The exhibition ‘A Feeling for Light’ at the Queensland Art Gallery from 2 September 2023 until 28 January 2024, explores the evocative paintings of Isaac Walter Jenner (1836–1902), a self-taught marine and landscape painter. Following his arrival in Brisbane in 1883 (illustrated), Jenner spent the last two decades of his life as a major force in the city’s burgeoning cultural life.
A genuine artist must possess judgement to select a picturesque subject & ability to sketch the same correctly; talent to compose grandly; an active faculty for invention; a fine sense of feeling for light, space & atmosphere; a thorough appreciation of tone in colour; & power to combine them all into one harmonious whole. Isaac Walter Jenner
Queen Street, Brisbane 1883
On leaving the Royal Navy in 1865 after eleven years’ service (illustrated), Jenner first established himself as a professional artist in Brighton, England. Just shy of two decades later, at the age of 47, he migrated to Australia with his wife and their seven children, arriving in Brisbane in September 1883. Jenner quickly established himself as a leading artist in the city, working diligently to raise the public’s awareness of art by helping to found the Queensland Art Society (QAS) and organising exhibitions.
Isaac Walter Jenner serving as a seaman with the Royal Navy
Isaac Walter Jenner ‘Hamilton Reach, Brisbane’ 1885
Isaac Walter Jenner ‘(View of Brisbane)’ 1885
Isaac Walter Jenner ‘Brisbane from Bowen Terrace, New Farm’ 1888
View of Brisbane from Bowen Terrace 1883
The Jenner family’s journey to Brisbane was an extraordinary one. Setting out from England in August 1883, RMS Roma passed through the recently opened Suez Canal, considered one of the greatest engineering feats of the 19th century. The Jenners arrived in Batavia (Jakarta) on 6 September 1883 — to the devastating aftermath of the Krakatoa eruption. Located in the Sunda Straits, Krakatoa’s main volcanic explosion (on 27 August 1883) was felt and heard as far away as Alice Springs, 3500km to the southeast.1 Jenner and his family would have heard the explosion — still the loudest sound ever recorded — on board the Roma. Jenner depicts RMS Roma sailing through the Straits of Sunda on 6 September 1883, days after the eruption of Krakatoa (illustrated). Ironically, the millions of tons of ash hurled into the upper atmosphere from Krakatoa augmented Jenner’s signature sunset artworks for many years (illustrated).
Isaac Walter Jenner ‘Krakatoa’ c.1887
Isaac Walter Jenner ‘Sunset sea’ c.1888
In Brisbane, Jenner’s activities contributed to the establishment of the Queensland National Art Gallery — now known as Queensland Art Gallery | Gallery of Modern Art (QAGOMA) — back in 1895. As early as 1884, Jenner was campaigning in the local newspapers for the founding of a public art gallery. He wrote to the Brisbane Telegraph: ‘. . . a building is needed in some part of Brisbane . . . for pictures . . . sculpture, a good library, and museum of natural history’.2
Albert Henry Fullwood ‘Street scene featuring Brisbane’s Town Hall’ c.1895
Corner Queen & George Streets 1910
Queensland National Art Gallery’s first exhibition 1895
It was R Godfrey Rivers who was able to ‘persuade the government to establish the Queensland National Art Gallery in March 1895’ 3 — the new gallery was housed in a single room at Brisbane Town Hall (illustrated) on Queen Street until 1905. When the Gallery Trustees honoured Rivers with a bust at the building entrance, declaring him ‘founder’ of the Gallery, Jenner’s son-in-law — photographer and pioneering filmmaker HW Mobsby — successfully rallied for more recognition for the contributions of Jenner and other longstanding QAS members.4
Despite his great contributions as artist and advocate, Jenner has never been fully appreciated. With this exhibition, we hope to bring his considerable achievements to light, for present and future generations. Learn more about ‘Isaac Walter Jenner: A Feeling for Light’ — 140 years since Jenner’s journey to Australia.
Isaac Walter Jenner
Prepared from texts by Michael Hawker, Curator, Australian Art, QAGOMA; Sally Stewart, Curatorial Volunteer, QAGOMA; and Zenobia Frost, Assistant Editor, Digital, QAGOMA.
Endnotes
1 Isaac Walter Jenner, ‘The proposed art gallery’, Letters to the Editor, Daily Telegraph, 8 December 1884, p.5.
2 Gavin Fry & Bronwyn Mahony, Isaac Walter Jenner, The Beagle Press, Sydney, 1994, p.22.
3 Fry & Mahoney, p.34.
4 Fry & Mahoney, p.35.
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