Hall Thorpe
For the expatriate Australian printmaker Hall Thorpe, (1874–1947), art and life were indissolubly linked. And that link was the wholesome positive outlook generated by his belief in the values of Christian Science. Thus when Thorpe stated that “Pictures for our Homes should be wholesome in subject, cheerful in colour, and decorative in design”, he was clearly advocating much more than aesthetics—he was also endorsing his view of life itself.
Ultimately, though, Thorpe was to become a martyr to these beliefs. In 1947, when he refused medical intervention, his wholesome alternative beliefs were not enough to save him from pneumonia. And, indeed, for decades thereafter it seemed that nothing could save Thorpe’s artistic reputation: his modest and gentle prints were viewed as relics of 1920s conservatism. Then, just when it seemed that the art world’s modern excesses had rendered him passé, a resurrection was achieved.
In 1980 the (Sydney) Print Room published Robert and Ingrid Holden’s timely re-evaluation and held a sell-out, retrospective exhibition. Once again, it seemed that what was wholesome might be back in fashion!
One of the delights in the intervening years since 1980 has been the occassional sighting of a hitherto unrecorded Hall Thorpe print. Now, in 2008, the first major exhibition in almost 30 years introduces a substantial number of these “lost” works.
In a rare, autobiographical statement published at the height of his international popularity, Hall Thorpe reminisced about his early London experiences. “I went through my strange phases of Bohemia,” he admitted, “and sampled the usual prevailing art crazes.” But then all this changed when he “arrived at a more matured understanding of ... the mission of Art.” For Thorpe, then, art became “Art” with a capital “A” and his life’s work became a “mission.”
Because Thorpe did not edition his prints we will probably never know the full extent of his industrious output. But one fact which might suggest how committed he was to his personal aesthetic was recorded. When Thorpe produced his Country Bunch it was not only his largest print but also the one which enshrined his individual aesthetic most completely. To produce it he laboured for one full year over its fifteen blocks! It will always be seen, rightly, as his masterpiece.
Today, it is left to us to wonder how someone whose printmaking background in Australia had been limited to topical news engravings and some few architectual etchings could then, literally, blossom into the international artist which Thorpe became. Into an artist who depicted a quintessential English vision of a whole world of bucolic landscapes, of dawn on the Thames and charming, dewy-fresh studies of simple English flowers.
This last subject became Thorpe’s particular forte. His unpretentious posies of popular cottage flowers mirrored his desire to create democratic art for the masses. And it is easy to see why those same masses responded. One respected London critic in Thorpe’s day paid homage to his “consistent fight for the purity and beauty of decoration.” If these are qualities whish are never passé, then Thorpe’s work should be timeless.
This new exhibition gives us another chance to appreciate the vision which lives on in the art of Hall Thorpe.
Robert Holden
used with the permission of Josef Lebovic
