John Mather (1848 – 18 February 1916) was a Scottish-Australian plein-air painter and etcher.^[1]

Mather was born in Hamilton, South Lanarkshire, Scotland, son of John Mather, a surveyor, and his wife Margaret, née Allan.^[1]

John Mather spent his youth sketching and painting.^[2] He had access to the art collection of the Duke of Hamilton and knew all the works.^[3] His first art lessons, when about 15 years old, were with Thomas Fairbairn (1820-1884),^[3] an art teacher and prominent local water colourist ^[4] who moved to Hamilton about 1850, possibly to be near the oak tree forest of Cadzow.^{[notes 1]}

John Mather studied at the Royal Glasgow Institute of the Fine Arts^[1] and he exhibited his first work there^[5] around 1870.^{[6][notes 2]} From Glasgow, John Mather went to Edinburgh, where he studied at the school of the National Gallery. In Edinburgh he painted the older parts of the city, and these paintings sold quickly.^[7][8]

In 1873 – 74, John Mather went to Paris and remarked:

I saw the miles of pictures that are to be seen in Paris, and studied them as well as I could.^[8]

After Paris he went to London, worked and painted as he had done in Edinburgh. Subsequently, he went back to Scotland and continued at his art.^[8]

Emigrating to Melbourne in 1878, John Mather listed his occupation as painter.^[9] On the 3rd December 1878, John Mather was elected as an Associate of the Victorian Academy of Arts.^[10] In April 1879 he exhibited 14 works at the Annual Exhibition of the Victorian Academy of Arts ^[11] and was noted as a large exhibiter.^[12]

In 1879 he was described as a young artist under engagement to Messrs. Gillow and Co., the firm entrusted with the decoration of Mandeville Hall at Toorak, now known as Loreto Mandeville Hall.^[13] On the 19th December 1879, John Mather's tender of £4700 ^[14] for the internal decorations of the Exhibition Buildings was accepted by the Building Committee of the International Exhibition.^[15]

On the 27th October 1881 he was elected to the Council of the Victorian Academy of Arts.^[16] In April 1882 he exhibited a number of oil paintings and water colours at the annual exhibition of the Academy.^[11] Noted for his industriousness:

There are no less than 11 works bearing his name. Most of them are of rural or woodland scenery, rendered with much artistic feeling, whether in oil or water-colour. ^[17]

He was married on the 16th October 1882^[18] to Miss Jessie Pines Best, a daughter of Captain James Best, a pilot of Hobson's Bay. Together they had one daughter and three sons; Margaret Playfair, John Allan, Louis Melville (died in infancy), and Leslie Frank Strand (died in 1919).^[19][20]

John Mather was one of the early practitioners of painting en plein air in Victoria. ^[21]

Contemporary reports noted that since his arrival in Melbourne ... Mr Mather has been travelling all through Victoria in the employment of his brush and pencil and has given to the public so many examples of his skill in depicting the most picturesque localities ... he ... especially gave great attention to the scenery of the Ovens and Murray District and the scenery about the source of the Yarra.^[22]

When completing a painting of Mt Feathertop, he undertook a daily walk of 12 miles for a fortnight to complete the work ^[23] ... leaving the picture on the spot where he was painting it, and frequently returning to find it so buried in snow that he had to actually dig it out ...^[24]

Early in 1885 John Mather painted near Sunbury, Riddell's Creek and Healesville. In March 1885 he exhibited the oil and water colour landscapes from those painting excursions in his studio.^[25]

Later that year in autumn, he made two trips to the Upper Yarra valley. ^{[26] [27]} At the time the region was described as an artist’s paradise with richly varied and delightfully picturesque scenery. ^[28] In April 1885, he displayed the results of his first trip to the Upper Yarra valley in his studio at 95 Collins Street East.^[29]

In 1885 John Mather was also amongst the artists marching along the road to Heidelberg, the first organised effort in Melbourne to form a group for landscape painting. The artists included Arthur Streeton, Walter Withers, John Longstaff, Fredrick McCubbin, E. Phillips Fox, Louis Abrahams, Jane Sutherland, Tudor St George Tucker, J. Llewellyn Jones, Tom Humphries, and Fredrick Williams.^[30]

These trips predated the artist's camps of Tom Roberts, Arthur Streeton, Walter Withers, Fredrick McCubbin, Charles Condor and others at Box Hill, Mentone, Heidelberg and elsewhere.^[30] Later some of the artist's camps would become increasingly popular places to visit, John Mather is noted as addressing a large gathering of eighty artists, students and their friends at Eaglemont.^[31]

His affinity with en plein air is revealed when discussing a broad range of his favorite paintings in the National Gallery of Victoria.^{[notes 4]} Commenting on Peter Graham's Autumnal Showers he states; he was in intimate converse with nature, when every new effect was an unspeakable joy, a new delight and a fresh discovery...[the work] ... must have been a labour of love.

