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Chica Lowe with Loudon Sainthill at entrance to Merioola .
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The Encyclopedia of Australian Art , under the heading MERIOOLA GROUP , provides a six line listing for what is described as an artists' "boarding house " in Sydney from 1945 to 1950 , which dissolved when some of its members left for Europe .
An old house in Rosemont Avenue , Woollahra , with a ballroom and wide windows which overlooked the harbour , it had been the venue for lavish parties , one for the Prince of Wales in 1920.
Owned by a prominent legal family, the Allens , it was leased out in 1941 to a vivacious woman , nee Mary Patricia Edgeworth Somers , born in Mornington , Victoria, in 1902, the daughter of Dr and Mrs Edgeworth Somers.
Married to Sir Gilbert Boileau , with whom she had two daughters, she separated from her husband and went to London in 1936 .There she rented a house and let rooms to two Australians , Loudon Sainthill and Harry Tatlock Miller , both to become prominent and influential in the art world .
Sainthill, born 1919 , Hobart , Tasmania , a member of a family which had held high positions in colonial days , he travelled to Europe in 1939 with the Colonel de Basil Russian Ballet Company , where he held a solo exhibition of his art in the Redfern Galleries, London .
Miller , born Victoria ,1914, a member of the Melbourne Herald literary staff , edited Manuscripts A Miscellany of Arts and Letters 1931-35, also went overseas in 1939 and in London he organised the British Council Exhibition of Art for Ballet and Theatre which was to tour the commonwealth .
At the outbreak of war, she came back to Australia and in 1941 rented out Merioola , joined by Sainthill and Miller . Then , known as Chica , " from the attic to the cucumber frame " , she filled it with a wide range of artists and writers, some European refugees . Her philosophy was never to see anybody who bored her , according to Christine France of the National Trust of Australia . In 1946 she married an American , Bernard Lowe, but he died within a year .
While individual residents had held solo exhibitions , in 1947 the Merioola Group held an inaugural exhibition in the Myer Gallery , Melbourne.
This was followed soon after by another at Sydney's David Jones Gallery . A copy of the inaugural catalogue for the Myer event shows it consisted of paintings , sculptures and photographs . Those represented were Arthur Fleischmann, Justin O'Brien ,Loudon Sainthill, Donald Friend, