The Art of John Peter Russell

Sun Books, 1977
John Peter Russell was born in 1858, and belonged to the same generation of Australian artists as Arthur Streeton and Tom Roberts. Although Russell lived outside of Paris for twenty years, building a home on Belle-Ile in 1888, his isolation was really only physical. The group of Post-Impressionists who had studied in Paris - Van Gogh, Gauguin and Cezanne - had by the later 1880s all sought a similar physical isolation in which to confront the problems of their art. Russell's art belongs within this circle, but it has its own distinction. His fascination with the ancient landscape and people of Belle-Ile, his obsession with colour purity and his love of the moods and movement of the sea are unique qualities in which we can see at once an artist of his own era, and one who has made a unique contribution to Australian and European art...