THE TATHAM ART GALLERY VICTORIAN COLLECTION: THE END OF COLONIAL ART?
Brendan Bell
Director, Tatham Art Gallery.
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THE TATHAM ART GALLERY VICTORIAN COLLECTION: THE END OF COLONIAL ART? |
The DASART COLONIAL MUTATIONS installation comes at an opportune moment in the Tatham Art Gallery’s history, as it aims to encourage dialogue with and debate about the Gallery’s Victorian collection, its place within the context of a colonial past and its relevance for viewers today. We are presented with an opportunity of reflecting on the origins and fortunes of the Victorian collection with a view to reassessing its status in an art museum in post-apartheid South Africa.
The fortunes of the Tatham Art Gallery’s Victorian collection have been mixed. The tenacity and enthusiasm of the Gallery’s founder, Mrs. Ada Susan Tatham, in establishing a public collection of artworks for Pietermaritzburg1 was matched by the equal enthusiasm of Mrs. Eleanor Lorimer, Director of the Port Elizabeth Art Gallery, whose brief from the Pietermaritzburg City Council in 1960 to report on the reorganisation of the Gallery2 subsequently led to the dispersal of 108 works from the collection3, a sizeable number of them Victorian in origin. The dispersal also threatened a collection of artworks and objects d’art donated in the early 1920s by Colonel R.H.H. Whitwell4.
The Gallery’s move to the Old Supreme Court Building in 1990 presented the first opportunity of hanging the remaining Victorian oil paintings in one venue, originally referred to as the Victorian Room and subsequently as the Lorna Ferguson Room in honour of the Gallery’s previous Director. The central nature of this room in the Gallery and its superb Victorian architectural appointments provide a most fitting home for the collection. The prominence given to the display of European artworks in the Gallery generally has, however, come under discussion recently and, whilst there is no intention of further dispersals from the collection, or the relegation of the entire Victorian collection to storage, it is considered necessary that a current rehang of the entire Gallery favours works by South African artists.
Works under discussion in this article are those in the collection executed during the reign of Queen Victoria, from 1837 to 1901. Most belong stylistically to one or other genre which characterises typically Victorian art5, whilst others, particularly works donated by Colonial Whitwell, such as Philip Wilson Steer’s (1860-1942) The Sofa, represent more avant-garde trends in British painting around the turn of the century. All works are two dimensional, and consist of paintings in various media, drawings and prints6. Reference in this text will largely be to work currently on display during the DASART installation in the Lorna Ferguson Room7.
The history of the Victorian works and of the Gallery is told with characteristic forthrightness by Mrs. Tatham herself in an article dated 1949 in which she hoped “...it may be of use to this and future Councils of Pietermaritzburg Municipality to know something of the origin of its Art Gallery...”8. Briefly, the Gallery owes its origins in 1904 to Mrs. Tatham, wife of the Judge President of Natal. She was interested in the foundation of an art gallery and with considerable energy collected donations from friends and the public for such purpose early in 1903. The City Council matched the г500 collected, enabling Mrs. Tatham to purchase a substantial number of paintings during her visit to Britain the same year. Her task was made easier by the fact that Sir William Richmond RA was a cousin of her husband’s. An introduction to Sir Edward Poynter, President of the Royal Academy, made the acquisition of interesting works possible. Among these were works by Lucy Kemp-Welch (1869-1958), John Frederick Bacon (1868-1914), Evelyn De Morgan (1855-1919), George Kilburne (1839-1924), Briton Riviere (1840-1920), Thomas Roberts (1820-1901), and Charles Van Havermaet (fl.1903-04). Many of the works were acquired at substantial discount prices as a result of the contacts opened to Mrs. Tatham, and her own persuasiveness in convincing the artists of the merits of founding an art gallery in so far-flung a colony as Natal. The whole exercise apparently caused some considerable stir in the British art world through publication in various art journals.
