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La Trobe Exhibition Reveals Insight Into AdministratorA series of sketches and watercolours by Charles Joseph La Trobe aptly titled ‘A Sketcher of No Mean Pretensions’ and which celebrates fifty years of the National Trust in Victoria By La Trobe City Council - 14th December 2006 - Back to News is currently on show at the Latrobe Regional Gallery.
Acting gallery curator, Sherryn Vardy, explained that the exhibition traces the development of the man who had a significant impact on the fledgling colony of Victoria.
"Many of the works selected are from his travels in Europe, America and Tasmania. These are often incomplete pencil sketches overlaid with a sepia wash. Included, however, are a number of completed paintings which show how accomplished an amateur artist La Trobe was. Essentially, these works define him as a product of his century; a man with a fascination for the natural world, a profound interest in scientific and historical investigation and the empirical observation of landscape," Ms Vardy said.
"The greatest value of La Trobe’s impressions perhaps lies in the documentation of the colonising spirit of the nineteenth century through the artist’s ‘snapshots’ of scenes early in the history of the places he lived and visited."
In a public talk program conducted at the gallery last Friday, Dianne Reilly, the La Trobe Librarian at the State Library of Victoria and Secretary of the Charles Joseph La Trobe Society revealed a great deal about the visionary administrator and accomplished artist who was the first Lieutenant-Governor of Victoria.
"La Trobe arrived in Melbourne in 1839, four years after the first white settlement. By the time he left in 1854, Victoria was the richest and most populous of the Australian colonies. The whole framework of modern Victoria was in place, with La Trobe the founding patron of the Melbourne Hospital, the Mechanics Institute, the Melbourne Philharmonic Society and the Philosophical Society," Ms Reilly explained.
"In addition to cultivating science, culture and the arts in the colony, La Trobe’s commitment to universal education facilitated the establishment of a university soon after self-government for Victoria had been achieved. With wealth acquired from the goldfields, Melbourne also became one of the first cities in the world to enjoy a state supported free public library.
"Charles Joseph La Trobe’s passion for drawing and painting began during his education in Yorkshire, where he gained a sound understanding of the principles of scale and perspective and the capacity to produce credible impressions of the world around him. His talent for observing nature further developed through extensive travels to Switzerland, North America and Mexico as evidenced by scores of sketches of scenery he made to document these journeys.
"After his arrival in the Port Phillip District, his sketching became both a means of recording the environment as well as an antidote for the stresses associated with the difficult living conditions and intense ongoing work demands," Ms Reilly said.
"La Trobe pioneered, mostly on horseback, a route into Gippsland; he personally blazed a trail to Cape Otway after two failed attempts, and had the vital landfall lighthouse erected there; he undertook 94 extensive journeys around Victoria so that he could truly understand the territory he had been sent to administer.
"On these trips, as he had on appointments in other countries, he painted much of the scenery, and many of these paintings are part of the Trust’s touring exhibition.
"However, La Trobe was not universally popular with the settlers in the Port Phillip District. His manner could be paternalistic and he was reserved; the colonists did not appreciate why separation from New South Wales took so long; the miners certainly did not appreciate the licence fee he imposed; and his superiors did not appreciate his ways of dealing with the challenges he faced as the population mushroomed during the goldrush.
"La Trobe departed from Australia in May 1854 after long and arduous service, having just received advice that his wife had died. He soon married again to Rose de Meuron, his deceased wife’s sister. Due to the illegality of such a marriage in Britain, he was not considered for any other Colonial Office postings. In fact, it was more than ten years before he was awarded a small pension," Ms Reilly added.
‘A Sketcher of No Mean Pretensions’, a series of sketches and watercolours by Charles Joseph La Trobe continues at the Latrobe Regional Gallery until 14 January 2007.
Source: www.gippsland.com Published by: news@gippsland.com
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