Fine Art Auctions

James Alfred Turner (J. A. Turner, 1850–1908)

Turner recorded in painstaking detail the life and daily pursuits of the small rural settler in the mountain ranges to the north and north east of Melbourne. At the time this was “battlers country”, life was hard and pleasures simple.

Although photography was available in Turners time, yet no camera could have captured the spirit of an age and lifestyle like he did. He painted in great detail and his pictures provide vibrant studies of daily life.[2]

A professional artist and his style instantly recognisable, Turner seems to have set out to record a specific facet of Victorian life. He painted mainly rural scenes and recorded faithfully the typical rural "situations" of the day and achieve a unique window on Australian pioneering history. He signed almost all his paintings J.A.Turner or in the case of small works J.A.T.

He arrived in Victoria some time before 1874, the year of his earliest-known Australian painting, 'View down Collins Street from Spring Street'. The majority of his work is dated between 1884 and 1907. In 1884 James Oddie commissioned him to execute fourteen paintings of bush life which Oddie donated to the newly founded Ballarat Fine Art Gallery.

Turner had several Melbourne addresses, then in 1888 he bought a twenty-acre (8 ha) bushland property with a small dwelling ('The Gables') at Kilsyth, near Croydon, at the foot of the Dandenong Ranges.

His obituary (The Argus (Melbourne) 16 April 1908 page 7) states … "Victoria loses an artist who not only understood and appreciated the beauty of the bush, but could depict faithfully its life and character. He was, as a rule, content with small canvasses, homely incidents and quiet aspects of nature. At times he was exceedingly happy in his landscapes and would often touch a very high if not inspired note. No man ever painted the realisms of a forest fire and its fighting better than he, or with more absolute truth. He was a very conscientious man, painting chiefly to please himself, without any suspicion of pot-boiling, never allowing work to leave his hands until he was thoroughly satisfied."

Local rural and bush life supplied subjects for his paintings which Table Talk Magazine, Australian Financial Review described as being of 'peculiar exactness'. He was recognized in 1894 as 'our best known painter of incident'. A prolific painter, Turner was a master of oil and water-colour. Most of his works are ‘Oil on Canvas’ or ‘Oil on canvas laid down on board’ while there are also a record of a number of paired works.

He sometimes painted large works such as 'The Homestead Saved' (90 cm by 151 cm) which sold for $82,000 in 1980. The Age (Melbourne)30 May 1980. Cole-Adams, Peter. Gippsland fire painting brings $82,000. Sale of 'The Homestead saved'.

In 1888 his paintings 'Saved' and 'Fighting for Home' received 3rd awards of merit in the Melbourne Centennial (International) Exhibition. The Age (Melbourne). 7 November 1985 p. 19. Maslan, Geoff. Oil painting by Australia's own Turner sells for $320 000. Sale of 'Fighting for home'.

Turner was an exhibiting member of the Victorian Artists' Society, the Australian Art Association, the Victorian Academy of Arts, the Yarra Sculptors' Society, the Melbourne Art Club and New Melbourne Art Club.

Accompanying images
'The Enemy in Sight 1916 Art Gallery New South Wales Purchased 1916'
' George W Lambert, notably Across the Black Soil Plains 1899 Art Gallery New South Wales Acquired 1899 Winner Wynne Prize'