Charles Nuttall
Charles Nuttall was a prolific Australian artist, writer and radio broadcaster. He spent much of his working life in Melbourne, apart from a period in New York City from 1905 to 1910.
Nuttall became widely known as an artist for his large-scale painting of the opening of the first Australian parliament in 1901. His painting, completed in June 1902, was notable for the large number of identifiable portraits of the dignitaries present at the ceremony. Framed prints of the painting were marketed as patriotic adornments suitable for public buildings, schools, places of business and private homes. During the next few years Nuttall produced book illustrations, political cartoons and began a life-long association as a writer and artist for the Australian edition of Life magazine.
In 1905 Nuttall travelled to the United States and established himself in New York City, He was employed by the New York Herald to draw the 'Buster Brown' comic strip and had his cartoons and illustrations published in a variety of illustrated magazines. He was employed as a book illustrator for the Stratemeyer Syndicate company which produced fiction for children. Nuttall illustrated an estimated 64 different titles over a period of about three years for the company.
Nuttall returned to Australia in 1910 and established a studio in Melbourne, where he produced cartoons, book illustrations and taught drawing classes. He was employed as a cartoonist for Melbourne's Punch from 1913 to 1918. In 1926 he began a career as a radio broadcaster, delivering talks on a wide-range of subjects.
Biography
Early years
James Charles Nuttall was born on 6 September 1872 in the Melbourne suburb of Fitzroy, the eldest born and only son of James Charles Nuttall and Caroline. His English-born father was a house-painter and decorator.After leaving school Nuttall probably spent a number of years working for his father. His parents encouraged their son to pursue an artistic career and in 1895 Charles Nuttall enrolled in the Art School conducted at the National Gallery of Victoria in Melbourne. The drawing classes were held under the instruction of Frederick McCubbin and under his guidance Nuttall developed a confident linear style of illustration. Constrained by colour blindness, Nuttall focussed on black and white and monochrome work.
The Melbourne arts community
Nuttall joined the Victorian Artists' Society in 1896, where he was an occasional exhibitor. At the Society's annual meeting in November 1901 he was elected as a member of council.Nuttall was a prominent member of Melbourne's bohemian community of writers, artists and poets. He belonged to the Melbourne Savage Club, a private social club with a bohemian spirit.
In 1898 and 1899 Nuttall conducted drawing classes at the Collingwood School of Art held in the Collingwood Town Hall.
Nuttall was an early member of the Melbourne Black and White Club which formed in 1900. A number of Nuttall's "spirited chalk-drawings" were included in the club's first exhibition held in July 1900 at their rooms at 62 Elizabeth Street. In December 1900 Nuttall gave a lecture at the Black and White Club discussing 'What is Art?', attended by about forty people. After the lecture the architect and artist Robert J. Haddon remarked that "it was only a very young man who would attempt to lecture on the great question upon which older artists hesitate to give an opinion"; Haddon added that he "he admired his pluck, and enjoyed the lecture, which, after all, was the chief thing". Nuttall served as secretary of the Black and White Club. About a year the club's formation it was affiliated with the Victorian Artists' Society.
From about September 1901 cartoons by Nuttall were occasionally published in The Bulletin magazine, based in Sydney.
The opening of parliament painting
After Federation the first Australian parliament was opened on 9 May 1901 by Prince George, the Duke of Cornwall and York, in a ceremony held in the western annexe of the Royal Exhibition Building in Melbourne. Charles Nuttall was commissioned by the Commonwealth Publishing Company Ltd. to paint a picture of the historic event. The artist began work on the painting in oils in August 1901, in a studio within the Exhibition Building on a canvas measuring 12 by 8 feet. Nuttall was asked to include as many recognisable faces as possible in his painting, for which purpose he arranged sittings with some of the attendees in order to sketch their features in preparatory drawings. In October 1901 the artist was granted sittings at Government House in Melbourne to capture portraits of John Hope, the Earl of Hopetoun and Australia's first Governor-General, as well as his wife the Countess of Hopetoun, Major-General Downes and Captain Wellington. Nuttall was required to travel to other states to complete some of his preparatory drawings. In early February 1902 he travelled by steamer to Adelaide to complete sketches of the Governor and other "prominent" South Australians who had attended the parliamentary opening.Nuttall's large monochromatic sepia-toned painting depicting the opening of parliament was unveiled in June 1902. The painting included a total of 343 identifiable portraits of the dignitaries present at the historic ceremony. The writer for the Table Talk weekly newspaper at the unveiling was candid about the painting's artistic merits, commenting that Nuttall had "not attempted to make his work beautiful... his work was purely commercial". The writer added: "Every politician had to be placed in as prominent a position as possible, for no politician would allow his brilliant personality to be sacrificed for aesthetic truth". The article concluded: "From the artistic point, it is hardly fair to judge Mr. Nuttall's work at all, but the painter may be congratulated on having produced a picture that has been conscientiously treated, and that, we hope, will have considerable commercial value".
