We acknowledge the Traditional Owners of the land on which the Queensland Art Gallery | Gallery of Modern Art stands and recognise the creative contribution First Australians make to the art and culture of this country.
Chester Earles / Australia 1821–1905 / Interior with figures 1872 / Oil on canvas on board / 61 x 73.5cm / Gift of Joseph Brown Gallery 1997 / Collection: Queensland Art Gallery | Gallery of Modern Art
Chester EarlesInterior with figures 1872
Not Currently on Display
Interior with figures is the most notable example of Earles’s work in an Australian public collection. The work is a rare, early and therefore important example of classic Victorian figure-painting within the context of nineteenth-Century Australian Art.
It is a courtship picture, perhaps even a proposal, and Earles invites us to speculate on the social circumstances surrounding the scene and the importance of its eventual outcome. The fine detail and highly-worked surface of this work attest to Earles’s continuing affiliation with the art of miniaturists, with its emphasis on observation of significant details of feature and dress, and its original role as a memento.
Chester Earles was born in 1821 in London and emigrated to Victoria in early 1864. He began his career in London, arriving in Australia with an established art career, notably exhibiting at the Royal Academy and with the Society of British Artists.
Earles was the inaugural treasurer of the Victorian Academy of the Arts which was established in 1870 and became the president three years later.
Most of his works were portraits but he also painted some narrative and religious paintings. As one of the few figurative painters in Victoria at the time, Earles’s practice filled an apparent shortage of classic figure painting.
Discussion Questions
Consider the wedding rituals of different cultures. What do they have in common? How have weddings changed and evolved in contemporary society?
Classroom Activities
Interior with figures looks like a still from a movie. Such a realistic depiction of clothing and an interior from 1872 enables viewers to imagine wearing those clothes and being in the grand room. Storyboard a scene for a film based on Earles’s characters in this painting.