Through the assistance of Sir Edward Poynter, Mrs. Tatham was able also to organise a loan collection of paintings by contemporary British artists which, together with works already purchased, remained on view in this venue for a year, and was accompanied by weekly lectures on art and music by local authorities, including the Editor of The Natal Witness, from which we may assume that Mrs. Tatham’s intentions with regard to these collections were not merely to amass a body of work in order to improve the cultural “image” of Pietermaritzburg, but to educate about art as well. Local citizens were encouraged to purchase works for donation to the core collection. Among those who donated were members of the Natal Ministry, the Right Rev. the Lord Bishop of Natal9. At the end of the exhibition, those remaining in Pietermaritzburg were housed in three rooms in the City Hall, the Council Chamber, the Supper Room and one other identified only as Room II, which may have been the Councillor’s ante-chamber10. Included in the Supper Room was a collection of engravings by artists such as Raphael (1483-1520), Veronese (c.1528-88) and Tintoretto (1518-94), and a “priceless” engraving of the Last Supper by Leonardo Da Vinci (1452-1519)11. From this inclusion and the fact that some of the weekly lectures during the loan exhibition were delivered by Mrs. Vivanti Denby, “an Italian who had lived long in Italy among its Art and culture”12, it may be concluded that Mrs. Tatham’s intentions with regard to the art education of Pietermaritzburg’s citizens went beyond a simple appraisal of current trends in British painting. Indeed, the educational function of the collection and of art in general were contributing factors to her desire to form the collection, as she later repeated a call for lectures to encourage people to visit the collections and “children helped to learn from them”13. Also related, and remarkable at this time, was the institution of an annual art competition which ran for nine years from 1904, with categories for all ages. Proceeds from the competition were used to purchase works by South African artists for the collection, a most interesting and noteworthy move, which proves a tangible appreciation of art produced locally.
An attempt to analyse Mrs. Tatham’s taste in art and her interest in the educational function of art is useful in providing some idea as to why certain works were chosen by her for the core collection. A lecture delivered in 1940 provides the clearest evidence14. It is an attempt to scan the whole of two dimensional art production, from cave painting in Europe to the “story picture” of the Victorian era and follows a linear model not unfamiliar even today in more simplistic versions of art historical development. There is the notion that art is a reflection of a nation’s progress and culture, and the Neo-Platonist view that art reflects “something of the beauty that is in the world”15. English landscape and animal painting are seen largely to have been influenced by the Flemish and Dutch schools, and there is a pervasive notion that climate had a considerable influence on landscape painting of the nineteenth century generally. French art appears to end with Millet (1723-1875) and it is Turner that Mrs. Tatham attributes true artistic spirituality, Turner “who spiritualised all the scenes that he painted - his whole soul part of the beauty he saw”16. Reynolds (1723-1792) is relegated to having founded the English school of portraiture, “not influenced by any other school”17, whilst “Raeburn, Romney and Lawrence painted English men and women who were part of the Nation’s history”18.
It is the “story picture” of the Victorian era with which Mrs. Tatham ends her survey. Works by the Pre Raphaelites, Millais (1829-96) and Holman Hunt (1827-1910) are mentioned, works which primarily embody a Christian theme, such as Christ in the Carpenter’s Shop and The Light of the World. G.F. Watts (1817-1904) is also mentioned as one who “painted pictures of the soul’s life - “Hope” - a fragile girl figure, crouching on top of the world, blind-folded, and listening for the faint sounds of music from the one remaining string of her lyre”19. The allegory is related to the message of St. Paul about hope, that it is not something seen and that if this be realised, we have the patience to wait for it. It is not surprising that Mrs. Tatham then introduces some of the Victorian story pictures in the Gallery’s collection for comment. She mentions William Blake Richmond’s Ten Virgins, Briton Riviere’s Sympathy [Regrets], and Dolman’s Christ in the snowy fields of Flanders [A.D. 1919] all of which carry a symbolic message underpinning Christian values. The final word on the subject of Mrs. Tatham’s lecture is given by Wescott, whom she quotes in a hand-written postscript dated 1946: “Art should interpret nature and life as revelation of God, leading from things that are seen to the contemplation of the spiritual ... Thus its inspiration must be the Spirit of God”20.
Underlying Mrs. Tatham’s taste, then, was an adherence to Christian values held dear by the Victorians generally21, compounded by an equally Victorian adherence to the belief that the spiritual may be discerned in nature and representations of nature, as for example in John MacWhirter’s (1839-1911) A Fallen Giant. It would appear to have been, therefore, the spiritual enlightenment of the citizens of Pietermaritzburg which underscored Mrs. Tatham’s pursuit of establishing a collection of artworks for the city. Her taste, and it may be argued further that her beliefs were commonly accepted by those citizens of Pietermaritzburg who contributed to the establishment of the collection. The core collection of the Tatham Art Gallery, therefore, represents the taste and values of a part of the society for whom they were formed.
