Description

Extended Data

DAAO URL

https://www.daao.org.au/bio/henri-tebbitt

Birth Place

Paris, France

Biography

Henri Tebbitt was one of the most commercially successful landscape artists working in Australia during the early years of the twentieth century. The son of English parents, Tebbitt was born a British national in Paris in 1852; the application of a French spelling for his forename being at the insistence of the local authorities. His father was a pin and needle merchant who had lived in the French capital since the time of the Second Republic in 1848. Despite his English heritage, Tebbitt lived mainly in Paris during his youth and French was his first language. For his final two years of schooling Tebbitt was sent to the prestigious Queen Elizabeth School at Cranbrook in Kent, England, where he perfected his English language skills, and while there he excelled in music and art. After completing his education, Tebbitt returned to Paris where he joined his father’s firm. His debut in the commercial world ended when France declared war on Prussia on 19 July 1870. After a brief military campaign Paris was encircled by the enemy. In his memoirs Tebbitt writes of this dramatic period in which he witnessed the deprivations associated with the siege, the humiliating French capitulation of February 1871, and the subsequent insurrection of the Communards. Tebbitt admits to briefly joining the National Guard before the French defeat, and later witnessed the violent suppression of the Commune in May 1871. Lacking any interest in his father’s business, Tebbitt, after the war, informally trained as an artist in Paris and later in London. While in London he became associated with the Artists’ Society & Langham Sketching Club, and sometimes went sketching with members along the upper reaches of the Thames. Views of the River Thames remained common subjects in his work in subsequent decades. During this period, he exhibited individual oil works at the annual shows of the Royal Society of British Artists (1882) and the Royal Academy of Arts (1884). Tebbitt’s skill at playing the piano, as well as his artistic connections, helped him gain entry to the homes and studios of several of the leading artists in England. Although, revealingly, not mentioned in his memoir, Tebbitt, in 1878, married a woman named Martha Bateman in Scarborough, Yorkshire, and the following year their daughter, Marguerite, was born in Paris. Soon back in London the young family move to his parents’ house in south London, which they had established during the Franco-Prussian war. Tebbitt, however, soon relocated to Belgium, and subsequently toured Germany, Holland, Austria, Italy, Switzerland and France. Seemingly travelling the continent on his own, Tebbitt supported his travels by selling watercolour sketches and gambling. Following a big win at the Monte Carlo casino he moved to North America for several years where he went into partnership with the journalist Charles F. Denslow, to produce illustrated character sketches. After returning to London, Tebbitt was living in Chelsea, London, with his wife and child. Finding little success, he resolved to travel to Australia. According to Tebbitt, he first arrived in Australia in 1889. While this may indeed be true there is evidence to suggest (see: A Traveller’s Tale , p. 18) that he first arrived in November 1891. Whether arriving in 1889 or 1891, Tebbitt first disembarked in Sydney, without his wife and child, and soon moved to Melbourne where he had relatives. From there he travelled through country Victoria visiting Ballarat, Maryborough, and Castlemaine. Subsequently moving on to Adelaide, he met up with an (unnamed) English amateur naturalist and the pair spent their first antipodean summer camping on the banks of the Onkaparinga Creek near Balhannah in the Adelaide Hills. While there Tebbitt sold his images to local landowners. He later toured Tasmania on foot, then travelled to Queensland via Sydney. Tebbitt admitted late in life that he had trouble adapting to the vegetation and light of Australia. This may account for his preference for painting coastal and river scenes as well as images of northern Europe for homesick migrants. By 1894 he had settled in Brisbane where he made a living as an art and music teacher. One of his painting students was Edward Colclough, who later became a trustee of the Queensland Art Gallery. While in Brisbane, Tebbitt exhibited his work for several years with the Queensland Art Society (QAS). His English-themed watercolour, Twilight (1895), received much praise in the local press and was subsequently purchased by the Queensland Art Gallery. A 1896 photograph of Tebbitt and several other QAS artists on a sketching excursion in Ipswich is the earliest known image of the artist. By the late 1890s Tebbitt had returned to Sydney, and by 1900 he was listed living in the working-class harbour-side district of Balmain, Sydney. Around the turn of the century Tebbitt went into partnership with William Aldenhoven, a European-born art