CIRCE, c.1902 – 04
BERTRAM MACKENNAL
bronze
57.0 cm height
signed at base: B. MACKENNAL
inscribed at base: KIP KH
original black marble base
Private collection, Cologne
Deutscher~Menzies, Sydney, 10 December 2008, lot 38
Company collection, Melbourne
Deutscher and Hackett, Sydney, 1 September 2010, lot 25
McClelland Collection, McClelland Sculpture Park and Gallery, Langwarrin, acquired from the above
The Royal Glasgow Institute of Fine Arts, Glasgow, Scotland, 1905, cat. 854 (another example)
The Franco-British Exhibition, London, UK, 1908, cat. 1305 (another example)
Victorian Artists Society Exhibition, Athenaeum Hall, Melbourne, October 1910, cat. 1 (another example)
International Fine Arts Exhibition, Rome, Italy, 1911 (another example)
Exhibition of bronzes by Sir Bertram Mackennal K.C.V.O., R.A., Macquarie Galleries, Sydney, 7 – 20 October 1926, cat. 10 (another example)
Exhibition of Bronzes by Sir Bertram Mackennal, Fine Art Society’s Gallery, Melbourne, 16 – 29 May 1928, cat. 4 (another example)
Memorial exhibition of statuettes by the Late Sir Bertram Mackennal, K.C.V.O, Fine Art Society's Gallery, Melbourne, May 1932, cat. 26 (another example)
Commemorative exhibition of works by late members, Winter Exhibition, Royal Academy, London, UK, 7 January – 11 March 1933, cat. 98 (another example)
British Sculpture 1850 – 1914, Fine Art Society, London, UK, 30 September – 30 October 1968, cat. 106 (another example)
Early Australian sculpture, from its beginnings up to circa 1920, Ballarat Fine Art Gallery, Victoria, December 1976 – 15 March 1977, cat. 20 (another example)
Australian Sculpture 1890 – 1919, Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney, 22 January – 22 February 1987 (another example)
The New Sculpture in Australia: Australian Art Nouveau Sculpture, McClelland Gallery, Langwarrin, 3 May – 5 June 1987, cat. 3 (another example)
Stampede of the Lower Gods: Classical Mythology in Australian Art 1890s – 1930s, Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney, 19 October – 26 November 1989 (another example)
Reverie, myth, sensuality: sculpture in Britain 1880 – 1910, City Museum and Art Gallery, Stoke-on-Trent, UK, 26 September – 29 November 1992 (another example)
Australian icons: twenty artists from the collection, Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney, 4 August – 3 December 2000 (another example)
Exposed: The Victorian Nude, Tate Britain, London, UK, 1 November 2001 – 13 January 2002; and touring (another example)
Bertram Mackennal: The Fifth Balnaves Sculpture Project, Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney, 17 August – 4 November 2007; and touring to National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne, 30 November 2007 – 24 February 2008 (another example)
Edwardian opulence: British art at the dawn of the twentieth century, Yale Center for British Art, New Haven, USA, 28 February – 2 June 2013, cat. 89 (another example)
Archie Plus, Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney, 26 September 2020 – 7 March 2021 (another example)
Spielmann, M. H., British Sculpture and Sculptors of Today, Cassel, London, 1901, p. 134
Moore, W., The Story of Australian Art, Angus & Robertson, Sydney, 1934, vol. 1, p. 202 (illus., another example)
Badham, H., A Study of Australian Art, Currawong Publishing, Sydney, 1949, p. 136
Badham, H., A Gallery of Australian Art, Currawong Publishing, Sydney, 1954, pl. 101 (illus., another example)
McCulloch, A., Encyclopedia of Australian Art, Hutchinson, Richmond, 1968, p. 662
Cooper, J., Nineteenth-Century Romantic Bronzes, David and Charles, London, 1975, p. 92
Flower, C., Erotica: Aspects of The Erotic in Australian Art, Sun Books, Melbourne, 1977, pp. 24 – 25 (illus., another example)
Sturgeon, G., The Development of Australian Sculpture 1788 – 1975, Thames & Hudson, London, 1978, pp. 64, 65 (illus., another example)
Scarlett, K., Australian Sculptors, Nelson, Melbourne, 1980, p. 405
Clark, J., et al., Golden Summers: Heidelberg and beyond, ICCA, Sydney, 1985, p. 181 (illus., another example)
Peer, J., 'Angels, Harlots and Nymphs: Some themes in Australian Allegorical sculpture', Art and Australia, vol. 25, no. 2, Summer 1987, pp. 213 (illus., another example), 214
Thomas, D. (ed.), Creating Australia: 200 years of art 1788 – 1988, ICCA, Sydney, 1988, p. 129 (illus., another example)
Lane, T., Nineteenth Century Australian Art in the National Gallery of Victoria, National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne, 2003, pp. 116 – 117 (illus., another example)
Tranter, R. R., Bertram Mackennal: A Career, Parker Pattinson Publishing, New South Wales, 2004, cat. 26, pp. 57, 100, 124 – 125
Edwards, D., et. al., Bertram Mackennal, Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney, 2007, cover (illus., another example), pp. 30 (illus., another example), 31 – 34, 168 – 171, 211 (illus., detail), and catalogued in accompanying CD–ROM
Trumble, A., and Wolk Rager, A. (eds), Edwardian opulence: British art at the dawn of the twentieth century, Yale University Press, New Haven, 2013, cat. 89, pp. 349 (illus., another example), 351, 410
Grishin, S., Australian art: a history, The Miegunyah Press, Victoria, 2013, pl. 17.5, pp. 166, 167 (illus., another example), 548, 564
We are grateful to Brenda Martin Thomas, wife of the late David Thomas AM, for kindly allowing us to reproduce David's writing in this catalogue entry.
Bertram Mackennal portrays the sorceress Circe in the moment of casting a spell – awesome, ominous and dangerously all-powerful. Beguiled by the beauty of the sensuous curves and naked body, her pose is confrontational and commanding. Mackennal’s public presentation of his sculpture of Circe was a triumph, bringing him fame and recognition. Exhibited prominently in the Paris Salon (Société des Artistes Français) of 1893, it received the added prestige of being illustrated in the catalogue. Not only were reviews highly favourable, Mackennal also received a mention honorable. Writing in the Revue des Deux Mondes, one French critic observed: ‘The tense, restrained, but triumphant beauty of the sorceress bears itself with a firm and elegant alertness which is free from all trace of vulgarity and all suggestion of the model: no small merit in our opinion at the present day’.1 The English critic, R. Jope-Slade, praised Circe for its ‘remarkable and distinctive individuality’. He continued: ‘This powerful woman with extended arms and drooping hands, and the serpent-filled tresses of a witch, stands erect, almost rigid in the pride of consciousness of the irresistible supremacy of her nudity; but form and face are devoid of voluptuousness, and her expression is one of scorn for her victims.’2
While the French had taken Circe in their stride, across the Channel at London’s Royal Academy she caused something of a sensation. Keen to show her in the 1894 exhibition, the prudish action of the hanging committee caused more than a sniff of scandal. Prominently displayed, they covered her base with a swathe of red baize to hide the erotic figuring, which Mackennal had described as ‘debased men and women who have drunk of Circe’s wine.’3 It had the opposite effect. Exciting the public’s imagination, it became the talk of the town.
The tale of the ancient goddess Circe is drawn from the pages of Homer’s The Odyssey. Here we learn of her enticements, of turning men into wild beasts and Odysseus’ sailors into swine. Irresistible and all-conquering, Circe is the classic femme fatale, a fascination that gripped many of the creative minds of the fin de siècle. A memorable oil painting is Circe Invidiosa, painted in 1892 by the English artist J. W. Waterhouse (Art Gallery of South Australia). Favoured by the Symbolists, the femme fatale populated opera, Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov devoted a symphonic suite to Scheherazade, and Aubrey Beardsley, Richard Strauss and Oscar Wilde produced their own versions of Salome. These powerful figures also reflected contemporary interests in the women’s movement and the rise of feminine equality.4
Lot 4 Mackennal, Circe (1).jpg
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Circe, c.1902 – 04
at the Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney
photographer unknown
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As the century drew to a close, subjects from classical mythology grew in popularity, especially among the young Australian artists exhibiting in Paris and London. Rupert Bunny’s Tritons, c.1890 (Art Gallery of New South Wales) gained a mention honorable at the Salon of 1890 and is believed to have been purchased by Alfred Felton. Bunny also exhibited Pastoral, c.1893 (National Gallery of Australia) in the same 1893 Salon as Mackennal’s Circe. Other notables in that same Salon included John Longstaff’s The Sirens, 1892 and Aby Altson’s The Golden Age, 1893 (both in the collection of the National Gallery of Victoria). The latter also received a mention honorable.
The life-sized sculpture of Circe, which Mackennal exhibited in the Paris Salon of 1893 and London’s Royal Academy of 1894, was made of plaster, cast from the clay model. In Paris in 1901, Mackennal had it cast in bronze, the sculpture subsequently being acquired by the National Gallery of Victoria through the Felton Bequest in 1910. In response to the popularity of the work, Mackennal produced an edition of statuettes, of which the work on offer is one, cast in bronze in Paris between 1902 and 1904. Another is in the collection of the Art Gallery of New South Wales, which produced, from the original bronze, a limited edition of 100, hand-cast in bonded bronze powder and polymer resin during 1997 – 98. They are inscribed and numbered on the base: ‘B. Mackennal AGNSW …/100 Kip KH’.
At the time of completing Circe in 1893, Mackennal wrote to his Melbourne patron and friend Felix Meyer saying: ‘I feel that I am all in it… I put so much time, money and thought into my Circe…’5 Noted for its lively invention and technical excellence, indeed the sculpture’s blend of French and British aesthetics is seamless. Mackennal is seen at his brilliant best in his combination of naturalism and symbolism. Knighted in 1921, internationally he remains today one of Australia’s most successful artists.
1. ‘Les Salons des 1893: la Peinture au Champ du Mars et la Sculpture sans les deux salons’, Revue des Deux Mondes, vol. 118, July 1893, unpaginated, cited in Jope-Slade, R., ‘An Australian Quartette’, The Magazine of Art, London, 1895, vol. 18, p. 390
2. Jope-Slade, ibid.
3. Mackennal, B., Table Talk, Melbourne, 29 June 1894, p. 3
4. Lane, T., ‘An Homeric Goddess for The Modern Age: Circe 1893’, in Edwards, D. et al., Bertram Mackennal, Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney, 2007, p. 168
5. Mackennal letter to Felix Meyer, 12 April 1893, Felix Meyer papers, cited in Lane, op. cit.
DAVID THOMAS