Further, it may be shown that Mrs. Tatham was equally Victorian in her patriotism, her belief in the notion of colonialism and Empire. We have already noted her belief that art is a reflection of a nation’s progress and culture22, and the Van Havermaet copy of Queen Victoria may be used as an example. Van Havermaet was Mrs. Tatham’s choice of artist to copy the State Coronation Portrait of Queen Victoria for the new gallery collection23. Sir Edward Poynter was asked to request permission for the copy in St. James’s Place. As impressive as the painting is the frame, a magnificent gilded construction gesso-moulded with the Royal coat-of -arms at top centre and coats-of-arms of Natal and the Borough of Pietermaritzburg at each top corner.
It was significant to Mrs. Tatham that the original Winterhalter (1805-1873) portrait dates from 1846, the year Natal became the first colony added to the British Empire during the reign of Queen Victoria. Mention is also made in the Descriptive Catalogue of the Gallery dated 1905 that “Victoria came to the throne in the year 1837, the same year in which Piet Retief and his band of pioneer settlers, crossed the Drakensberg, and began the colonisation of Natal ...”24. Also significant was the fact that the money for this commission was collected from the women and children of the Midlands and Northern Natal25, a symbolic gesture of loyalty and reverence for the Queen-Empress as “Mother, Wife, and Queen”26. The painting and its frame had, therefore, immense symbolic significance for the people of Natal in general and Pietermaritzburg in particular, enshrining notions of protection and nurture in the feminine personage of Queen Victoria and of colonisation, not only the colonial expansion of the British Empire under Queen Victoria, but the idea of colonisation generally as a worthy pioneering activity, as suggested by reference to Piet Retief. In this respect also, then, Mrs. Tatham must be considered a true Victorian at heart27, and the painting of Queen Victoria a reflection of Victorian norms and attitudes. As such it provides vital evidence of the norms and attitudes of the times in which it was produced and of the attitudes and taste of the colonial community of Pietermaritzburg, and represents, therefore, one important aspect of its history.
The painting, along with others in the core Victoria collection, was hung in the Council Chamber in the City Hall and remained there until early 1995, when the chamber was refurbished for the incoming Transitional Local Council, at which time it was moved to the Tatham Art Gallery in the Old Supreme Court Building. It would not be incorrect to attribute a symbolic significance to the removal of the portrait from the Council Chamber, although its removal does not imply a total rejection of artworks from the Chamber relating to a colonial past. An equally impressive portrait of King Edward VII remains, as does a portrait of the widowed Queen Victoria, whilst a framed photograph of Queen Elizabeth II continues to have pride of place over the mantelpiece, although it may be argued that the retention of this photograph relates more to the inclusion again of South Africa in the Commonwealth. The Van Havermaet was removed for two reasons. Firstly, its removal assisted in lessening the colonial impact of the Chamber without a total denial of a colonial past and the possible implication of such a denuding. Secondly, it was the only work left in the Council Chamber forming part of the Gallery’s permanent collection, and given the Gallery’s policy of attempting to relocate its entire collection in the Old Supreme Court Building, it was considered reasonable that it would be the Van Havermaet which would be rehoused. The move is, however, symbolic of the end of a colonial era characterised by the many forms of dominance by one group or another over others. The work has been replaced by the flag of the new South Africa, and the Chamber further embellished with an Allina Ndebele (b.1939) tapestry - both symbolic of a change of attitude and direction in the new Transitional Local Council.
