Clive Stephen

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Clive Travers Stephen (10 November 1889–1957) was an Australian sculptor,[1] painter in water-colour and oils,[2] printmaker,[3][4] and medical doctor.[5]

Early life[edit]

Clive Stephen was born in Caulfield on 10 November 1889, the son of Blanche (née Travers) and Sidney James Henry Stephen, a solicitor, of 'The Pines' in Middle Crescent, Brighton.[6]

Physician[edit]

Stephen studied medicine at the University of Melbourne[7][8] in Ormond College, entered third year in 1912,[9] and attained the Bachelor of Medicine and Bachelor of Surgery with Third Class Honours in 1914.[10] He was resident medical officer of the Alfred Hospital

World War I[edit]

Stephen enlisted in the Royal Army Medical Corps in England[11] and was posted to the 14th General Hospital, Wimereux, near Boulogne, in the north of France.[12] Stephen publicly promoted the cause of the Red Cross.[13][14] He was made an Army Captain in March 1915,[15] and in mid-1916 was married in Chichester. His brother, Lieutenant K. T. Stephen was killed in France in May 1918.[16]

Post-war[edit]

Stephen lived in Elmore and practised medicine in Central Victoria,[17][18] and was Public Vaccinator for the Northern District during the Influenza Epidemic.[19][20] There his wife, Dorothy Edna, bore a son in 1918.[21] He left the district in February 1919[22] to live in High St., Prahran and later at 537 Malvern Rd., Toorak. During WW2 Stephen served in the Citizen Military Forces.

Artist[edit]

Training[edit]

Stephen attended George Bell's Saturday afternoon classes at Selborne Road 1925–30,[23]  but otherwise was a self-taught painter and sculptor. His background as a doctor, and as nephew of Chief Justice Sir John and Lady Madden[24] and a relative by marriage of the late Mrs Ellis Rowan,[25] was noted in an Argus newspaper article on "Artists' Aliases".[26]

Reception[edit]

When in 1933 he exhibited with other students of Bell and Arnold Shore's school, Blamire Young commented that "Clive Stephen ... has a sound method of putting a design together. His colored drawings are rich and full of promise."[27] During the same period, Stephen and his wife Dorothy, a painter, conducted life-classes that attracted such artists as Will Dyson, and others in the nascent modern movement in Melbourne.[28] In the late 1930s he exhibited with the association of Modernist sculptors formed in 1935 by Ola Cohn,[29] who named themselves The Plastic Group,[30] and he also showed with Group Twelve.[31]

McCulloch attributes influences on Stephen to primitive sculpture via European artists such as Jacob Epstein and Henri Gaudier-Brzeska, resulting in his abstraction.[28] He was one of the first Australian stone-carvers thus inspired. Gino Nibbi in Art in Australia of 1939 notes that he;

"...tends by culture and temperament towards abstract art. After searching, let us say, on the surface of his material, by carving its external coat, he begins now to cut it, to excavate into it, to free from it some secret, without which sculpture is in danger of remaining at the bas-relief stage, and of being too elusive. Stephen is a gifted artist showing great potentiality of further development."[32]

Legacy[edit]

Stephen was also an ardent collector; as early as 1934 he acquired Head of a woman (1933),[33] painted in Bali by Ian Fairweather (likewise an artist influenced by the primitives), which he gifted to the National Gallery of Victoria in 1948.[34][35]

Though he was an artist of great energy and enthusiasm, soon after retiring from medicine to devote his life to sculpture, tragically Stephen died in 1957.[28]

Collections[edit]

  • National Gallery of Australia[36]
  • National Gallery of Victoria[37]
  • Art Gallery of New South Wales[38]
  • Queensland Art Gallery[39]
  • Art Gallery of Western Australia[40]

Exhibitions[edit]

  • 1939, 30 May – 10 June: Plastic Group – sculpture and drawings. With Ola Cohn, Edith Hughston, Moya Carey, Ethel Reynolds, Val Blogg, M. McChesney Matthews, C. de Gruchy, Nellie Patterson. Victorian Artists' Society Gallery, East Melbourne[30]
  • 1937, 7–18 September: Plastic Group – an exhibition of sculpture, with Ola Cohn, Nellie Patterson, Moya Carey, Christine de Gruchy, Val Blogg, M. McChesney Matthews, Reg. Cordia, Edith Moore, the late John K. Blogg, Michael O'Connell. Hogan's Gallery, 340 Little Collins Street, Melbourne[30]
  • 1936, June: Group Twelve.[31] Athenaeum Gallery[41]
  • 1933, July: Students of George Bell's and Arnold Shore, Atheneum Gallery[27]