In 1906 he considered Boulevard Montmartre by Pissarro to be the best painting purchased through the Felton Bequest, both for its artistic rendering of a very difficult subject, and for its remarkable truth to nature. He described it as a splendid example of the French School of Impressionist at its best. He hoped the work would encourage artists and citizens in Melbourne to see the beauty of their own streets and goes on to state:

The subject itself is not finer than many of our Melbourne streets; it only requires the artist; the life, movement, and interest are just as intense here as in Paris. The summer is longer here; the sunlight is brighter; the sky more blue, but the patron is conspicuous by his absence. ^[32]

In subsequent decades Australian Impressionism would be recognised and celebrated.

In 1885;^[30] returning to Melbourne after an absence of four years, Roberts found Mather, John Ford Paterson, McCubbin and Streeton all hard at work.^[33] That same year, Mr. J.T. Buxton erected a new art premises, Buxton's Art Gallery in Swanston Street, opposite the Melbourne Town Hall.^[34][35]

In June 1886 a meeting was held at the Buxton's Art Gallery where it was unanimously resolved that an exhibition be held annually in central Melbourne to be called the Winter Exhibition of Works by Australian Artists. John Mather was amongst those present, as well as: Mr. Addison, Mr. G. R. Ashton, Mr.Percival Ball, Signor Catani, Mr. J.W.Curtis, Mr. McCubbin, Mr. Gibbs, Signor Habres, Mr. Kahler, Signor Tocein, Signor Neele, Mr. Patterson, Mr. Rolando, Mr. T. Roberts and Mr. Turner.^[36][37]

The first annual exhibition of the Australian Artists' Association was opened 8 Sept 1886 in Buxton's Art Gallery. Contemporary reports highlight the following artists, including John Mather; J. F. Paterson, Herr Kabler, Julian Ashton, S. R. Ashton, C. Rolando, F. McCubbin, A. Loureiro, Alice Chapman, T. Roberts, J. G. Gibbs, L. Buvelot, Vauder, Ley, and C. W. Foster.^{[38] [notes 5]}

At the time it was observed:

that a distinctively Australian school of landscape painters is being formed, who look at colonial scenery with their own eyes, and not through European spectacles; and although they are perhaps a little too much under the influence of the French impressionists, of whose works a good many examples have reached us, they certainly aim at a faithful and vivid, if free and sketchy, reproduction of local form and colour.^[39]

About 85 oil paintings and watercolours were exhibited. Some of the artists work, including that of John Mather, were commented upon:

It is interesting to watch the general leaning of our young artists and art students towards the French methods of landscape painting; their avoidance of too much definition of form, and their disposition to secure striking effects by colour laid on in broad masses. This is observable in Mr. Mather's bit of genuine nature, "On the Watts River;"... Turning to the water-colour drawings, the eye is arrested by Mr. Mather's "Cape Wollamai, Phillip Island," and his "View on the Saltwater River," which are almost as solid in colour and as full of strength as oil paintings. The first is a very striking picture, and perfectly true to nature. The second resembles a drawing in black and white, as there is only here and there a slight suggestion of colour. In both compositions the masterly treatment of clouds and water is too obvious to be overlooked.^[40]

After the first exhibition, the Australian Artist's Association was formalised. In October 1886 the rules of the Association were developed and an Executive Committee elected consisting of Patterson, Ashton, Mather, Ball, Gow, Loureiro and Catani. Later Roberts and McCubbin were added to the committee.^[41]

The Association went on to hold two more exhibitions in the summer and winter of 1887. The 1887 Exhibition Selection Committee comprised Roberts, Mather and Patterson with a sculptor and architect to be nominated. The Hanging Committee comprised Ball, Mather, Patterson and Ashton.^[41]

The Australian Artist's Association exhibitions of 1886 and 1887 included works such as McCubbin's Lost 1886, Robert's The Sunny South (painting), Streeton's June Evening Box Hill as well as works by Withers, Patterson and other artists including John Mather.^[42][43]

When opening the first exhibition, Mr. James Smith, on behalf of the Australian Artists exhibiting stated that the association had not been formed in any spirit of opposition or rivalry with the older academy and that there was room for both.^[44] Ultimately this was to prove not be the case.

