Overview
Evans Bay is one of many impressions of Wellington Harbour painted by James Nairn. Like most of Nairn’s landscape paintings, Evans Bay was painted outdoors or en plein air. Though this technique was unusual in New Zealand at the time, many European artists, especially the Impressionists, favoured painting outside, directly in front of the subject, in order to capture the momentary effects of changing light and weather.
In the 1880s Nairn was associated with the ‘Glasgow Boys’, a group of Scottish artists interested in Impressionism and the idea of plein air painting.
The ‘Glasgow Boys’ were particularly influenced by the work of French artist Jules Bastien-Lepage, who was well-known for his scenes of rural life painted en plein air. They were also influenced by earlier naturalistic painters such as Jean-Francois Millet, renowned for his realistic scenes of peasant life, and other members of the Barbizon school, a French movement of the mid-nineteenth century concerned with the establishment of realism in landscape painting.
Although Nairn was influenced by a number of different styles, many aspects of his work suggest that the Impressionist influence was the strongest.
Light was a primary fascination for the Impressionists and in Nairn’s paintings the effects of light were the main subject matter – they show little concern for geographical accuracy. His use of small touches of vibrant colour – typical of Impressionism – is evidence of this interest.
Nairn worked quickly when painting, believing that as light conditions changed, new subjects emerged. He would urge his followers to always go directly to nature and ‘paint the thing as one sees it’ (1). Nairn believed in sketching at three different times of the day in order to depict the different light at these times.
Nairn used a brush technique, favoured by Impressionists, known as scumbling. This involves painting a thin layer of oil paint over another layer so that the under layer shows through, creating an uneven, broken effect. This technique was ideal for capturing the scintillating effects of light.
While Romantic painters like John Gully chose to paint spectacular scenery, such as Mount Cook, Nairn, like most Impressionists, painted more discreet, everyday scenes such as Evans Bay. At an exhibition held by the Wellington Art Club (founded by Nairn), one viewer noted that it was the first exhibition in the colony in which ‘Mitre Peak is conspicuous by its absence’ (2).
An interest in snapshot-like compositions was also characteristic of Impressionism. Often the paintings look cropped – as if the scene continues beyond the boundaries of the picture frame. The idea of capturing a fleeting moment also meant that Nairn treats figures in the landscape with no more significance than any other forms. People are never the central subject of his landscapes; if they appear at all it is simply as part of the action.
Though Nairn’s style was conventional by European standards, in New Zealand it was seen by many as controversial. He claimed that he would ‘make a point of trying to outrage the taste of the ordinary public, as I do not want them to like my work’ (3). Wellington critics condemned the ‘chromatic lunacy’ of Nairn and his followers, one critic considering his work to be ‘an atrocity’ (4). Another referred to his work as ‘bilious as to colour, inchoate in form, and the creations of a disordered imagination’ (5). Nevertheless, James Nairn was a popular painter, and was considered by many to be one of New Zealand’s foremost artists.
References
(1) Brown, Gordon H. and Keith, Hamish. (1980). An Introduction to New Zealand Painting 1839–1980. Auckland: David Bateman and Collins. Revised edition. p 86.
(2) McCarthy, Conal. (1990). James McLachlan Nairn in Treasures and Landmarks: an education kit. Wellington: National Art Gallery.
(3) quoted in Edwards, Stanley H. and Magurk, John. (1940). James Nairn: artist. Art in
New Zealand 12: June p 222.
(4) Edwards and Magurk. (1940). p 222.
(5) McCarthy, Conal. (1990).
Text originally published in Tai Awatea, Te Papa's onfloor multimedia database (1998).