Guide to the Papers of Conrad Martens, 1862-1867

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Summary

Collection number:
MS 6864
Creator:
Conrad Martens
Extent:
0.9 metres and (4 ms boxes + 1 folio)
Language:
English
Preferred citation:
Items from this collection should be cited as '[Title or description of manuscript item], Papers of Conrad Martens, National Library of Australia, MS 6864, [box number and series and/or file number]'.
Availability:
Available
Access conditions:
Available for research. Not for loan.

Background

Content Summary:

The reference library of any great man is of exceptional value to the historian and scholar. To be able to establish beyond question the direct influences and subsequent ideas derived from this personal source lends an insight into the mind not possible in any other way. Conrad Martens' position in Australian art is undoubtedly important, both as a practising artist and an art teacher of great influence. This collection illustrates his employed techniques and thus the developing style of 19th century landscape painting in Australia.

Conrad Martens' idea that landscape art should have a theoretical justification was influenced particularly by Alexander von Humboldt who in turn influenced the writings of Ruskin, and books by Ruskin are to be found in Conrad Martens' personal library. That Martens believed that a talent for drawing and painting was enhanced by a study of theoretical writings on the subject can be deduced from his own comments in a "lecture upon landscape painting delivered at the Australian Library 1856" and first published from the manuscript in the Mitchell Library in Lionel Lindsay's Conrad Martens, the Man and his Art, Sydney, Angus Robertson, 1920. In this lecture he acknowledges the value of ideas gained from a reading of John Burnet's Practical Treatise on Painting and Sir Joshua Reynolds' Discourses, as well as stating that "the Liber Studiorum" of Turner is I should say a book to be studied with the greatest advantage". Martens also quotes Professor Hart in his Royal Academy Lectures of 1856, thus indicating that he kept very much up to date with the latest information in his field.

Martens had been taught painting by Copley Fielding, one of the best known English watercolourists in the first half of the 19th century, whose technique specialised in broad washes and free picturesque treatment of landscape. During his voyage with the Beagle, Martens probably absorbed a great deal of the scientific methodology from the members of the expedition, as had artists like Hodges and Westall on previous voyages. It also appears that close contact with the scientists, including Charles Darwin, caused him to become interested in botany, meteorology and geology in different parts of the world, and this new awareness of the elements comprising a landscape had a decisive effect on the composition of a painting.

Lionel Lindsay in his book on Conrad Martens summarises the importance in Martens' work of a thorough theoretical background: "Conrad Martens was a produce of the thought and taste of the days of his youth. He had by heart Reynolds' Discourses, the Composition and Light and Shade in Painting of John Burnet and the Landscape Maxims by John Varley; the Turnerian elevation of theme was part of his mental texture ... only when his work is seen in its due relation to those ideas which were his currency can we form a just estimate of his art".

Indexed terms

Names:
Conrad Martens

Access and use

Conditions Governing Access:
Please refer to the collection's catalogue record (http://nla.gov.au/nla.cat-vn2910795) for the access conditions.
Conditions Governing Use:
Copying and publishing of unpublished manuscript material is subject to copyright restrictions. For such material, written permission to publish must be obtained from the copyright holder(s). Copying of unpublished material for research purposes is permissible 50 years after the death of the creator of the material.
Preferred citation:
Items from this collection should be cited as '[Title or description of manuscript item], Papers of Conrad Martens, National Library of Australia, MS 6864, [box number and series and/or file number]'.
Location of this collection:
Parkes Place
Canberra ACT 2600, Australia
Contact:
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