The Australian Artist's Association membership grew to over 160 members.^[45] John Mather was also a member of the Victorian Academy of Arts and worked towards bringing the two organisations together. On John Mather's motion, the amalgamated organisation was named the Victorian Artist's Society ^[46] and formed in 1888.^[47]

In 1878, John Mather joined the Victorian Academy of Arts^[10] and in 1881 he was elected to its Council.^[16] During this time Mather was also responsible for the decoration of the Royal Exhibition Building, Melbourne.^{[48][49][50][51]}

Later he joined the bohemian Buonarotti Club, camping with other members on plein-air painting expeditions, and served, with Frederick McCubbin, Louis Abrahams, Jane Sutherland, and Tom Roberts on the club's exhibition selection committee.^[52] As a painter, Mather was also involved in the bohemian Artists' Camps of Sydney.

In 1886, together with other professional artists, he was a founding member of the Australian Artists' Association, serving on the Executive Committee, as well its Exhibition Selection and Hanging Committees.^[41] The amalgamation of the Australian Artists' Association and Victorian Academy of Arts in 1888 subsequently established the Victorian Artists' Society, and he served as its president for twelve years in 1893–1900, 1906–1908 and 1911.^[53]

In 1892 he was appointed to the board of trustees of the Public Library, Museums and National Gallery of Victoria.^[54] Mather was a member of the Felton Bequest Committee from 1905 to 1916 and as trustee, strongly supported Australian art.^[55]

In 1912 along with Frederick McCubbin, Max Meldrum, Walter Withers Mather formed the breakaway Australian Art Association.^[56]

Three of Mather's own paintings, Autumn in the Fitzroy Gardens in oils, and Morning, Lake Omeo and Wintry Weather, Yarra Glen, both watercolours, were purchased by the National Gallery of Victoria.^[57]

Throughout his career John Mather exhibited his works in Victoria as well other Australian states and overseas.^[58]

In Victoria he exhibited in:

• The Victorian Academy of Arts Annual Exhibitions from 1879 to 1887.^[59]
• The Victorian Academy of Arts Black and White Exhibitions of 1882 and 1883.^[60]
• The Australian Artists Association Exhibitions of 1886 and the Summer and Winter Exhibitions of 1887.^[61]
• The Victorian Society of Artists Exhibitions of Spring 1888, Autumn 1888 and 1900, and Winter 1889, 1895, 1904, 1905 and 1909. ^[62]
• The Victorian Society of Artists Exhibitions of Water Colour and Black and White Drawings 1890.^[63]
• The Victorian Society of Artists Annual Exhibitions from 1890 to 1911, (other than in 1902 and 1903).^[64]
• The Australian Art Association exhibitions from 1913 to 1916.^[65]

In the other Australian states, he exhibited in the:

• Annual Exhibitions of the Royal Art Society of New South Wales from 1883 to 1888 as well as in 1892, 1893, 1895, 1899, and 1900. ^[66]
• Exhibition of John Mather’s Water Colours, 1911 Trowbridge Bros, Elizabeth Street, Hobart.^[67]
• South Australian Society of Arts, September 1913 Mr. J. Mathers Exhibition of paintings and etchings.^[68]

Some of his works were part of a New South Wales provincial exhibition of a Loan Collection of Pictures by the National Art Gallery and Art Association of New South Wales exhibited in:

• 1895 at the Bathurst Technological Museum.^[69]  
• 1896 at the Goulburn Technological Museum.^[70]
• 1897 at the Newcastle Technological Museum.^[71]

His works were exhibited in colonial and international exhibitions held in Victoria including the:

• 1888 Melbourne Centennial Exhibition at the Melbourne Exhibition Building Picture Galleries.^[72]

