Louis Tannert in 1882 first curator for South Australian art gallery and head of School of Painting in Adelaide
Two works by Louis Tannert: An Aboriginal Queen (oil on canvas, 1891), during his time in Adelaide, and Children's concert (1881, oil on canvas), drawing on the everyday life style of his Düsseldorf school of painting background.
Images courtesy Art Gallery of South Australia
German painter Louis Tannert, in 1882, was appointed both first honorary curator of the future Art Gallery of South Australia and first master of the School of Painting in Adelaide.
Born in Leipzig, Germany, Louis August Ludwig Tannert was a graduate the Düsseldorf Academy and the Royal Academy of Dresden. He arrived in Melbourne on board the Kent in 1876 and was soon showing his works mostly genre paintings of everyday life, in the style of the Düsseldorf school of painting. He was commissioned to paint The Apparition of the Virgin at Lourdes for St Ignatius church, Richmond. In 1877, he was admitted as a member of the Victorian Academy of Arts, where he exhibited three paintings in 1878-79.
Tannert was recommended to head the School of Painting in Adelaide by Eugene von Guerard, another from the Dûsseldorf school who’d gained prominence in Australia’s eastern colonies. The board of governors of the School of Design in Adelaide had decided to form a separate School of Painting after the School of Design’s first master Charles Hill retired in 1881. H.P. (Henry Pelling) Gill from London was appointed as head of the separate School of Design.
Tannert resigned in 1892 as master at the School of Painting and returned to Germany but eventually died in Melbourne. Tannert had resigned as curator of the art gallery in 1890 and was replaced for two years as honorary curator by Robert Kay who was also director of the library and museum. Gill took over as art gallery honorary curator in 1892 – the same year he became head of the reunited South Australian School of Design and Painting. Gill made important purchases for the gallery such as Tom Roberts A break away! with the Elder bequest.
