In 1945, Justin O’Brien concluded his military service and took up residence in ‘Merioola’, a grand Victorian-era mansion on Rosemont Avenue, Woollahra. Owned by Chica Edgeworth Lowe – a warm-hearted and eccentric woman with a keen interest in the visual arts – Merioola became home to many of Sydney’s leading painters, photographers, writers and musicians in the 1940s. O’Brien’s housemates included Donald Friend, Loudon Sainthill, Arthur Fleischmann, Peter Kaiser and Jocelyn Rickards. The ‘Merioola Group’, as it became known, held a popular inaugural exhibition at the Myer Mural Hall, Melbourne and David Jones’ Art Gallery, Sydney in late 1947. O’Brien recalled his time at Merioola as ‘some of the happiest years of my life. I have never laughed so much … don’t forget most of us had just come through a war and were free to paint again.’1
The artists of Merioola were distinguished by their stylistic flair and admiration for the European avant-garde, in contrast to the more sober and naturalistic school of Australian landscape painting embodied by Elioth Gruner and Hans Heysen. In subsequent decades, the Merioola Group would be closely identified with what Elwynn Lynn famously described as the ‘Sydney Charm School’ of the 1940s – a term that was arguably misappropriated by Robert Hughes to deride the art of a previous generation.2
O’Brien’s delightful painting, Edgecliff Landscape c1947, was likely conceived at the home of fellow artists Brian Midlaine, Mollie Paxton and Mary Webb, who lived on Edgecliff Road – a short walk from Merioola.3 The highly stylised, harbourside view appears to be that of Double Bay. In the foreground we see a brightly clothed trio seated around a table, a small dog, and a mysterious priest-like figure clad in black. The intricately layered composition of Edgecliff Landscape is highly characteristic of O’Brien’s paintings from this era, which ‘depicted figures located in a compressed pictorial space with strongly emphasised contours.’4 A similar mode of spatial arrangement may be seen in Figures in a Room c1946 (private collection, Victoria) and Greek Burial c1947 (Art Gallery of New South Wales collection, Sydney). O’Brien’s elongated forms and high-keyed palette attest to his admiration for the French Fauvist painter, André Derain, who became a vital influence on his early work.5
Having been overlooked by the judges of the 1947 Wynne Prize, Edgecliff Landscape was first exhibited alongside other ‘rejects’ at the Education Department’s Art Gallery in March of that year. Sydney art critic Tatlock Miller expressed dismay at the work’s rejection, writing that ‘One can only be shocked to find included here the fine “Edgecliff Landscape,” by Justin O’Brien, entered in the Wynne competition, and one of this artist’s most impressive paintings.’6 Echoing this sentiment, Paul Haefliger argued in The Sydney Morning Herald that Edgecliff Landscape was one of ‘only two paintings [which] should not have been rejected from the original exhibition … the colour sense is quite outstanding in its acid richness and control.’7
Footnotes
1. Justin O’Brien, quoted in France, C., Justin O’Brien: Image and Icon, Craftsman House, Sydney, 1997, p.14
2. For further discussion of the ‘Sydney Charm School’ and related historiography, see France, C., Justin O’Brien: Image and Icon, Craftsman House, Sydney, 1997, p.13
3. France, C., op. cit., p.12
4. Pearce, B. & Wilson, N., Justin O’Brien: The Sacred Music of Colour, Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney, 2010, p.37
5. Ibid.
6. Miller, T., 'One Canvas They Should Retain,' The Sun, Sydney, 24 March 1947, p.9
7. Haefliger, P., 'No Masterpieces in Show of "Art Rejects",' The Sydney Morning Herald, Sydney, 22 March 1947, p.10
Catherine Baxendale
