Australian Tonalism
Description
Australian tonalism was an art movement that emerged in Melbourne during the 1910s. Known at the time as tonal realism or Meldrumism, the movement was founded by artist and art teacher Max Meldrum, who developed a unique theory of painting, the "Scientific Order of Impressions". He argued that painting was a pure science of optical analysis, and believed that a painter should aim to create an exact illusion of spatial depth by carefully observing in nature tone and tonal relationships (shades of light and dark) and spontaneously recording them in the order that they had been received by the eye. Read more ↗
Key Artists
Max Meldrum
Founder, teacher, and authoritative theorist who established the 'Scientific Order of Impressions' and led the Melbourne school of Tonal Realism.
Clarice Beckett
Celebrated master of the movement whose subtle, poetic depictions of Melbourne beaches, misty streets, and twilight roads achieved profound atmospheric minimalism.
Percy Leason
Prominent Meldrum pupil and illustrator who applied tonalist optical theories to portraiture, landscape painting, and rural genre scenes.
Colin Colahan
Key follower and defender of Meldrum whose tonalist portraits and Melbourne cityscapes captured subtle light gradations before relocating to Europe.
William Frater
Early associate of the Meldrum circle who explored tonalist spatial construction before becoming a pioneer of Post-Impressionism in Victoria.
Justus Jorgensen
Devoted pupil of Meldrum and architect who applied tonalist philosophy to painting and later founded the artists' colony of Montsalvat in Eltham.
Famous Artworks
Fun Facts
Max Meldrum strictly forbade his students from using lines or drawing outlines; instead, he taught that painting was purely the 'science of optical analysis' where artists must immediately paint patches of dark and light tones exactly in the order their eyes perceived them.
↗ Source: en.wikipedia.org
Because Australian Tonalist painters frequently painted outside at dawn or dusk in foggy, wet, or misty conditions to capture soft atmospheric tones, critics derisively nicknamed their work 'Meldrumism' and complained they painted nothing but blur and smog.
↗ Source: ngv.vic.gov.au