• 1890 Exhibition of Works of Victorian Artists and a Loan Collection of Pictures at the Art Gallery of the Exhibition Building.^[73]
• 1901 Victorian Gold Jubilee Exhibition, Bendigo. Victorian Gold Jubilee Exhibition (1901) ^[74]  

His works were exhibited internationally in:

• 1898 at the Grafton Galleries Exhibition of Australian Art in London.^[75]
• 1899 at the Earls Court, London Greater Britain Exhibition.^[76]

As well as exhibitions at his studios, he held larger solo exhibitions including his:

• 1904 Exhibition of Australian Landscapes by John Mather at the Athenaeum Melbourne.^[77]
• 1911 Exhibition of Mr J. Mather’s Paintings, at the Athenaeum Melbourne.^[78]
• 1912 Exhibition of Mr J. Mather’s Paintings, at the Athenaeum Melbourne.^[79]

In 1916 after his death his wife organised the Memorial Exhibition of Pictures by the late John Mather, at the Athenaeum, Melbourne. ^[80]

Painting en plein air has been overemphasised and the role of studio work understated in Australian art history.^[81] Whilst periodically undertaking outdoor painting, many Australian artists maintained studios in the cities.^[82] John Mather had a number of studios throughout his career and used them for his art, both painting and etching; as well as art lessons, exhibitions of his work and meetings with fellow artists.

As early as 1881 John Mather had a studio at 95 Collins Street Melbourne.^{[83] [84]} and by 1888, a studio at Healesville.^[85][86] In March 1891, he opened a studio at the Austral Buildings Collins Street Melbourne giving classes for the study of oil and water-color painting. The morning classes were held from ten o'clock until one, and the afternoon from two until five. The studio was filled with landscape sketches and studies for the free use of his pupils ^[87] Described in 1891;The studio is large and well lit and attractively furnished, while it is not overladen with the heterogenous collection so dear to the heart of the average artist. Mr. Mather’s room is made to appear what it is - a place to work and study, and the number of sketches in oil and water color that adorn the walls, proclaim the busy life of the painter,^[88]

He also had studios at his various residences.^[89][90] His last studio at his South Yarra residence was described as a large low room with polished floor contained a grand piano and a few art treasures and beautiful hangings. The artist's own pictures took up most of the wall space, and the dark polished floor was shining perfection. ... Mather’s own little grandson was sometimes an interested spectator when the artist was at work. Once the child asked “Why is that cow white, grandpa?” In reply the artist explained the colour scheme of his picture it some length, concluding with the exact reason why, to complete the colour scheme, that cow in the foreground was white. To all of which the five-year-old child listened patiently, then contradicted him briefly with, “Tis not. It's because it's full of milk " ^[91]

Some of his larger paintings were completed in his studio from smaller oil or water colour paintings.^[92] A magic lantern slide of unknown date shows John Mather in his studio posed before a large partially complete watercolour.^[93] Likewise in 1898 he is noted as; expanding his fascinating scrap, "Evening," into a water colour, "The Golden West," of large size and characteristic completeness.^[94]

Whilst his larger pictures were painted indoors from sketches; it was when seated out in the open with a small block or pochade before him that he was at his happiest and came nearest to the realisation of his ideals as an artist.^[95]

Mather had a number of homes, studios and other addresses throughout his career, including:

Mr John Mather is reported to have had a wide celebrity as a teacher, and ... there are artists of repute in Melbourne now who commenced their careers in his Austral School in Collins Street.^[123] He gave lessons at his studio in the Austral Building and at his residences. His lessons included outdoor sketching excursions, often along the coast, where students used pencil, pen and ink and watercolor.^[124]

His students include:

• Jessie Traill^{[125] [notes 8]}
• Ida Rentoul Outhwaite^[127]
• Jessie Laver Evans
• Janet Cumbrae-Stewart^[128]
• M. J. MacNally^[129]
• Ellis Rowan^[130]
• Miss Robertson ^[131]
• Lady Downer ^[132]
• Margaret Forrest or Lady Forrest ^[133]
• Lady Williams ^[133]
• David Davies^[134]
• Alexander McClintock ^[135]
• Polly Hurry
• Dora Wilson^[136]
• Janie Wilkinson Whyte
• James Fawcett ^[137] of Fawcett and Ashworth
• Arthur Jerome Salmon ^[138]

Mather died of diabetes at his home, Cadzow, South Yarra, Victoria on 18 February 1916; he was buried in the Cheltenham Pioneer Cemetery^[1] and lay in a grave with no memorial for more than 100 years.^[139]

Written just thirteen years after his death;

The war claimed his only son and his daughter who was well known in Melbourne music circles, lives now in the United States. It is as if "the place thereof knoweth him no more " But how can an artist ever be forgotten as long as human eyes are irresistibly drawn to the quiet beauty of his pictures on the wall?[140]

In July 2023 a small plaque was placed on the grave simply stating:

Mr John Mather 1848 – 1916 The beauty of his Art endures.

