Clive Stephen Explained

Clive Travers Stephen (10 November 1889–1957) was an Australian sculptor, painter in water-colour and oils,[1] printmaker,[2] [3] and medical doctor.[4]

Early life

Clive Stephen was born in Caulfield on 10 November 1889, the son of Blanche (née Travers) and Sidney James Henry Stephen, a solicitor, of 'The Pines' in Middle Crescent, Brighton.[5]

Physician

Stephen studied medicine at the University of Melbourne[6] [7] in Ormond College, entered third year in 1912,[8] and attained the Bachelor of Medicine and Bachelor of Surgery with Third Class Honours in 1914.[9] He was resident medical officer of the Alfred Hospital

World War I

Stephen enlisted in the Royal Army Medical Corps in England[10] and was posted to the 14th General Hospital, Wimereux, near Boulogne, in the north of France.[11] Stephen publicly promoted the cause of the Red Cross.[12] [13] He was made an Army Captain in March 1915,[14] and in mid-1916 was married in Chichester. His brother, Lieutenant K. T. Stephen was killed in France in May 1918.[15]

Post-war

Stephen lived in Elmore and practised medicine in Central Victoria,[16] [17] and was Public Vaccinator for the Northern District during the Influenza Epidemic.[18] [19] There his wife, Dorothy Edna, bore a son in 1918.[20] He left the district in February 1919[21] to live in High St., Prahran and later at 537 Malvern Rd., Toorak. During WW2 Stephen served in the Citizen Military Forces.

Artist

Training

Stephen attended George Bell's Saturday afternoon classes at Selborne Road 1925–30,[22]  but otherwise was a self-taught painter and sculptor. His background as a doctor, and as nephew of Chief Justice Sir John and Lady Madden and a relative by marriage of the late Mrs Ellis Rowan, was noted in an Argus newspaper article on "Artists' Aliases".[23]

Reception

When in 1933 he exhibited with other students of Bell and Arnold Shore's school, Blamire Young commented that "Clive Stephen ... has a sound method of putting a design together. His colored drawings are rich and full of promise."[24] During the same period, Stephen and his wife Dorothy, a painter, conducted life-classes that attracted such artists as Will Dyson, and others in the nascent modern movement in Melbourne.[25] In the late 1930s he exhibited with the association of Modernist sculptors formed in 1935 by Ola Cohn,[26] who named themselves The Plastic Group, and he also showed with Group Twelve.[27]

McCulloch attributes influences on Stephen to primitive sculpture via European artists such as Jacob Epstein and Henri Gaudier-Brzeska, resulting in his abstraction. He was one of the first Australian stone-carvers thus inspired. Gino Nibbi in Art in Australia of 1939 notes that he;

"...tends by culture and temperament towards abstract art. After searching, let us say, on the surface of his material, by carving its external coat, he begins now to cut it, to excavate into it, to free from it some secret, without which sculpture is in danger of remaining at the bas-relief stage, and of being too elusive. Stephen is a gifted artist showing great potentiality of further development."[28]

Legacy

Stephen was also an ardent collector; as early as 1934 he acquired Head of a woman (1933),[29] painted in Bali by Ian Fairweather (likewise an artist influenced by the primitives), which he gifted to the National Gallery of Victoria in 1948.[30] [31]

Though he was an artist of great energy and enthusiasm, soon after retiring from medicine to devote his life to sculpture, tragically Stephen died in 1957.

