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JOHN RUSSELL
Public domain, via
Wikimedia Commons
Photograph of
John Russell, c. 1883 |
- John Peter Russell (1858-1930) was an Australian impressionist painter.
- Born and raised in Sydney, Russell moved to Europe in his late teenage years to attend art school.
- There, he befriended fellow pupil Vincent van Gogh and, in 1886, painted the first oil portrait of the artist, now held at the Van Gogh Museum.
- That same year, Russell painted with Claude Monet at Belle Île
and Russell moved there soon after with his wife, Marianna Russell, one of sculptor Auguste Rodin's favorite models.
- Henri Matisse visited Russell at Belle Île in the 1890s, and later credited the Australian with introducing him to impressionist techniques and color theory.
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Despite painting prolifically and maintaining close ties with the European avant-garde, Russell rarely exhibited his works and, having received a large inheritance from his father, showed no interest in making money from art. After his wife died in 1908, Russell, grief-stricken, destroyed hundreds of his paintings. He returned to Sydney in old age where he died in relative obscurity.
(Wikipedia)
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