Max Meldrum b. 1875 Edinburgh, Scotland, UK

Also known as Duncan Max Meldrum
  • Artist (Painter)
After winning a National Gallery School Travelling Scholarship and moving to Paris to study, Scottish-born painter Max Meldrum found himself out of sympathy with the academic theories being taught and soon abandoned formal study. He nevertheless made a name for himself as a most influential artist and teacher with his controversial theory of painting as a pure science, a science of optical analysis.
Keywords: tonalism
Talk | Version history | Updated May 7, 2012 | Created Jan. 1, 2006
Name
Max Meldrum
Also known as Duncan Max Meldrum
Birth date
3 December 1875
Birth place
Edinburgh, Scotland, UK
Death date
6 June 1955
Death place
Kew, Melbourne, Vic.
Gender
Male
Roles
  • Artist (Painter)
Residence
  • 1875- 1889 Edinburgh, Scotland
  • 1889- 1900 Melbourne, Vic.
  • 1900- 1901 Paris, France
  • 1901- 1902 Edinburgh, Scotland, UK
  • 1902- 1911 France
  • 1928- United States of America (Six months )
  • 1926- 1931 France
  • 1911- 1926 Melbourne, Vic.
  • 1931- 1955 Melbourne, Vic.
Other Occupation
  • Lecturer 1928- 1931 United States of America
  • Art teacher 1915- 1926 Melbourne, Vic.
  • Art teacher (ANZSIC code: 81) 1937- c.1950 Melbourne, Vic.
Keywords:
tonalism
Arrival
  • 1889
Active Period
  • c.1892- c.1950
Cultural Heritage
  • Scottish
Languages
  • English
Training
  • 1900- 1901 Académie Colarossi, Paris, France
  • 1900- 1901 Académie Julian, Paris, France
  • 1892- 1899 National Gallery School, Melbourne, Vic.
Is Indigenous
No
Initial Record Data Source
  • National Gallery of Australia

Max Meldrum was born on 3 December 1875 in Edinburgh, Scotland, the son of a chemist. In 1889, aged 14, he emigrated to Australia with his family. He studied at the National Gallery School, Melbourne, from 1892-1899.In 1900 Meldrum travelled to Europe with the assistance of a National Gallery Travelling Scholarship, and in 1900-1901 he studied at the Académie Julian and the Académie Colarossi in Paris. Finding he was out of sympathy with the academic theories being taught, he soon abandoned formal study. Like others at this time, he was influenced by Velasquez’s paintings and approach to art. After visiting his family in Edinburgh, he returned to Paris in 1902, and subsequently moved to Pacé, a village in Brittany, to study in 'the school of nature’. Among his best known work is Pitcherit’s Farm c.1910 (National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne).Meldrum returned to Melbourne in 1911, and from 1916-1926 he ran the Meldrum School of Painting. Here he advanced his theory of painting as a pure science, a science of optical analysis, and his belief that tone was the most important component of the art of painting, to the exclusion of all but the barest elements of drawing and colour. From 1926-1931 he lived in France, apart from six months in the United States of America in 1928 lecturing on his theory and methods of painting. He returned to Australia in 1931, and in 1937 opened a new school in Collins Street, Melbourne. He became, and remained a figure of controversy, as he was uncompromising in the advocacy of his views. He died on 6 June 1955 at Kew, Melbourne.