Collections

Exhibitions

Posthumous

Notes and References

  1. Book: Eagle, Mary . Australian modern painting: between the wars : 1914–1939 . 1990 . Bay Books . 978-1-86256-427-5 . Sydney . English . 22987267.
  2. Web site: Printmaking . Prints and . Clive Stephen . 2022-08-01 . printsandprintmaking.gov.au . en.
  3. Book: Butler . Roger . Melbourne woodcuts and linocuts of the 1920's and 1930's . Ballarat Fine Art Gallery . 2003 . 978-0-642-89501-1 . 49 . English . 881470185.
  4. News: 28 July 1921 . Social . Table Talk . 2022-08-01.
  5. Web site: Smith . Tim . 16 September 2016 . Assessment Of Cultural Heritage Significance And Executive Director Recommendation To The Heritage Council : The Pines, 10 Middle Cres. Brighton . Heritage Victoria.
  6. News: 11 April 1914 . University Commencement. . 38 . Leader . 2022-08-01.
  7. News: 4 January 1913 . University Of Melbourne. . 18 . Argus . 2022-08-01.
  8. News: 6 January 1912 . University Of Melbourne. Medical Examinations. . 16 . Argus . 2022-08-01.
  9. News: 17 April 1914 . University Of Melbourne . 12 . Argus . 2022-08-01.
  10. News: 8 March 1915 . Doctors For The Front. . 10 . The Argus . 2022-08-01.
  11. News: 30 August 1915 . Personal . 6 . The Argus . 2022-08-01.
  12. News: 19 May 1917 . British Red Cross. . 3 . Elmore Standard (Vic. : 1882 – 1920 . 2022-08-01.
  13. News: 19 May 1917 . Red Cross Work. . 3 . Elmore Standard (Vic. : 1882 – 1920 . 2022-08-01.
  14. News: 15 March 1917 . Australian Military Forces. . 494 . Commonwealth of Australia Gazette . 2022-08-01.
  15. News: 11 May 1918 . The Supreme Sacrifice . 3 . Elmore Standard (Vic. : 1882 – 1920 . 2022-08-01.
  16. News: 5 January 1918 . Sad Fatality at Avonmore : The Inquiry. . 3 . Elmore Standard . 2022-08-01.
  17. News: 1 June 1918 . Obituary. . 3 . Elmore Standard (Vic. : 1882 – 1920 . 2022-08-01.
  18. News: 1 February 1919 . They Say! The influenza scare... . Elmore Standard (Vic. : 1882 – 1920 . 2022-08-01.
  19. News: 10 May 1917 . Department of Public Health . 267 . Victoria Police Gazette.
  20. News: 12 October 1918 . Family Notices . 11 . Argus . 2022-08-01.
  21. News: 1 February 1919 . Our Folks. . 3 . Elmore Standard (Vic. : 1882 – 1920 . 2022-08-01.
  22. Book: National gallery of Victoria (Melbourne . Australie) . Classical modernism: the George Bell circle . Moore . Felicity St John . 1992 . 978-0-7241-0155-9 . English . 1264075973.
  23. "Artists' Aliases : Everyone at the opening of the Group Twelve exhibition yesterday was interested in the provocative pictures but some were almost as interested in finding out the personalities hidden under the names of unfamiliar artists. M Barren Is Lady Barrett wife of the Chancellor of the University of Melbourne, Maie Casey is Mrs R G Casey wife of the Federal Treasurer, and Mary Alice Evatt is the wife of Mr. Justice Evatt of the High Court of Australia. Not all the exhibitors are in Melbourne. Mr. Roger James sent his exhibits from London and Miss K Sauerbier from Adelaide. Mr Pulleine, the son of a well-known South Australian doctor, the late Dr Pulleine is here, and Miss Marjorie North, Miss Bell and Dr Clive Stephen who varies medicine will sculpture in the modern manner, are well known in Melbourne. Dr Stephen is the nephew of the late Sir John Madden and Lady Madden and a relative by marriage of the late Mrs Ellis Rowan. Another absentee was Miss Moya Dyring who is in New South Wales painting in the hills near Sydney." News: 17 June 1936 . Heard Here and There . Argus . 2022-08-01.
  24. News: Young . Blamire . 17 July 1933 . Modernists' School : Students' Exhibition . 4 . The Herald . 2022-08-01.
  25. Book: McCulloch . Alan . The new McCulloch's encyclopedia of Australian art . McCulloch . Susan . McCulloch Childs . Emily . 2006 . Aus Art Editions ; in association with the Miegunyah Press . 978-0-522-85317-9 . Fitzroy, Vic.; Carlton, Vic. . English . 1135181250.
  26. News: 4 October 1935 . The Plastic Group. . 18 . Age . 2022-08-01.
  27. News: 17 June 1936 . Heard Here and There . 12 . Argus . 2022-08-01.
  28. Nibbi . Gino . August 1939 . Ideas Behind Contemporary Art . Art in Australia: A Quarterly Magazine . 76 . 18.
  29. Web site: Head of a woman (1933) Ian Fairweather . 2022-08-01 . National Gallery of Victoria . en-AU.
  30. Book: Roberts, Claire . Fairweather and China . 2021 . 978-0-522-87716-8 . English . 1317822294.
  31. Book: Fairweather . Ian . Ian Fairweather: a life in letters . Roberts . Claire . Thompson . John . 2019 . 978-1-925355-25-3 . English . 1108158022.
  32. Web site: Clive Stephen . 2022-08-01 . National Gallery of Australia . en.
  33. Web site: Clive Stephen, NGV . 2022-08-01 . National Gallery of Victoria.
  34. Web site: Works by Clive Stephen Art Gallery of NSW . 2022-08-01 . www.artgallery.nsw.gov.au.
  35. Web site: STEPHEN, Clive QAGOMA Collection Online . 2022-08-01 . collection.qagoma.qld.gov.au.
  36. Web site: Clive Travers STEPHEN . 2022-08-01 . Art Gallery WA Collection Online . en.
  37. 24 June 1936 . Melbourne Chatter . The Bulletin . 57 . 2941 . 43.
  38. Book: Stephen . Clive . Clive Stephen: sculptor. . Scarlett . Ken . McClelland Gallery + Sculpture Park . 2012 . McClelland Sculpture Pake + Gallery . 978-0-9804290-8-4 . Langwarrin, Vic. . English . 816140154.
  39. Web site: The Parliament of the Commonwealth of Australia : Australia Council . 1976–1977 . Blainey . Geoffrey . Parliamentary Paper No. 52/1978 : Australia Council Annual Report 1 July 1976 – 30 June 1977 . 2022-08-01 . Trove . en.

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