The National Gallery of Australia (NGA) has an exhibition on the short, brilliant career of Hugh Ramsay.  Although the Gallery is closed now, along with many other of the world’s museums, I thought I’d share the work of this remarkable Australian artist.

Born in Scotland in 1877, Ramsay came to Australia on a ship with his parents. He lived in Australia his entire life, except for a short stint in England and France in 1900 to 1902. Although he died at the young age of 28 from tuberculosis, his paintings represent some of the greatest works of portraiture in Australian art. The NGA website’s search function allows people to enter his name to see more of his many drawings and paintings.
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Ramsay grew up as one of nine children, and family played a large role throughout his life. His talent appeared early. He painted Kookaburra at age 14. 

In 1897, at age 21, he painted The Tent, a modern and abstract work for the time. That same year, he painted Lamplight, which is reminiscent of some of JMW Turner’s work.

​His interest in portraits started early. In 1897, he painted his sister Madge. What I found most interesting about this portrait was the Australian landscape in the background. 

​In 1901, Ramsay travelled to Paris and learned from artists like Diego Velázquez, John Singer Sargent, and James McNeill Whistler. He painted himself and his roommate, a fellow artist, many times.

My favorite painting of his from this period is The Four Seasons, inspired by the Pre-Raphaelites and Alphonse Mucha.

​For his health, Ramsay returned to Australia. There, he focused on portraits of family and the occasional landscape.

His masterpiece is probably Two Girls in White, painted in 1904. Inspired by Sargent’s painting of a group of sisters in gowns, Ramsay’s rendition is less formal. He places his sisters close to us, making viewers part of the scene.

He died in 1906, aged 28, at his family home in Melbourne. Ramsay has been called an “artist’s artist,” admired by many in his own generation and those that followed. One of his early mentors wrote after his death, “Australia, I think, does not yet realise what she has lost in him but she will in time, and I and some others I know will do what we can to make his memory live.”
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This exhibition does indeed bring Ramsay and his work alive for a modern audience.

We moved into a new neighborhood recently. On our first day there, while unpacking boxes, we heard our doorbell ring.  

The gentleman at our front door launched into a complicated tale about needing help to round up some chooks (which is Aussie slang for chickens) that had gotten loose after a fox attack. A little bemused, we followed him out the door.

As we were chook-hunting, we learned more. The chooks didn’t belong to him, but to his next-door neighbors, who were on vacation. From his yard, he had seen the hens outside the coop in their netted enclosure. A fox had managed to breach the enclosure and attack one of the hens. He’d frightened off the fox, but the chickens had scattered. He wanted our help to find and secure them, in his own garage if necessary.

We tracked two of the chooks, perched on a fence between the properties. The plan was to herd them into this gentleman’s yard. We approached as quietly as we could. The two brown hens didn’t move. We crept closer; still they didn’t stir. They just clucked softly to each other, as if waiting. Finally, my husband and daughter marched forward and plucked them from the fence. They continued to cluck, as if chiding us for taking so long. My husband and daughter returned them to their coop while I searched for the missing chook. What I found was a pile of black feathers—uh-oh.

“Over here!” our new neighbor called.

The black chook was in his yard. We surrounded her, and my husband picked her up, although she was flapping her wings and considerably more distressed than the other two.

Luckily, this story has a happy ending. After a quick trip to the vet, the black chook was fine and returned to her mates. And we were left marveling—only in Australia would we spend our first day in a new home chasing chooks.