The Van Havermaet currently hangs in the Lorna Ferguson Room as part of the DASART installation and will thereafter be placed in the main stairwell of the Gallery for, as has been shown, it forms a significant part of the Victorian collection. Its appearance in an altered form on posters and banners publicising the installation suggests something of its significance for the DASART members. Words incorporated, partly obliterated and layered, in the DASART image, indicate “things Victoria does” - not all of them complimentary or polite, some frankly confrontational and irreverent. This provocative imaging is pure DASART philosophy, the need to debunk myth and legend in order to debate and conscientise viewers to social and political issues through artistic production. Hence we are forced to reassess the myth of Queen Victoria that:
“Her Court was pure; her life serene;
God gave her peace; her hand reported;
A thousand claims to reverence closed
In her as Mother, Wife, and Queen”28.This reappraisal of Queen Victoria and colonialism by the DASART members centres, in this installation, on the Victorian collection, and coincides with the Gallery’s own reappraisal of the collection in terms of its current significance and relevance to a viewing public. Special cognisance must be taken in this regard of the previous dispersal of many Victorian works from the collection in the early 1960s29, and an attempt made to ensure that similar dispersal’s do not reoccur. The dispersal of Victorian works in 1963 followed the City Council’s commissioning of a report from Mrs. Eleanor Lorimer, Director of the King George VI Art Gallery in Port Elizabeth on the reorganisation of the Pietermaritzburg Gallery30. Whilst the identification of works for dispersal was carried out by distinguished academics in the Pietermaritzburg community, it should be noted that the project occurred at a time when appreciation of Victorian art was at a low ebb31, and that space constraints within the City Hall were a major consideration32.
Mrs. Lorimer’s assessment of the works in the collection in her first report was based largely on her assessment of their value for insurance purposes33. Nevertheless, there is a strong indication of an aesthetic judgement, based on the fact that, according to her, many of the works “are by artists whose fame, if any, died with them”34. Again, many of these paintings “by unknown artists are not really suitable for an art gallery demanding a good standard”35. Her assessment of the Royal portraits is that they have a historical interest, but that non of them “is valuable as a work of art. They are either copies of portraits by well-known artists, or are by artists whose reputations have not outlasted their period”36. She comments further on the quality of the British paintings as “varying in quality and style; a number of them are frankly bad and should be discarded, - possibly sold for what they would fetch”37. There is no further detail as to what Mrs. Lorimer objected to in these works and any further speculation is difficult owing to lack of visual evidence of the works. Her second report is equally elusive, the works being classified by group, with no indication as to what criteria were used except a simple classification as to what should be retained or sold and how to deal with each class of work38. It is interesting to note that works by South African artists received equally rigorous treatment39. Given the assistance of Professor and Mrs. Heath, Mr. Hooper and Miss. Currie, it must be assumed that informed discussion took place and that decisions were not taken lightly40. At this time, however, it can only be presumed that evaluation of artworks in the collection was based on contemporary aesthetic debate, rather than on the historical, social and political considerations which inform current art historical debate. Subsequent reappraisal of the artistic and social merits of Victorian art have shown this move to have been misguided41.
It has also been shown above that our Victorian collection is of great value in providing insight into the political aspirations, cultural preoccupations and taste of Pietermaritzburg’s colonial past. As has been the case with artworks displayed in the Council Chamber, recent political and social changes have required a re-evaluation in all spheres of South Africa’s activity as a nation. It has been necessary also, therefore, to reassess the Gallery’s policies in all spheres of operation, not least of which is the policy regarding display of the permanent collection42. South Africa’s reconstruction and development programme is wide-ranging in its proposals for arts and culture. More specifically, it affirms the promotion of the rich and diverse expression of South Africa’s culture, the promotion and development of a unifying national culture, and the revitalisation of the natural heritage43.
In order to accommodate the implied necessity for change, to reflect inclusivity in the display of the permanent collection, to reflect the Gallery’s sensitivity to the needs of an expanding viewing public which does not necessarily share a similar white colonial history, and to reflect a distinctive regionalism in the permanent displays, it is vital that less prominence be given to the display of European artworks in the collection. Hence the rehang of the old British and French galleries with contemporary South African works, and the prominence given to works of Natal Artists in the galleries on the ground floor. Following the DASART COLONIAL MUTATION installation, the Lorna Ferguson Room will be rehung as well. British and French works of the Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries will be assessed in terms of the current value as representative examples of the periods in which they were produced. A fairly full hang is envisaged, characteristic of the Royal Academy exhibitions of the Victorian era44. In this way it is hoped that neither the aesthetic nor historical, political and social value of the collection will suffer.