Posthumous[edit]

  • 2012, McClelland Sculpture Park + Gallery[1]
  • 1996, from 28 April: Clive Stephen : sculpture & works on paper, including works in oil and on paper by Dorothy Stephen. Eastgate Gallery
  • 1992: Classical Modernism: The George Bell Circle, National Gallery of Victoria[2]
  • 1991, 17–28 April: The George Bell Group exhibition. A tribute to George Bell. Eastgate Gallery, 729 High St., Armadale
  • 1988: The Great Australian Art Exhibition
  • 1986: Frances Derham, Ethel Spowers and Clive Stephens. Jim Alexander Gallery, 13 Elmo Road, East Malvern
  • 1980-1: Melbourne woodcuts and linocuts of the 1920's and 1930's. Ballarat Fine Art Gallery travelling exhibition curated by Roger Butler. Toured by AGDC to McClelland Art Gallery, University of Queensland Art Gallery, Newcastle Region Art Gallery, Victorian College of the Arts Gallery, Ballarat Fine Art Gallery
  • 1978: Clive Stephen, sculptor. Gryphon Gallery[42]
  • 1959, from 10 February: Memorial exhibition, National Gallery of Victoria

References[edit]

  1. ^ a b Stephen, Clive; Scarlett, Ken; McClelland Gallery + Sculpture Park (2012). Clive Stephen: sculptor. Langwarrin, Vic.: McClelland Sculpture Pake + Gallery. ISBN 978-0-9804290-8-4. OCLC 816140154.
  2. ^ a b Eagle, Mary (1990). Australian modern painting: between the wars : 1914–1939. Sydney: Bay Books. ISBN 978-1-86256-427-5. OCLC 22987267.
  3. ^ Printmaking, Prints and. "Clive Stephen". printsandprintmaking.gov.au. Retrieved 1 August 2022.
  4. ^ Butler, Roger; Ballarat Fine Art Gallery (2003). Melbourne woodcuts and linocuts of the 1920's and 1930's. p. 49. ISBN 978-0-642-89501-1. OCLC 881470185.
  5. ^ "Social". Table Talk. 28 July 1921. Retrieved 1 August 2022.
  6. ^ Smith, Tim (16 September 2016). "Assessment Of Cultural Heritage Significance And Executive Director Recommendation To The Heritage Council : The Pines, 10 Middle Cres. Brighton". Heritage Victoria.
  7. ^ "University Commencement". Leader. 11 April 1914. p. 38. Retrieved 1 August 2022.
  8. ^ "University Of Melbourne". Argus. 4 January 1913. p. 18. Retrieved 1 August 2022.
  9. ^ "University Of Melbourne. Medical Examinations". Argus. 6 January 1912. p. 16. Retrieved 1 August 2022.
  10. ^ "University Of Melbourne". Argus. 17 April 1914. p. 12. Retrieved 1 August 2022.
  11. ^ "Doctors For The Front". The Argus. 8 March 1915. p. 10. Retrieved 1 August 2022.
  12. ^ "Personal". The Argus. 30 August 1915. p. 6. Retrieved 1 August 2022.
  13. ^ "British Red Cross". Elmore Standard (Vic. : 1882 – 1920. 19 May 1917. p. 3. Retrieved 1 August 2022.
  14. ^ "Red Cross Work". Elmore Standard (Vic. : 1882 – 1920. 19 May 1917. p. 3. Retrieved 1 August 2022.
  15. ^ "Australian Military Forces". Commonwealth of Australia Gazette. 15 March 1917. p. 494. Retrieved 1 August 2022.
  16. ^ "The Supreme Sacrifice". Elmore Standard (Vic. : 1882 – 1920. 11 May 1918. p. 3. Retrieved 1 August 2022.
  17. ^ "Sad Fatality at Avonmore : The Inquiry". Elmore Standard. 5 January 1918. p. 3. Retrieved 1 August 2022.
  18. ^ "Obituary". Elmore Standard (Vic. : 1882 – 1920. 1 June 1918. p. 3. Retrieved 1 August 2022.
  19. ^ "They Say! The influenza scare..." Elmore Standard (Vic. : 1882 – 1920. 1 February 1919. Retrieved 1 August 2022.
  20. ^ "Department of Public Health". Victoria Police Gazette. 10 May 1917. p. 267.
  21. ^ "Family Notices". Argus. 12 October 1918. p. 11. Retrieved 1 August 2022.
  22. ^ "Our Folks". Elmore Standard (Vic. : 1882 – 1920. 1 February 1919. p. 3. Retrieved 1 August 2022.
