Albert Henry Fullwood | Berry's Bay Sydney 1927 | SOLD
Pencil inscriptions and signature verso
Berry’s Bay Sydney 1927
Oil on composite board
23.5 x 29 cm
Signed with a monogram lower left.
Titled, signed and dated in pencil verso.
Inscription reads: Berry’s Bay -Sydney A Henry Fullwood 1927
$22,000
Illustrated on page 275 (plate 73) of Picturing a Nation. The Art & Life of A.H. Fullwood.
Written by Gary Werskey 2021
This painting of Berry’s Bay is mentioned on page 269.
M.J MacNally, then the Daily Telegraph’s resident art critic, published what he described as ‘fanciful account’ of a troupe of older artists- including Fred Leist, Harry Julius, Harold Herbert and Fullwood- who set off one dy to capture a picturesque view from Berrys Bay of an old homestead by the Harbour. Despite its having been one of those ideal days, when the ‘diffused light through clouds cast a glamour on everything’ the mood of the company had by mid- afternoon become surly and fractious. “Cut it out, your purple dingbats” yelled Fullwood, and pandemonium broke loose. soon they were packing up their easels and paint boxes with little to show for their efforts.
The day after this article was published MacNally recieved a telegram from a man who had been born in the homestead, he was now willing to pay 50GBP for the painting that Fullwood had intended to do on that day. MacNally raced to the press club where Fullwood was often found, roused him, and drove him out to Berrys Bay to do the picture.
Fullwood did a “really fine work” which was framed and posted to the buyer, who duly sent a grateful letter of thanks and the promised cheque of 50 Pounds. The painting in question may well have been Berrys Bay 1927.
Extract from pages 269-270 of Picturing A Nation- Werskey 2021
Albert Henry Fullwood
Albert Henry Fullwood (1863-1930), artist, trained in art in his native Birmingham before moving to Sydney in 1883, aged 20. He soon gained employment with the Picturesque Atlas of Australia, travelling a great deal to produce exactly the kind of illustration the publication required. He became part of the group of Sydney painters that included Roberts and Streeton, living at Sirius Cove for a time. Becoming friendly with Livingston Hopkins, he developed his etching practice. According to some sources, he signed his Bulletin cartoons Remus; others state that his friends gave him the nickname, on account of his entertaining storytelling. He was one of the founding members of the Society of Artists. In 1899 he took his family by way of New York to London, where he exhibited at the Royal Academy and became friends with Bertram Mackennal and fellow members of the Chelsea Arts Club. He remained in London until World War 1, during which he worked along with Roberts, Streeton and George Coates at the Wandsworth hospital before being sent to the Western Front as an official artist. About sixty of his evocative French watercolours are in the Australian War Memorial, including one depicting the aftermath of the death of Baron von Richthofen. Fullwood stands adjacent to Lambert in George Coates’s famous painting of the official war artists. In 1920 Fullwood returned to Sydney, where he continued to exhibit and involve himself in art societies including the Australian Painter Etchers’ Society and the Australian Water-Colour Institute. Lambert returned to Sydney in 1921, but died in 1930, aged just 56. At Lambert’s request, Fullwood was one of his pallbearers. Fullwood died, himself, just a few months after Lambert.
Lambert and Fullwood knew each other for a long time, and Lambert could have drawn Fullwood in England any time from the turn of the century to the war years. However, the letters ARA in the signature suggest that this drawing was made in Australia after Lambert was made an associate of the Royal Academy (in 1922).
Biography from the National Portrait Gallery Australia 2018