John Mather (artist)
[27] In 1885 John Mather was also amongst the artists marching along the road to Heidelberg, the first organised effort in Melbourne to form a group for landscape painting.
[28] These trips predated the artist's camps of Tom Roberts, Arthur Streeton, Walter Withers, Fredrick McCubbin, Charles Condor and others at Box Hill, Mentone, Heidelberg and elsewhere.
[29] His affinity with en plein air is revealed when discussing a broad range of his favorite paintings in the National Gallery of Victoria.
[notes 4] Commenting on Peter Graham's Autumnal Showers he states; he was in intimate converse with nature, when every new effect was an unspeakable joy, a new delight and a fresh discovery...[the work] ... must have been a labour of love.
In 1906 he considered Boulevard Montmartre by Pissarro to be the best painting purchased through the Felton Bequest, both for its artistic rendering of a very difficult subject, and for its remarkable truth to nature.
In 1885;[28] returning to Melbourne after an absence of four years, Roberts found Mather, John Ford Paterson, McCubbin and Streeton all hard at work.
[37] At the time it was observed: that a distinctively Australian school of landscape painters is being formed, who look at colonial scenery with their own eyes, and not through European spectacles; and although they are perhaps a little too much under the influence of the French impressionists, of whose works a good many examples have reached us, they certainly aim at a faithful and vivid, if free and sketchy, reproduction of local form and colour.
Some of the artists work, including that of John Mather, were commented upon: It is interesting to watch the general leaning of our young artists and art students towards the French methods of landscape painting; their avoidance of too much definition of form, and their disposition to secure striking effects by colour laid on in broad masses.
Turning to the water-colour drawings, the eye is arrested by Mr. Mather's "Cape Wollamai, Phillip Island," and his "View on the Saltwater River," which are almost as solid in colour and as full of strength as oil paintings.
In October 1886 the rules of the Association were developed and an Executive Committee elected consisting of Patterson, Ashton, Mather, Ball, Gow, Loureiro and Catani.
[1] In 1912 along with Frederick McCubbin, Max Meldrum, Walter Withers Mather formed the breakaway Australian Art Association.
[1] Three of Mather's own paintings, Autumn in the Fitzroy Gardens in oils, and Morning, Lake Omeo and Wintry Weather, Yarra Glen, both watercolours, were purchased by the National Gallery of Victoria.
Painting en plein air has been overemphasised and the role of studio work understated in Australian art history.
[60][61] In March 1891, he opened a studio at the Austral Buildings Collins Street Melbourne giving classes for the study of oil and water-color painting.
Mr. Mather’s room is made to appear what it is - a place to work and study, and the number of sketches in oil and water color that adorn the walls, proclaim the busy life of the painter,[63]
[64][65] His last studio at his South Yarra residence was described as a large low room with polished floor contained a grand piano and a few art treasures and beautiful hangings.
[67] A magic lantern slide of unknown date shows John Mather in his studio posed before a large partially complete watercolour.
[68] In 1898 he is noted as; expanding his fascinating scrap, "Evening," into a water colour, "The Golden West," of large size and characteristic completeness.
[69] Whilst his larger pictures were painted indoors from sketches; it was when seated out in the open with a small block or pochade before him that he was at his happiest and came nearest to the realisation of his ideals as an artist.
[99] His students include: Mather died of diabetes at his home, Cadzow, South Yarra, Victoria on 18 February 1916; he was buried in the Cheltenham Pioneer Cemetery[1] and lay in a grave with no memorial for more than 100 years.
[114] Written just thirteen years after his death; In July 2023 a small plaque was placed on the grave simply stating: Mr John Mather 1848 – 1916 The beauty of his Art endures.
In the following decades, art critics, historians and curators focused narrowly on a few selected artists and images of Australian impressionism.
[130] Fortunately John Mather illustrated the scene as he saw it, and it is often possible to identify the location of the paintings using historic material such as photographs and maps.
Though the subject matter and location of his paintings, where he lived and worked, newspaper reports and other material - the life of John Mather can be illuminated.