After its completion the painting was sent to Paris to be reproduced by a photogravure process by the art dealership of Goupil & Cie, internationally known for their fine art reproductions. By March 1903 the painting had been shipped to London where photogravure prints were produced by the fine art publisher, James Greves of New Bridge Street. The painting was sent to Buckingham Palace to be inspected by King Edward VII, after which it was exhibited at McLean's Gallery in the Haymarket.
In August 1902 a publication called Representative Australians: A Series of Portraits from Original Sketches was issued by McCarron, Bird & Co. of Melbourne, presenting a portfolio of reproductions of forty of Nuttall's portraits rendered in preparation for his painting of the parliament opening ceremony.
An entity called the Historical Picture Association of Australia, under the management of Abraham S. Gordon, obtained the sole rights to sell and distribute reproductions of Nuttall's painting. Framed prints were marketed as patriotic adornments suitable for public buildings, schools, places of business and private homes. Prints were sold at three guineas each, in addition to limited numbers of more expensive "artists' proofs and prints before letters". The sale of prints of Nuttall's painting suffered in comparison to Tom Roberts' painting of the same subject, completed in November 1903, of which monochromatic sepia-toned photogravure prints were also sold. In newspaper advertisements and a pamphlet issued in connection with the sale of prints of Nuttall's painting the claim was made that the painting "was produced under the personal patronage of all members of the Federal Government", but this claim was refuted by the prime minister, Edmund Barton, after enquiries were made by the group that had commissioned Tom Roberts' painting. The marketing of the prints of Nuttall's painting by A. S. Gordon after July 1903 became the subject of controversy in the colonial press in the ensuing years, with reports of his activities including allegations of fraudulent behaviour.
Illustrator and cartoonist
In 1903 a booklet by Nuttall titled Peter Wayback Visits the Melbourne Cup: 15 Humourous Sketches, selling for threepence each, was published by Edgerton and Moore of Melbourne.Nuttall produced twelve illustrations for Tales of Old Times: Early Australian Incident and Adventure, written by C. H. Chomley and published in 1903 by W. T. Pater & Co. in Melbourne. Chomley's book covered aspects of Australian history such as the founding of Sydney, the Myall Creek massacre in 1838 and the Diamond Creek bushrangers.
In January 1904 it was reported that Nuttall had been commissioned by the Melbourne Cricket Club to complete a painting of the final test match between Australia and England, to be held at the Melbourne Cricket Ground in early March 1904. The painting, on a canvas measuring 8 by 5 feet, was completed during the week after the final day of the test match. The painting depicted a mass of spectators in the grandstand at the Melbourne Cricket Ground in the background. The foreground was made up of a large group of men in front of the members' stand, including the members of the English team taking the field and the Australian team members amongst the group in the members' reserve. The other figures in the foreground included administrators, distinguished guests and cricketing veterans. Nuttall's painting was reproduced by the Australian Fine Arts Publishing Company and prints were sold for one guinea. The original painting was installed in one of the rooms of the Melbourne Cricket Club.
In January 1904 the Melbourne publishers, the Fitchett brothers, launched an Australian edition of Life magazine, published monthly. The March 1904 issue included an interview with Charles Nuttall. The article, illustrated by the artist, included an account of how he painted his test match picture over a period of six weeks. Nuttall's drawings were used to illustrate an article in the July 1904 issue of Life, written by the pianist, Ignacy Jan Paderewski, in which he "gives a bright and breezy account of his 'day's work'". Nuttall's illustrations were described as "sketches from life", one of which was "a very fine whole-page study of the pianist's head, drawn whilst he was actually playing the piano". Nuttall also had his work published in The New Idea, another of the Fitchett brothers' publications.
In June 1904 Nuttall was appointed as the "special cartoonist" for Melbourne's Table Talk magazine, replacing Claude Marquet who had left Victoria "to fill an important position in a neighbouring State". Nuttall became responsible for the regular double-page political cartoons in the body of the weekly journal. From March 1905 his cartoons were published on page three of the magazine. Nuttall's final feature cartoon for Table Talk was published in the 29 June 1905 issue.
In early 1905 Nuttall designed the cover of an information booklet about the Australian Women's National Club that had been established in Melbourne. The club was associated with the Australian Women's National League, a conservative political lobby group with the objective of influencing female voters.
By June 1905 it had become known that Nuttall intended to depart for America to further his career. On the eve of his overseas departure a writer for Adelaide's weekly magazine, The Critic, described Nuttall as "a newspaper artist of the 'useful' type", adding: "None of his work is particularly brilliant, and as a caricaturist he is not prominent". Nuttall left for the United States on 10 July 1905 aboard the steamship R.M.S. Manuka.