(2) transcribed by Dr. Mary Eagle). As with so many artists, portraits were Roberts' bread and butter, but his portraits of contemporary figures were no less important than his landscape and subject pictures. 'Not only are many of his portraits important records of notable figures, but a great number of them are also fine examples of Roberts' skill and individuality as a portraitist. His portraits of women in particular show great flair.' (Helen Topliss, Australian Dictionary of Biography, Volume II, 1988, online version 2006 and Helen Topliss, Tom Roberts 1856-1931: A catalogue raisonné, Vol. I. p. 21). Mary Lushington was born in 1856 in Meerut, Uttar Pradesh, India to Emelie Jane Nott (1834-1857) and Major-General Sir Charles D'Oyly 9th Bart. Of Newlands, Blandford, Dorset (1822-1900). In 1877 she married Arthur Francis Bernard J.P. (1850-1915), of Combe Raleigh, by that time Hon. Lieutenant-Colonel of the West Somerset Yeomanry Cavalry, which he joined in 1876 after serving with the Royal Welsh Fusiliers in the Ashanti War and retiring with the rank of Lieutenant in 1875. Together they had five children, Henry D'Oyly, Ruth Capel, Charles Camplin, Muriel Awdry and Marjorie Churchill. We kindly thank Dr. Mary Eagle, former senior curator of the National Gallery of Australia, for her help in preparing this catalogue entry.
TOM ROBERTS (AUSTRALIAN 1856-1931) PORTRAIT OF MARY LUSHINGTON BERNARD D'OYLY, WIFE OF A. F. BERNARD OF COMBE RALEIGH, HONITON AND DAUGHTER OF SIR CHARLES D'OYLY BART Oil on canvas Signed and dated '1921' (lower left) 76 x 63cm Unframed Provenance: Marjorie Churchill, daughter of the sitter Thence by descent to the current owner Thomas William (Tom) Roberts (1856-1931) was born in Dorchester, Dorset, but migrated to Melbourne in 1869. Roberts was the first major Australian painter to be selected to study at the Royal Academy of Arts which he attended from 1881 to 1884, where he was strongly influenced by painters such as James Abbott McNeill Whistler, Jules Bastien-Lepage and his followers in Newlyn and Glasgow, as well as other plein air artists which Roberts met on a tour of Spain in 1883. After returning to Melbourne in 1885 he was at forefront of the development of Australian impressionism, becoming one of the founding members of the Heidelberg School. Working alongside Frederick McCubbin Arthur Streeton and Charles Conder he attempted to capture Australia's light, heat and the special character of the Australian landscape with the same plein air principles imbued with a sense of nationalism. Roberts would return to England in 1903, keeping a studio in London for nearly twenty years before finally returning to Melbourne in 1923. From London he would make several excursions from Lake Como to Dorset, and in The Oil Paintings of Tom Roberts in the National Gallery of Australia (NGA, Canberra, 1997) Dr. Mary Eagle, noted that 'In the third week of August [1921] he went to Combe Raleigh, near Honiton in Devon, to paint a portrait of Mrs B D'O', which she now believes to be the present portrait of Mary Lushington Bernard D'Oyly (private communications 28 April 2023). In a letter to Roberts' wife dated 24th of August that year, he includes a little sketch of the portrait and mentions 'The colour is a good pale blue on Gold B'ground'. He also relates: 'I haven't written as there was no news, except I wasn't getting on too happily with the portrait - I've got hold of it now & it goes well - There is much difficulty in working in an ordinary room - one gets jammed up, the light deceives one - when the place is not spacious & you are right against the window. They are very pleased & there is the best to go into it yet. They are off to Exeter, motoring to some races, the daughter in something dark the mother my sitter very spring like & lace & pearls.' (Mitchell Library, State Library of New South Wales, ML MSS 4586 2(2) transcribed by Dr. Mary Eagle). As with so many artists, portraits were Roberts' bread and butter, but his portraits of contemporary figures were no less important than his landscape and subject pictures. 'Not only are many of his portraits important records of notable figures, but a great number of them are also fine examples of Roberts' skill and individuality as a portraitist. His portraits of women in particular show great flair.' (Helen Topliss, Australian Dictionary of Biography, Volume II, 1988, online version 2006 and Helen Topliss, Tom Roberts 1856-1931: A catalogue raisonné, Vol. I. p. 21). Mary Lushington was born in 1856 in Meerut, Uttar Pradesh, India to Emelie Jane Nott (1834-1857) and Major-General Sir Charles D'Oyly 9th Bart. Of Newlands, Blandford, Dorset (1822-1900). In 1877 she married Arthur Francis Bernard J.P. (1850-1915), of Combe Raleigh, by that time Hon. Lieutenant-Colonel of the West Somerset Yeomanry Cavalry, which he joined in 1876 after serving with the Royal Welsh Fusiliers in the Ashanti War and retiring with the rank of Lieutenant in 1875. Together they had five children, Henry D'Oyly, Ruth Capel, Charles Camplin, Muriel Awdry and Marjorie Churchill. We kindly thank Dr. Mary Eagle, former senior curator of the National Gallery of Australia, for her help in preparing this catalogue entry.
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