Source: National Gallery of Australia.
Margaret Preston and Printmaking [1]
A study of Magaret Preston's changing interest in printmaking reflects, to a large extent, the development of this form of art in Australia. Preston was an art student in the 1890s, during the rise of the Painter-Etchers movement in Australia.
Note: The Australian Painter-Etchers' Society was established in 1921 and was first headed by Lionel Lindsay, who became its first president. The movement was inspired by the European "painter-etcher" revival of the 19th century, a trend of artists creating prints as original works of art.
In 1923, shortly after her return from Europe, Preston showed woodcuts in her first exhibition devoted to this medium in this country. She was also one of the first Australian artist to exhibit screenprints and to experiment in stencil printing, and was instrumental in fostering a renewed interest in this monotype process.
Courtesy: National Gallery of Australia, Kamberri/Canberra.
By the 1950s and early 1960s, printmaking was experiencing somewhat of a revival in Australia. In 1963, the year of Preston's death, the first large-scale exhibition of contemporary Australian prints was organized to tour the capital cities. Appropriately, it included one of Margete Preston's later prints.
Etching [1]
In 1876, one year after Preston's birth, the French immigrant artist EL Montefiore (1820-1894) read a paper on 'Etchings and Etchers' to the Fine Art Section of the Royal Art Society of New South Wales (Australia). He pointed out that rather than producing existing works of art, '...the central idea of etching was the free expression of artistic thought...free and spontaneous.'
During the next decade, with artists conscious of etching's new potential, many Australian renowned artists experimented with the technique. For example, Tom Roberts (1856-1931), Author Streeton (1867-1943) and Julian Ashton (1851-1942) were taught the rudiments of etching in Sydney (Australia) by American-trained artist Livingston Hopkins (1846-1927), while in Melbourne (Australia) John Mather (1853-1940) and Louis Abrahams (1852-1903) were early practitioners of this form of printing.
Courtesy of the National Gallery of Australia.
In June 1891, the recently appointed advisor to the National Gallery of Victoria, the painter and printmaker, Professor Hubert Herkomer (1849-1914), requested permission from the Gallery trustees to collect '...a series of masterly etchings...I think it a most beautiful art that should be represented in every gallery.'
Consequently, at the London sale of British artist Seymour Haden's famous collection of old-master prints in June 1891, the gallery purchased prints by Rembrandt (1606-1669), Albrecht Dürer (1471-1528), and Anthony van Dyck (1599-1641). The following year works by contemporary artist Max Klinger (1857-1920), Seymour Haden (1818-1910) and James McNeill Whistler (1834-1903) were added to their collection. These formed the basis of the Gallery's notable print collection. These prints were exhibited prominently at the gallery, when Preston was a student at their associated Art School.
Hand-colored woodblock print.
Courtesy of National Gallery of Australia, Canberra (cat. no. 140).
After seeing this collection, John Shirlow (1869-1936), a fellow student of Preston's in 1893 and 1895, built his own etching press and equipment, and by 1895 was exhibiting his etchings. During the next five years, Ernest Moffitt (1870-1899), Lionel Lindsay (1874-1971) and Victor Cobb (1876-1945) also produced etchings.
In the nineteenth century, there was a greater awareness of printmaking in South Australia than in other Australian states. Adelaide's second mayor, Thomas Wilson, had been a keen collector of prints from England, and in 1857 had lectured on the need for a collection in the young colony. George Reynolds, a council member of the South Australian Society of Arts, frequently exhibited etchings in the Society's shows. Preston would have seen his exhibitions, and probably attended his lecture titled, 'Etching,' which was given to the Society on May 3 1898.
However, Preston apparently did not try her hand at etching in Australia. Like most other Australian artists of her generation, she did not experiment in this process until she lived in Europe where instruction, facilities and materials were more readily available. This was also the experience of fellow students at the National Gallery of Victoria Art School, namely, Portia Geach (1873-1959) and Dora Meeson (1869-1955), and of Eirene Mort (1879-1977), Ethel Carrick (1872-1952) and E Hilde Rix Nicholas (1184-1961) - all of whom learnt the technique in Europe.
Technique: Drypoint etching.
Courtesy of Art Gallery of NSW, Sydney (cat. no. 1).
Preston was taught etching in England. So popular was the process that almost all of the major art schools included the subject in their curriculum, and moreover, many artists gave private tuition lessons on this technique. Preston may have been taught the technique at the Camberwell School of Arts and Crafts (London), where she learnt pottery in 1916.
Only five of Preston's etchings are recorded. One dated 1916, is of an indeterminate landscape; another is of the village of Bonmahon in Ireland; three represent the picturesque hamlet of Bibury in southern Gloucestershire.
These prints appear to have been worked up from sketches, and were probably all produced at an art school, when the artist was learning the process; this is suggested by the fact that most of the prints are inscribed with a description of their technique, rather than with a title. Two of the works are drypoint etchings; two are soft-ground etchings; and one is a hard-ground etching, known in two impressions and printed with differing degrees of plate tone.
A clue to contemporary influences on Preston's etchings (and on that of English artists in general) may be found in the advice she gave her student Edith Collier (1885-1964) in 1918: "...Look at the Rembrandt etchings at the Library or Museum; for Whistler, I think South Kensington might have some; but I think all originals are at the Museum and Tate. Also Goya's -"
None of Preston's etchings are particularly distinguished; all have an "olde world" look. Romantic old stone and thatch buildings, set in rural landscapes, appear unchanged by the industrial revolution or the trappings of the twentieth century. These were popular commericial subjects of a type of etching that proliferated in England until the 1930s. In Australia, a similar style of etching evolved, featuring selected subjects like gum trees and colonial buildings.
On her return to Australia, Preston showed her etchings at an exhibition in Adelaide in 1919, and then Sydney in 1920 and 1921. Unfortunately, they elicited no critical response.
Had Preston wished to continue working with this technique, facilities and teachers were readily available in Sydney (Australia) by 1920. The "Women Painters' School of Fine and Applied Art" taught etching under their principle Eirene Mort, as did Alfred Coffey (1869-1950) in his studio.
By 1920 Preston's friends, Sydney residents, Ure Smith (1887-1949) and Lionel Lindsay (1874 – 1961), had established themselves as fine practitioners in this field, and in 1920 were instrumental in establishing the Australian Painter-Etchers' Society. The society ran its own school in Sydney in the late 1920s. Preston's lack of interest in developing etching as an option for artistic expression was based on a practical observation, namely that it entailed too much equipment, and so it was not a - 'friendly little craft.'
Reference:
[1] R. Butler, The Prints of Margaret Preston, A Catalogue Raisonné, National Gallery of Australia (2005).
