Roland Wakelin (17 April 1887 – 28 May 1971) was a New Zealand-born Australian painter and teacher.

Early life

Roland Shakespeare Wakelin was born on 17 April 1887 in Greytown,

New Zealand New Zealand () is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and List of islands of New Zealand, over 600 smaller islands. It is the List of isla ...

. He studied at

Wellington Technical School Wellington High School is a co-educational secondary school in the CBD of Wellington, New Zealand. It has a role of approximately 1600 students. It was founded in 1886 as the Wellington College of Design (later the Wellington Technical School), ...

from 1902 to 1903. Shortly after, while working in the Land and Income Tax Department, he took night classes in painting under Henri Bastings. In 1908 and 1909, he visited his brother in Sydney then in 1912 joined him, then enrolled in the Royal Art Society School to study drawing and painting under

Dattilo Rubbo Antonio Salvatore Dattilo Rubbo (Napoli 21 June 1870 – Sydney 1 June 1955) was an Italian-born artist and art teacher active in Australia from 1897. Rubbo, or Dattilo-Rubbo, was born in Naples in 1870, and spent his early childhood in the N ...

alongside fellow students

Grace Cossington Smith Grace Cossington Smith (20 April 189220 December 1984) was an Visual arts of Australia, Australian artist and pioneer of Modernist art, modernist painting in Australia and was instrumental in introducing Post-Impressionism to her home country. ...

Norah Simpson Norah Simpson (5 July 1895 – 19 February 1974) was an Australian modernist painter. She grew up in Sydney and is described as "giving impetus to modernism" in Australia: when returning from France in 1913, she brought back a series of rep ...

and Roy de Maistre.

Career

In 1913, he started working at the New South Wales Land Tax Office. In 1914, he started working as a ticket writer for

Mark Foy's Mark Foy's Limited or Mark Foy's was a department store in Sydney, New South Wales, Australia, founded by Francis Foy and his brother Mark Foy. The department store was named after their father, Mark Foy (senior), and traded between 1885 and ...

and David Jones department stores, then from 1916 worked for the commercial art firm of Smith and Julius. In this position, Wakelin found himself working alongside “fellow artists such as Lloyd Rees and James Muir Auld.” Early in 1919, he commenced study at the Royal Art Society’s classes “where he found a sympathetic teacher in A. Datillo Rubbo.” Later in 1919, together with

Roy de Maistre Roy De Maistre CBE (27 March 18941 March 1968) was an Australian artist of international fame. He is renowned in Australian art for his early experimentation with "colour-music", and is recognised as the first Australian artist to use pure abs ...

, he held a two-man exhibition ''Colour in Art'' influenced by Cézanne,

Gauguin Eugène Henri Paul Gauguin (; ; 7 June 1848 – 8 May 1903) was a French painter, sculptor, printmaker, ceramist, and writer, whose work has been primarily associated with the Post-Impressionist and Symbolist movements. He was also an influ ...

and

Van Gogh Vincent Willem van Gogh (; 30 March 185329 July 1890) was a Dutch Post-Impressionist painter who is among the most famous and influential figures in the history of Western art. In just over a decade, he created approximately 2,100 artwork ...

Gayfield Shaw Gayfield Park, commonly known as Gayfield, is a football stadium in Arbroath, Angus, Scotland. It is the home ground of Scottish Professional Football League team Arbroath F.C. The club have played at Gayfield since 1880, although the pitch has ...

's art salon in Sydney. Before leaving for London, Wakelin exhibited at the art gallery of Anthony Horden and Sons. A review in the Sydney Morning Herald described his work as "daring," displaying "a splendid audacity" and a "spirit of modernism." He worked in London as a freelance artist (spending some time in Paris) from 1922 to 1924. Wakelin needed to work in England to keep his family and obtained employment with “Hopwoods and Cinads advertising agencies. He worked as an illustrator and scenario writer.” On his return to

Sydney Sydney is the capital city of the States and territories of Australia, state of New South Wales and the List of cities in Australia by population, most populous city in Australia. Located on Australia's east coast, the metropolis surrounds Syd ...

in 1925 he held an exhibition of his work, largely influenced by Cézanne, at

John Young John Young most commonly refers to: *John Young (astronaut) (1930–2018), American astronaut * John Young, 1st Baron Lisgar (1807–1876), British diplomat and politician John Young may also refer to: Academics * John Young (professor of Greek) ...

Macquarie Galleries Macquarie Galleries was a Sydney art museum, private art gallery established in 1925 by John Henry Young and Basil Burdett. It was located at "Strathkyle", 19 Bligh Street Sydney then moved to 40 King Street in 1945. From 1991 to 1993 it was lo ...

