Charles Conder

Charles Conder was sent out to Australia at 16 to train as a land surveyor. His father wanted a steady profession for him. Within a few years he had abandoned surveying for a paintbrush and fallen in with a group of young painters around Melbourne who wanted to paint the Australian light directly, outdoors — the artists later known as the Heidelberg School.

In August 1889 he, Tom Roberts and Arthur Streeton mounted a show in Melbourne that scandalised the local critics. They called it the 9 by 5 Impression Exhibition, after the size of most of the panels: 9 by 5 inches, about the size of a cigar-box lid, because cigar-box lids were exactly what they had painted on, sketches of light and weather done fast and loose. Conder painted 46 of them and designed the delicate catalogue himself.

He left Australia for good in 1890 and spent the rest of his short life in London and Paris, where he became known for painting on silk, fans and panels in pale, faded colours. He died in 1909, only 40 years old.