National Gallery of Australia | Audio Tour | The Edwardians

Introduction

The Negro gardener reflects Harold Gilman’s admiration of Velasquez and the Spanish tradition of portraiture. Gilman depicted his subject in the pose of a gentleman; with the gardener’s shovel replacing the gentleman’s walking cane. In portraying a servant as if someone of social standing, Gilman approached his subject in a similar fashion to Agnes Goodsir when she depicted a servant in La Femme de ménage.

Almina was the fifth daughter of the wealthy and well-known Bond Street dealer, Asher Wertheimer. The portrayal of European women as alluring ‘orientals’ was fashionable at the turn of the 20th century. Sargent portrayed Almina dressed in exotic costume with an ivory-white Persian dress, a turban entwined with pearls and holding a sarod, a musical instrument from northern India.

In June 1912 The Firebird was performed in London for the first time by Serge Diaghilev’s Ballets Russes. Gaudier-Brzeska portrayed the moment in Scene One when Ivan the Tsarevich captures the Firebird. He translated the figures into a series of simplified planes and conveyed movement through the crouching figure linking arms with the upwardly thrusting Firebird.

La Belle chauffeuse is a portrait of the playwright Sylvia Bristowe. Nicholson loved style and often included costume in his paintings. In depicting Sylivia Bristowe in a motoring outfit he made a statement about her being a modern woman, adopting the latest modes of transport as well as being wealthy enough to own a car.