. An insight into his professional life can be found in a comment in the Daily Telegraph in 1928. The writer describes Wakelin as "the most solitary artist in Sydney," who "for fifteen years has worked practically alone." In 1934 he was elected a member of the Society of Artists. “In 1935, the Art Gallery of New South Wales acquired its first Wakelin, Mount Wellington.” He held frequent further exhibitions between 1928 and 1970, with a memorial exhibition held in 1972. An example of his work, exhibited in 1944 at the Macquarie Galleries, the reviewer describes Wakelin as having an exploring temperament and "one of our most forceful painters." From 1924 to 1941, he worked for the commercial art firm of O'Brien Publishers. From Wakelin’s return to Australia in 1924 and through the 1930s, he experienced lean times. “His job as a commercial artist at O’Brien Publishers was halved during the Depression.” From 1942 to 1949, he worked in the drawing department of Edward H O'Brien, who were joint venturers with the

Postmaster General's Department The Postmaster-General's Department (PMG) was a department of the Australian federal government, established at Federation in 1901, whose responsibilities included the provision of postal and telegraphic services throughout Australia. It was ...

(now

Telstra Telstra Group Limited is an Australian telecommunications company that builds and operates telecommunications networks and markets related products and services. It is a member of the S&P/ASX 20 stock index, and is Australia's largest telecomm ...

) for the end-to-end production of the

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, a local Australian business directory. He was in

Melbourne Melbourne ( , ; Boonwurrung language, Boonwurrung/ or ) is the List of Australian capital cities, capital and List of cities in Australia by population, most populous city of the States and territories of Australia, Australian state of Victori ...

in 1950–51 teaching at the National Gallery School then in the

University of Sydney The University of Sydney (USYD) is a public university, public research university in Sydney, Australia. Founded in 1850, it is the oldest university in both Australia and Oceania. One of Australia's six sandstone universities, it was one of the ...

from 1952 teaching part-time, mostly to architecture students. From 1956 to 1957, he toured Europe, visiting England, The Netherlands, France and Italy. He was an affable, sociable man of considerable attainments in fields other than painting - he read widely and had a fine

bass Bass or Basses may refer to: Fish * Bass (fish), various saltwater and freshwater species Wood * Bass or basswood, the wood of the tilia americana tree Music * Bass (sound), describing low-frequency sound or one of several instruments in th ...

voice, with a repertoire from popular songs and

Gilbert and Sullivan Gilbert and Sullivan refers to the Victorian-era theatrical partnership of the dramatist W. S. Gilbert (1836–1911) and the composer Arthur Sullivan (1842–1900) and to the works they jointly created. The two men collaborated on fourteen com ...

Mozart Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (27 January 1756 – 5 December 1791) was a prolific and influential composer of the Classical period (music), Classical period. Despite his short life, his rapid pace of composition and proficiency from an early age ...

and

Bach Johann Sebastian Bach (German: �joːhan zeˈbasti̯an baχ ( – 28 July 1750) was a German composer and musician of the late Baroque period. He is known for his prolific output across a variety of instruments and forms, including the or ...

. Wakelin, De Maistre and

are regarded as founding the modern movement in Sydney. A retrospective of Wakelin’s work was held by the Art Gallery of New South Wales in 1967. The exhibition highlighted how Wakelin’s subject matter revolved around his personal life and holidays. The landscapes included scenes from Hinton, Bathurst, Mount Saddleback, Terrigal, and Canberra. More personal subject matter included his daughter Judith, his wife Estelle, Roland Jr., and close friend and fellow artist, Douglas Dundas. In 2003, Newcastle Region Art Gallery held an exhibition of Wakelin’s paintings, the first comprehensive exhibition since the 1967 retrospective. The gallery described the artists’ search for artistic expression as beginning “from near abstraction, through a post-impressionistic and C ézannesque interpretation of the 1920s and 1930s, to a romantic vision in later life.”

Gallery holdings

* Art Gallery of New South Wales. 55 works including this 192
self-portrait.
* State Library of New South Wales. 4 works including
Picnic at the Rocks
" 1952. * National Portrait Gallery
Self-portrait
1962. * National Gallery of Victoria. 8 works including
Girl in a purple dress
" 1918. * Newcastle Art Gallery. 9 works including
The train to the mountains
" 1943.

Death

He died on 28 May 1971.

Sources

*
Encyclopedia of Australian Art
', Alan McCulloch, Hutchison of London, 1968 * * * Wakelin, Roland
Roland Wakelin retrospective
Sydney, N.S.W. : The Art Gallery of New South Wales, 1967. *

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Wakelin, Roland 1887 births 1971 deaths 20th-century New Zealand painters 20th-century Australian painters New Zealand art educators Australian art educators People from Greytown, New Zealand 20th-century Australian male artists Australian male painters New Zealand emigrants to Australia 20th-century Australian painters Australian modern painters New Zealand modern painters Australian advertising artists and illustrators New Zealand advertising artists and illustrators