The words, his Art endures, refers to his painting and etching but also the art he nurtured as a mentor, teacher and one of the founding fathers of art in Victoria.^[141]

Art historians and researchers, as well as recent exhibitions, are broadening the understanding of Australian art which has historically emphasised a few artists whilst marginalising other important artists and their work.^[142][143]

John Mather was a landscape painter of considerable reputation during his lifetime.^[144] Together with artists such as David Davies and John Ford Paterson, John Mather was considered as significant as other now well known Australian plein air artists.^[145] However a little more than decade after his death he was almost forgotten.^[146]

In 1919 the death of his youngest son, emigration of his daughter and grandson to the USA, illness and later death of his wife overseas meant that by 1920, other than a son with incapacitating mental health, none of his immediate family remained in Melbourne.^[147] His extensive art collection was auctioned on the 25th June 1919. ^[148]

In the following decades, art critics, historians and curators focused narrowly on a few selected artists and images of Australian impressionism.^{[149] [150]} Leading Australian art magazines of the early 20th Century made no reference to John Mather's work.^[151] Art historians of the 1930's, largely transcribed in subsequent art histories, included little information about his activities.^[152] Other than the occasional individual work loaned or sold by others,^[153][154] there were no large scale exhibitions of his work.

Similarly many of the titles of his work have been long forgotten with nominal or generic titles applied at art auctions.^[155] Fortunately John Mather illustrated the scene as he saw it, and it is often possible to identify the location of the paintings using historic material such as photographs and maps. The documented locations of his residences, studios and painting camps is also informative. Careful research can reveal the true title he gave his work, as with Morning San Remo 1900 illustrated, auctioned under the nominal title ‘Lake Scene’.

Morning at San Remo, by Mr Mather, is a good realisation of the delicate luminous grey of early morning. The tranquil waters of the inlet reflect the clouds and light overhead, and the suggestion of the atmosphere which seems to rise like the faintest of veils from the surface of the water, is charming.[156]
                                                                                         The morning mist rising from the sea is well rendered, a fishing boat is seen pushing off for the day’s work.[157] 
                                                                                         The effect of the pearly grey softness of his “Morning at San Remo” is spoilt by the treatment of the rocky foreground.[158]
                                                                                                                                   " Morning, San Remo," ... makes one feel in love with the time, the place, the artist and all, it is so dreamily fresh and fair.[159] 

Though the subject matter and location of his paintings, where he lived and worked, newspaper reports and other material - the life of John Mather can be illuminated.

Most importantly a greater appreciation of his art is achieved, his teaching, and the role he played in the early days of Victoria’s art. Insights further to those already documented,^[160][161] can be gleaned of the rich, exciting, and dynamic world of art in Melbourne more than 120 years ago, when Art mattered.

His Art, which was loved, then lost, has been found.

• National Gallery of Australia ^[162]
• National Gallery of Victoria^[51]
• Art Gallery of New South Wales^[51]
• Art Gallery of Western Australia^[51]
• Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery^[51]
• Queensland Art Gallery ^[163]
• Geelong Art Gallery^[51]
• Ballarat Art Gallery^[51]
• Castlemaine Art Museum^[51]
• Benalla Art Gallery ^[164]
• Launceston Art Gallery^[51]
• Newcastle Art Gallery ^[165]
• Latrobe Regional Gallery ^[166]
• National Library of New Zealand ^[167]
• State Library of Victoria ^[168]
• Mornington Peninsula Regional Gallery^[51]
• Bayside Gallery, Bayside City Council ^[169]

Notes

References

• Catalogue of Exhibition of Australian Landscapes by John Mather
• John Mather on artnet
• Friends of Cheltenham and Regional Cemeteries Inc.