  23. ^ National gallery of Victoria (Melbourne, Australie); Moore, Felicity St John (1992). Classical modernism: the George Bell circle. ISBN 978-0-7241-0155-9. OCLC 1264075973.
  24. ^ Campbell, Ruth, "Madden, Sir John (1844–1918)", Australian Dictionary of Biography, Canberra: National Centre of Biography, Australian National University, retrieved 1 August 2022
  25. ^ Hazzard, Margaret, "Rowan, Marian Ellis (1848–1922)", Australian Dictionary of Biography, Canberra: National Centre of Biography, Australian National University, retrieved 1 August 2022
  26. ^ "Artists' Aliases : Everyone at the opening of the Group Twelve exhibition yesterday was interested in the provocative pictures but some were almost as interested in finding out the personalities hidden under the names of unfamiliar artists. M Barren Is Lady Barrett wife of the Chancellor of the University of Melbourne, Maie Casey is Mrs R G Casey wife of the Federal Treasurer, and Mary Alice Evatt is the wife of Mr. Justice Evatt of the High Court of Australia. Not all the exhibitors are in Melbourne. Mr. Roger James sent his exhibits from London and Miss K Sauerbier from Adelaide. Mr Pulleine, the son of a well-known South Australian doctor, the late Dr Pulleine is here, and Miss Marjorie North, Miss Bell and Dr Clive Stephen who varies medicine will sculpture in the modern manner, are well known in Melbourne. Dr Stephen is the nephew of the late Sir John Madden and Lady Madden and a relative by marriage of the late Mrs Ellis Rowan. Another absentee was Miss Moya Dyring who is in New South Wales painting in the hills near Sydney." "Heard Here and There". Argus. 17 June 1936. Retrieved 1 August 2022.
  27. ^ a b Young, Blamire (17 July 1933). "Modernists' School : Students' Exhibition". The Herald. p. 4. Retrieved 1 August 2022.
  28. ^ a b c McCulloch, Alan; McCulloch, Susan; McCulloch Childs, Emily (2006). The new McCulloch's encyclopedia of Australian art. Fitzroy, Vic.; Carlton, Vic.: Aus Art Editions ; in association with the Miegunyah Press. ISBN 978-0-522-85317-9. OCLC 1135181250.
  29. ^ "The Plastic Group". Age. 4 October 1935. p. 18. Retrieved 1 August 2022.
  30. ^ a b c Plastic Group, [Plastic Group : Australian Gallery File], retrieved 1 August 2022
  31. ^ a b "Heard Here and There". Argus. 17 June 1936. p. 12. Retrieved 1 August 2022.
  32. ^ Nibbi, Gino (August 1939). "Ideas Behind Contemporary Art". Art in Australia: A Quarterly Magazine (76): 18.
  33. ^ "Head of a woman (1933) Ian Fairweather". National Gallery of Victoria. Retrieved 1 August 2022.
  34. ^ Roberts, Claire (2021). Fairweather and China. ISBN 978-0-522-87716-8. OCLC 1317822294.
  35. ^ Fairweather, Ian; Roberts, Claire; Thompson, John (2019). Ian Fairweather: a life in letters. ISBN 978-1-925355-25-3. OCLC 1108158022.
  36. ^ "Clive Stephen". National Gallery of Australia. Retrieved 1 August 2022.
  37. ^ "Clive Stephen, NGV". National Gallery of Victoria. Retrieved 1 August 2022.
  38. ^ "Works by Clive Stephen | Art Gallery of NSW". www.artgallery.nsw.gov.au. Retrieved 1 August 2022.
  39. ^ "STEPHEN, Clive | QAGOMA Collection Online". collection.qagoma.qld.gov.au. Retrieved 1 August 2022.
  40. ^ "Clive Travers STEPHEN". Art Gallery WA Collection Online. Retrieved 1 August 2022.
  41. ^ "Melbourne Chatter". The Bulletin. 57 (2941): 43. 24 June 1936.
  42. ^ The Parliament of the Commonwealth of Australia : Australia Council (1976–1977). Blainey, Geoffrey (ed.). "Parliamentary Paper No. 52/1978 : Australia Council Annual Report 1 July 1976 – 30 June 1977". Trove. Retrieved 1 August 2022.
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