The case for displaying artworks of European origin in a museum situated in post-apartheid South Africa, however, needs clarification, as it could be argued that the general process of reconstruction and transformation, and moves to right imbalances of the past require that the cultural production of disadvantaged communities should take precedence both in acquisition and display policies of art museums in this country. The validity of this argument cannot be denied, for current acquisitions and displays in South African art museums tend to favour works produced in a Western aesthetic model where the value of artistic production is lodged in ideas, methods and techniques alien to indigenous cultural production45.
The very concept of “museum” is in itself an alien one in this sense, for value placed on objects of cultural production by Western and indigenous societies differs46. Western ideas of preserving and displaying the results of cultural production in museums has engendered the concept of production suitable for acquisition and display in such institutions, which raises issues of recontextualisation and decontextualisation in the acquisition and display of objects whose raison d’etre lies outside this concept47. Discussion of these issues related to indigenous cultural production and art museums, whilst informed by the DASART VICTORIA installation are, however, not central to the current argument, and have been dealt with by the Gallery elsewhere48.
The debate is nevertheless extended when considering works by artists such as the members of DASART, based in Western ideology, who consciously strive to produce work which become problematic in all senses in a museum setting, presenting problems of conservation and size, for example, which mitigate against their inclusion in museum collections and displays. The DASART installation may be included in this category, as the separate pieces in the installation are bulky, intrusive, and constructed of materials whose longevity is questionable. The installation does, however, and more importantly, challenge the European collection of the Tatham Art Gallery, and more specifically its Victorian collection. It has already been argued that the Victorian works in the Gallery’s collection form an important historical link with Pietermaritzburg’s past, and in the spirit of the reconstruction and development programme, there is no case for removing the entire collection from display. The DASART installation reinforces this argument, as it is symbolic of three issues raised by the arts and culture policy of the reconstruction and development programme. It affirms the right of freedom of expression and creativity and the implied right to challenge accepted norms and values. It forms part of a process of revitalising cultural heritage through its insistent presence in a previously pristine Victorian setting. The context of the Victorian display is challenged, as are the Victorian paintings themselves. A process of recontextualisation and reassessment of the works is the logical result of such an installation. Further, it can be argued that, whilst the Victorian collection focuses reflection on Pietermaritzburg’s past, the DASART installation reflects on contemporary ideas relating to the City’s cultural identity by providing for commentary and debate on the past and possibilities for the future. As such it has value in assisting the requisite process of transformation already identified by the Gallery49.
The title of this article suggests a questioning of the validity of colonial art in the Tatham Art Gallery’s collections and displays. In reassessing the Victorian collection in the light of its historical importance for the City, and its continued value in a post-apartheid society, argument for its retention and display has been demonstrated. The DASART installation has provided a further and timeous catalyst in this process.
ENDNOTES
1. Tatham, A.S. Pietermaritzburg Art Gallery.
2. Lorimer, E.K. Report on the Pietermaritzburg collection of paintings.
3. Sale catalogue.
4. Lorimer, E.K. Report on reorganisation of Pietermaritzburg Art Gallery.
5. Wood, C. Victorian panorama : paintings of Victorian life, Ch.1.
6. Hillebrand, M. Victoriana; and Collection holdings, Tatham Art Gallery.
7. Victorian paintings on display during DASART Victoria installation.
8. Tatham, A.S. Pietermaritzburg Art Gallery.
9. Descriptive catalogue of the Municipal Art Gallery, Pietermaritzburg.
10. ibid
11. Tatham, A.S. Pietermaritzburg Art Gallery.
12. ibid
13. ibid
14. Tatham, A.S April 23. 1940.
15. ibid
16. ibid
17. ibid
18. ibid
19. ibid
20. ibid
21 Wood, C. Victorian panorama : paintings of Victorian life, Ch.11.
22. Tatham, A.S. April 23. 1940.
23. Tatham, A.S. Pietermaritzburg Art Gallery.
24. Descriptive catalogue of the Municipal Art Gallery, Pietermaritzburg.
25. ibid
26. ibid
27. Wood, C. Victorian panorama : paintings of Victorian life, Ch.1.
28. Descriptive catalogue of the Municipal Art Gallery, Pietermaritzburg.
29. Sale catalogue.
30. Lorimer, E.K. Report on the Pietermaritzburg collection of paintings.
31. Reynolds, G. Victorian painting, p.8.
32. Lorimer, E.K. Report on the Pietermaritzburg collection of paintings; Lorimer, E.K. Report on reorganisation of Pietermaritzburg Art Gallery.
