John Mather (artist)

John Mather (1848 – 18 February 1916) was a Scottish-Australian plein-air painter and etcher.[1]

For the South Australian painter and newspaperman, see John Baxter Mather.
For other people named John Mather, see John Mather (disambiguation).

Mosman's Bay, 1889, by Mather, showing the ferry from the city to the artists' camps

Early life

Mather was born in Hamilton, South Lanarkshire, Scotland, son of John Mather, a surveyor, and his wife Margaret, née Allan.[1] Mather worked as a house decorator.[2] Mather studied art at the Royal Glasgow Institute of the Fine Arts and migrated to Australia in 1878.[1] He was married in 1882[3] to Miss Jessie Pines Best, a daughter of Captain James Best, a pilot of Hobson's Bay. Together they had one daughter and three[4] sons,[5] Margaret Playfair, John Allan, Louis Melville (died in infancy), and Leslie Frank Strand (died in 1919).[6]

Career

In 1880, Mather was partly responsible for the decoration of the dome of the Royal Exhibition Building, Melbourne.[2][7] He joined the bohemian Buonarotti Club, camping with other members on plein-air painting expeditions, and from 1886 served, with Frederick McCubbin, Louis Abrahams and Jane Sutherland, on its exhibition selection committee established by Tom Roberts.[8] In 1892 he was appointed to the board of trustees of the Public Library, Museums and National Gallery of Victoria,[1] then was a founding member of the Victorian Artists' Society, and its president in 1893–1900, 1906–1908 and 1911.[1] Mather was a member of the Felton Bequest Committee from 1905–1916 and as trustee, strongly supported Australian art.[1]

As a painter, Mather was also involved in the bohemian Artists' Camps of Sydney. In 1912 along with Frederick McCubbin, Max Meldrum, Walter Withers Mather formed the breakaway Australian Art Association.[1]

Three of Mather's own paintings, Autumn in the Fitzroy Gardens in oils, and Morning, Lake Omeo and Wintry Weather, Yarra Glen, both watercolours, were purchased by the National Gallery of Victoria.[1]

Death

Mather died of diabetes at his home, Cadzow, South Yarra, Victoria on 18 February 1916; he was buried in the Cheltenham Pioneer Cemetery[1]and now lies in a grave with no memorial.[9]

John Mather's grave with no memorial, Cheltenham Pioneer Cemetery

Written just thirteen years after his death, "The war claimed his only son and his daughter who was well known in Melbourne music circles, lives now in the United States. It is as if "the place thereof knoweth him no more " But how can an artist ever be forgotten as long as human eyes are irresistibly drawn to the quiet beauty of his pictures on the wall?"[10]

Collections
  • National Gallery of Victoria[7]
  • Art Gallery of New South Wales[7]
  • Art Gallery of Western Australia[7]
  • Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery[7]
  • Ballarat Art Gallery[7]
  • Castlemaine Art Museum[7]
  • Geelong Art Gallery[7]
  • Launceston Art Gallery[7]
  • Mornington Peninsula Regional Gallery[7]

References
  1. Judy Blyth, 'Mather, John (1848? - 1916)', Australian Dictionary of Biography, Volume 10, MUP, 1986, pp 438-439. Retrieved 2010-04-01
  2. Serle, Percival (1949). "Mather, John". Dictionary of Australian Biography. Sydney: Angus & Robertson. Retrieved 1 April 2010.
  3. Ancestory.com John Mather family tree accessed 6 Oct 2022
  4. Ancestory.com John Mather family tree accessed 6 Oct 2022
  5. "The Argus, 21 Feb 1916".
  6. Ancestry.com John Mather Family Tree accessed 6 Oct 2022
  7. McCulloch, Alan; McCulloch, Susan; McCulloch Childs, Emily (2006). The new McCulloch's encyclopedia of Australian art (4th ed.). Fitzroy: AUS Art Editions ; The Miegunyah Press. p. 667. ISBN 0-522-85317-X. OCLC 80568976.
  8. Mead, Stephen F. (December 2011). "The Search for Artistic Professionalism in Melbourne: the activities of the Buonarotti Club, 1883 -1887". The Latrobe Journal. 88.
  9. Site Inspection 18 Aug 2022
  10. MacGregor, L.F (28 September 1929). "The Argus". Memories of Mather A PAINTER OF SUNSHINE. Retrieved 18 November 2022.
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