('Royal' in 1935) South Australian Society of Arts consolidates its wide influence from start of 20th Century
South Australian Society of Arts selection and hanging committee for its 1902 exhibition: Harry P. Gill (chairman), J. White, J. Ashton, Edward Davies, J. Keane and H.E, Powell (honorary secretary). Right: The Onkaparinga by Edmund Gouldsmith, part of a bequest by former society secretary W.K. Gold.
Images (The Onkaparinga by Adam Dutkiewicz) courtesy Royal South Australian Society for the Arts
The South Australian Society of Arts (“Royal” was added to its name in 1935) consolidated its influence in the early 20th Century.
The society had been legally incorporated around 1894, a long-held wish of secretary Walter Kelvington Gold, who died in office aged only 47. Gold bequeathed some significant artworks to the society's collection that grew substantially from there. The most important work in Gold’s legacy was 1884 Onkaparinga River landscape by Edmund Gouldsmith, who lived in South Australian only a few years. This was first exhibited at the society’s annual exhibition in 1902, after it amalgamated with the Easel Club, that had splintered off before it formed again in 1892, bringing with it artists like Hans Heysen, Hayley Lever, James Ashton and Rose McPherson (Margaret Preston).
The Hambidge sisters Helen and Milly (another sister Alice was also a noted artist and brother Bert a caricaturist with The Bulletin) were elected fellows of society in 1902. The society’s impressive list of fellows would also include Hayley Lever, Bessie Davidson, John and Doreen Goodchild, Horace Trenerry, Ivor Hele, and Nora Heysen; and mid-century Dorrit Black, Rex Battarbee, Ivor Francis, Jeffrey Smart, Jacqueline Hick, Ruth Tuck, Lisette Kohlhagen, John Dowie, Geoff Wilson and Gordon Samstag.
Often, the society's president was curator (director) of the South Australian art gallery, and sometimes head of Adelaide’s School of Design – or both in the case of Harry P. Gill. Society of arts presidents Laurence Howie and Leslie Wilkie were also curators at the National Gallery of South Australia and another, Henri van Raalte, was on the society's council and set up the Sketch Club in 1923 when he was gallery curator. Howie, John Godchild, Frederick Millward Grey, Paul Beadle and Max Lyle were heads of the South Australian School of Art in its various incarnations.
Society fellows were pioneering forces in laying the foundations of South Australia’s visual arts culture. The society worked to showcase Aboriginal artists and saw desert painters engage with the organisation as well as exhibiting the work of Albert Namatjira. The association was a pivotal influence in forming of the University of South Australia’s School of the Arts, Architecture and Design, and continued to work alongside the faculty through the Friends of the South Australian School of Art Now.