33. Lorimer, E.K. Report on the Pietermaritzburg collection of paintings.
34. ibid
35. ibid
36. ibid
37. ibid
38. Lorimer, E.K. Report on reorganisation of Pietermaritzburg Art Gallery.
39. Sale catalogue.
40. Lorimer, E.K. Report on reorganisation of Pietermaritzburg Art Gallery.
41. Reynolds, G. Victorian painting, p.8.
42. Bell, B. Aims and objectives of the Tatham Art Gallery collection policy; Bell, B. Wherefore art?, in Museums Journal, June 1994, p.50; Tatham Art Gallery strategic plan, December 1994; Bell, B. Opening Speech, Midlands Art and Crafts Society Sculpture Group exhibition, Tatham Art Gallery, March 1995; Leeb Du Toit, J. & E. Liebenberg, Objects and contexts, in Museums. Journal, April 1994, p.31; Minutes of a meeting of the Tatham Art Gallery exhibitions committee, 26 May 1995.
43. The Reconstruction and development programme : a policy framework, p.69.
44. Wood, C. Victorian panorama : paintings of Victorian life, Ch.25.
45. Sack, S. The neglected Tradition, p.7.
46. Vanisina, J. Art history in Africa, Ch. 7.
47. Leeb Du Toit, J. & E. Liebenberg, Objects and contexts, in Museums Journal, April 1994, p.31.
48. See endnote 42 above.
49. Tatham Art Gallery strategic plan, December 1994.
BIBLOGRAPHY
Bell, B. Aims and objectives of the Tatham Art Gallery collection policy. Unpublished paper at Crafts in Education Conference, University of Natal, Pietermaritzburg, 1992.
Bell, B. Wherefore art? Museums Journal, June 1994.
Bell, B. Midlands Art and Crafts Society Sculpture Group exhibition. Unpublished opening speech,Tatham Art Gallery, 02 March 1995.
Hillebrand, M. Ada Susan Tatham : founder of the Tatham Art Gallery, in Tatham Art Gallery newsletter, no. 2, 1986, Tatham Art Gallery.
Hillebrand, M. Victoria. Exhibition catalogue, Tatham Art Gallery, 1984.
Leeb Du Toit, J. & E. Liebenberg Objects and contrasts, in Museums Journal, vol. 94, no. 4, April 1994, p.31.
Lorimer, E.K. Report on reorganisation of Pietermaritzburg Art Gallery. Unpublished report, Tatham Art Gallery archives, 1961.
Lorimer, E.K. Report on the Pietermaritzburg collections of paintings, 1960. Unpublished report, Tatham Art Gallery archives, 1961.
Reynolds, G. Victorian painting. Revised edition. The Herbert Press, London, 1987.
Tatham, A.S. April 23. 1940. Unpublished lecture, Tatham Art Gallery archives, 1940.
Tatham, A.S. Pietermaritzburg Art Gallery. Unpublished article, Tatham Art Gallery archives, 1949.
Vansina, J. Art History in Africa. Longman Group Ltd, New York, 1984.
Wood, C. Victorian panorama : paintings of Victorian life. Faber and Faber Ltd., London, 1976.
- Sales catalogue. Unpublished sales catalogue of works to be dispersed from the Tatham Art Gallery collection, Tatham Art Gallery archives, 1963.
- Descriptive catalogue of the Municipal Art Gallery, Pietermaritzburg. Tatham Art Gallery archives, 1905.
- Tatham papers. Unpublished papers related to Mrs. A.S. Tatham and the origins of the Tatham Art Gallery collections, Tatham Art Gallery archives.
- The Tatham Art Gallery : museum policy. Unpublished policy document of the Tatham Art Gallery, Tatham Art Gallery, 1992.
- Collection holdings. Unpublished listing of the Tatham Art Gallery collections, Tatham Art Gallery, 1995.
- Tatham Art Gallery strategic plan. Unpublished document, Tatham Art Gallery, December 1994.
- The reconstruction and development programme : a policy framework, Umanyamo Publications for the African National Congress, 1994.
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