Writers:
Gray, Dr Anne
Date written:
2006
Last updated:
2011
relative of
Charles Nitsch
Non-Artist/Designer/Curator
and also friend and professional colleague
spouse of
Jeanne Nitsch
Non-Artist/Designer/Curator
associate of
Diego Velasquez
Non-Artist/Designer/Curator
Saw himself as painting in the tradition of
associate of
Lionel Lindsay
1874
Artist (Photographer), Artist (Cartoonist / Illustrator), Artist (Printmaker), Artist (Painter)
Criticised by
associate of
Norman Lindsay
Artist
Lindsay parodied him in 'A Curate in Bohemia'
associate of
Justus Jorgensen
Artist
Teacher of
associate of
Arnold Shore
1897
Artist (Painter), Artist (Cartoonist / Illustrator), Designer (Glass & metal Artist / Designer)
Teacher of
associate of
Mary Cecil Allen
1893
associate of
Alice Marion Ellen Bale
1875
Artist (Painter)
associate of
Clarice Beckett
1887
Artist (Painter)
associate of
George Bell
1878
Artist (Cartoonist / Illustrator), Artist (Printmaker), Artist (Painter)
associate of
Norman St Clair Carter
1875
Artist (Painter), Artist (Glass & metal Artist / Designer)
associate of
George Coates
1869
Artist (Draughtsman), Artist (Painter)
associate of
Alexander Colquhoun
1862
Artist (Cartoonist / Illustrator), Artist (Painter)
associate of
Amalie Sara Colquhoun
1894
Artist (Painter)
associate of
Marion Ferdinando
Artist (Draughtsman)
associate of
Henry Bromilow Harrison
1878
Artist (Cartoonist / Illustrator), Artist (Painter)
associate of
Graeme Charles Inson
1923
Artist (Painter)
associate of
Percy Leason
1889
Artist (Draughtsman), Artist (Printmaker), Artist (Cartoonist / Illustrator), Artist (Painter), Artist (Industrial / Product Designer)
associate of
Helen Dora Lempriere
1907
Artist (Draughtsman), Artist (Printmaker), Artist (Sculptor), Artist (Painter)
associate of
Sara Levi
1870
Artist, Artist (Painter)
associate of
Sir David Alexander Cecil Low
1891
Artist (Cartoonist / Illustrator)
attributed
associate of
Jim Minogue
1890
Artist (Cartoonist / Illustrator), Artist (Painter)
associate of
Ambrose Patterson
1877
Artist (Cartoonist / Illustrator), Artist (Printmaker), Artist (Painter)
associate of
Leon Pole
1871
Artist (Industrial / Product Designer), Artist (Cartoonist / Illustrator), Artist (Painter)
associate of
Hugh Ramsay
1877
Artist (Painter)
associate of
Henry J. Recknall
Artist (Painter)
associate of
Violet Emma Vimpany
1886
Artist (Sculptor), Artist (Printmaker), Artist (Painter)
associate of
Roland Wakelin
1887
Artist
associate of
Rose A. Walker
1879
Artist, Artist (Painter)
associate of
Henry John Weston
1874
Architect (Architect / Interior Architect / Landscape Architect), Artist (Painter), Artist (Cartoonist / Illustrator)
associate of
Meldrum School of Painting
Non-Artist/Designer/Curator
Founded and taught
None
Courtesy of: Eva Breuer Art Dealer
Ranunculi
Date
1943
Medium
oil on board
45 x 37cm
Shadows, landscape with trees
Date
1925
URL
http://cs.nga.gov.au/Detail.cfm?IRN=47817
Portrait of Fritz Hart
Date
1925
URL
http://cs.nga.gov.au/Detail.cfm?IRN=147508
The yellow screen (Family group)
Date
1910- 1911
URL
http://cs.nga.gov.au/Detail.cfm?IRN=41519
La Flume
Date
1910
URL
http://cs.nga.gov.au/Detail.cfm?IRN=36057
Four o'clock
Date
1910
URL
http://cs.nga.gov.au/Detail.cfm?IRN=71225
Collections
The Australian Landscape
1972- 1973
Exhibition (exhibited at)
Art Gallery of South Australia, Adelaide, SA
"The Australian Landscape" was a national touring exhibition organised by the Australian Gallery Directors' Council in 1972. The organising gallery was the Art Gallery of South Australia, and the curators were Daniel Thomas (Art Gallery of New South Wales) Ian North (Art Gallery of South Australia) and Frances McCarthy [later Lindsay] (National Gallery of Victoria). Generous funding from the Peter Stuyvesant foundation enabled the curators to travel the country together in order to make considered judgements. The exhibition opened at the Art Gallery of South Australia on 3 March 1972, and toured to the Western Australian Art Gallery, National Gallery of Victoria, Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery, Australian National Gallery (temporary premises), Art Gallery of New South Wales, Newcastle City Art Gallery, and the Queensland Art Gallery. The catalogue introduction claims that the exhibition comprised of 'fifty-five of the best Australian landscapes ever executed'. It was characterised by a breadth of vision, with works from every state – including regional galleries and private collections. It is distinguished by having a greater emphasis on colonial works than previous exhibitions, and elevating the reputation of Eugene Von Guerard and John Glover. There were only two works by women – Grace Cossington Smith and Margaret Preston– and none by any Aboriginal artist.
Recognitions
National Gallery Travelling Scholarship
1900
Award
Citations:
  • Colahan, Colin (ed.), (1919), Max Meldrum: his art and views, (Place: Melbourne, Vic. : Alexander McCubbin)
  • National Gallery of Australia, Canberra, ACT
  • Meldrum, Max, (1950), The science of appearances as formulated and taught by Max Meldrum, (Place: Sydney, NSW : The Shepherd Press)
  • Perry, Peter and John, (1996), Max Meldrum & Associates, (Place: Castlemaine, Vic. : Castlemaine Gallery and Historical Museum)
  • McGrath, Joyce and Smith, Bernard, (1986), Meldrum, Duncan Max, (Australian Dictionary of Biography), Type: article http://adb.anu.edu.au/biography/meldrum-duncan-max-7553
  • Thomas, D., North, I., & McCarthy F., (1972), The Australian Landscape, (Published by the Art Gallery of South Australia), Type: catalogue