The 9 by 5 Impression Exhibition

The 9 by 5 Impression Exhibition. At Buxton’s Rooms opened 17 August 1889. [Melbourne: Fergusson and Mitchell, 1889]. Engraving from original zinc plate measuring 140 x 83 mm (image) printed in black ink on laid paper measuring 245 x 150 mm. A proof impression of the front cover of the exhibition catalogue, designed by Charles Conder and signed in the image.

‘This popular exhibition launched a new and powerful Australian art movement that has come to visually represent the formative period of national history around the time of federation.’ – National Museum of Australia website https://www.nma.gov.au/defining-moments/resources/9-by-5-exhibition

The 9 by 5 Impression Exhibition stands as Australia’s most enduringly significant art exhibition: the small oils on cigar box lids and cardboard broke with painterly convention and marked the first serious move into art nouveau. The core exhibitors Tom Roberts, Arthur Streeton and Charles Conder stand as the founders of Australian Impressionism. They were aged 33, 22 and 20 respectively. At this young age Conder was given the task of designing the catalogue’s cover, which is critically described by Rothenstein: ‘Compared with his later drawings it is as a lanky schoolgirl to a mellow matron. The forms, soon to grow rounded, are angular and thin, and the line, which has not yet assumed its final indefinite yet expressive character, is scratchy. The decoration shows little capacity for design, and although the occasion called for a propagandist clarity, the motive is obscure. But it shows a lively spirit, and the sprigs of almond blossom which cross the top left corner of the page are drawn with knowledge and precision. Already at nineteen he had discovered, in the blossom of fruit trees, a subject to which he returned again and again until the end of his working life. This catalogue, consisting of sixteen pages, sold for sixpence; to-day collectors prize it, and as much as ten guineas have been offered for a copy’. The Life and Death of Conder by John Rothenstein, London: Dent, 1938, p. 34.

An original catalogue from The 9 by 5 Impression Exhibition would be a high point of any collection of Australian art books, the last copy recorded to change hands being Arthur Streeton’s copy, acquired by the National Gallery of Victoria in 2006 ($16,000). Prior to that, Hordern House sold a copy in 1988 for $6,500 (Australian Art Reference, August 1988, item 235). Conder’s original hand drawn design was transferred to a process block by the printers, and until recently the block remained in a private collection (Dr. John Chapman), the original block sold by Sotheby’s Australia in 2014 for $73,200 (Important Australian & International Art AU0792, Sydney, 25 Nov 2014, lot 23). A small number of proofs were printed from the block, in the same auction was sold another proof impression, an example signed in pen by Conder (lot 24, $18,300), with the Art Gallery of Ballarat acquiring another posthumous impression from us in 2021 ($7,000).

The proof impressions of the catalogue cover lack the Fergusson & Mitchell imprint at the foot of the design, and are printed in black or grey ink, unlike the catalogue itself, printed ‘on hand made papers … and printed in “greenery-yallery” ink’ (Australian Impressionism, Terence Lane, Melbourne: NGV, 2007, p. 162).

A fine and rare early work by Charles Conder.

References :

THOMPSON, John. ‘Documents that shaped Australia: records of a nation’s heritage’ Sydney : Murdoch Books, 2010, illustrated p. 153.

LANE, Terence. Australian Impressionism. Melbourne: NGV, 2007

ROTHENSTEIN, John. The Life and Death of Conder. London: Dent, 1938.

GIBSON, Frank. Charles Conder : his life and his work. London: John Lane, The Bodley Head, 1914, plate 1