dealer who ran a large commercial gallery in Sydney which specialised in artistic images that appealed to popular taste. From 1900-13, Aldenhoven heavily promoted Tebbitt’s work which was sold through his gallery at 74 Hunter Street and at exhibitions and auctions in several state capitals. Tebbitt was a prolific artist during this period and his relationship with Aldenhoven led to great financial success. Typical watercolour images painted during these years include crepuscular views of rivers, and lofty gum trees set in mountain scenery. Other common subjects included views of Sydney Harbour and scenes from northern Europe. Many of his works were painted on large-sized sheets of watercolour paper making his images more striking than other contemporary watercolourists. Despite the uncommonly large sizes of his images, these works were in the realist artistic tradition associated with British and French art of the 1870s and 1880s. In 1901 Tebbitt became a member of the (Royal) Art Society of New South Wales (RAS) and contributed many works to several of their annual exhibitions, but after a few years his work was rejected by the RAS exhibition selection committee. In his memoirs Tebbitt posits that these rejections may have been caused by his high-profile association with Aldenhoven, a relationship which led to him being the target of resentment from other artists jealous of his close association with the successful dealer. Tebbitt regularly toured the eastern states during his time in Australia and painted many regional areas. During the early years of the twentieth century, he established a studio in the bush at Allgomera Creek in the Eungai district on the mid-north coast of New South Wales, and this remote heavily forested area provided inspiration for many of his late-period works. At Allgomera, Tebbitt befriended a local farmer named Tom McGuigan and in 1903 he married Tom’s daughter, Bertha. Despite his love for the area, Tebbitt continued to be based in Sydney, and during their marriage the couple moved several times, mainly within Sydney’s eastern suburbs. Revealing, the 1903 wedding certificate makes no mention of the ending of Tebbitt’s first marriage, and as his first wife was still alive and using the Tebbitt name in England the omission may indicate that Henri was a bigamist, an offence that may explain why he avoided discussing his personal life in his memoir. Tebbitt’s career, arguably, reached a high point in 1910 when a five-page illustrated profile of his work, written by Aldenhoven, was published in the prestigious British art magazine, The Studio . That same year Tebbitt held several exhibitions around the country including a high profile show of his watercolours at the NSW Tourist Bureau in Martin Place, Sydney, where he was described in an advertisement in the 1919 RAS exhibition catalogue as 'Australia’s Favourite Artist’. By 1913 Tebbitt and Aldenhoven had parted company, for reasons unknown. Tebbitt continued to paint during his final years and exhibited his work at exhibitions and auction sales but received little press attention. Publisher George Robinson (of Angus & Robertson) urged Tebbitt to write his life story, a twenty-two thousand word memoir which was never published and remains in the collection of the Mitchell Library in Sydney. This work is significant as it is arguably the first lengthy autobiography written by an Australian artist. Although his death is often, erroneously, listed as being in 1926, Tebbitt actually died on 3 January 1927, aged seventy-four, at his Rose Bay, Sydney home. In his obituary in the Brisbane Courier , the art historian and reviewer William Moore critically assessed his work: Although he was not regarded as an artist of the first rank, Henri Tebbitt, who recently passed away, was widely known as a landscape painter in Australia. One got the impression when one viewed his works, that he might have become a painter of some distinction had he not been content to produce the kind of picture which was most in popular demand (1927, p. 19). Despite his popularity with the Australian public during the first decade of the twentieth century Henri’s reputation was soon forgotten with the post war art boom. Tebbitt’s technical skill as a watercolourist is undeniable and he remains a notable pioneer of the medium in Australia. His work is included in the collection of the Queensland Art Gallery and several regional galleries. An expanded illustrated version of this biography, titled A traveller’s tale: the life and times of artist Henri Tebbitt , was published in the February 2011 issue of Australiana magazine. Writers: Clifford-Smith, Silas Date written: 2011 Last updated: 2011

Born

b. 1852

Summary

During the first decade of the twentieth century Henri Tebbitt was one of the most succesful landscape artists working in Australia. He is best known for his watercolours of rivers, coastal scenes and views of forests. Before moving to Australia he worked in Europe and North America.

Gender

Male

Died

4-Jan-27

Age at death

75