• Source: John Mather (artist)

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




Early life


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




Career


In 1880, Mather was partly responsible for the decoration of the dome of the Royal Exhibition Building, Melbourne. 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. In 1892 he was appointed to the board of trustees of the Public Library, Museums and National Gallery of Victoria, then was a founding member of the Victorian Artists' Society, and its president in 1893–1900, 1906–1908 and 1911. Mather was a member of the Felton Bequest Committee from 1905 to 1916 and as trustee, strongly supported Australian art.
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.
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.




Residences, Studios and other Addresses


Mather had a number of homes, studios and other addresses throughout his career, including:




Students


Mr John Mather is reported to have, had a wide celebrity as a teacher, and ... there are artists of repute in Melbourne now who commenced their careers in his Austral School in Collins Street. As well as studio lessons he led outdoor sketching excursions, often along the coast, where students used pencil, pen and ink and watercolor.
His students include:

Jessie Traill
Ida Rentoul Outhwaite
Jessie Laver Evans
Janet Cumbrae-Stewart
M. J. MacNally
Ellis Rowan
Miss Robertson
Lady Downer
Margaret Forrest or Lady Forrest
Lady Williams
David Davies
Alexander McClintock
Polly Hurry
Dora Wilson
Janie Wilkinson Whyte
James Fawcett of Fawcett and Ashworth
Arthur Jerome Salmon




Death


Mather died of diabetes at his home, Cadzow, South Yarra, Victoria on 18 February 1916; he was buried in the Cheltenham Pioneer Cemetery and lay in a grave with no memorial for more than 100 years.
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?"
In July 2023 a small plaque was placed on the grave simply stating:
Mr John Mather 1848 – 1916 The beauty of his Art endures.
The words, his Art endures, refers to his painting and etching but also the art he nurtured as a mentor, teacher and one of the founding fathers of art in Victoria.




Collections


National Gallery of Australia
National Gallery of Victoria
Art Gallery of New South Wales
Art Gallery of Western Australia
Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery
Queensland Art Gallery
Geelong Art Gallery
Ballarat Art Gallery
Castlemaine Art Museum
Benalla Art Gallery
Launceston Art Gallery
Newcastle Art Gallery
Latrobe Regional Gallery
National Library of New Zealand
State Library of Victoria
Mornington Peninsula Regional Gallery
Bayside Gallery, Bayside City Council




Notes and References


Notes

References




External links


Catalogue of Exhibition of Australian Landscapes by John Mather
John Mather on artnet
Friends of Cheltenham and Regional Cemeteries Inc.

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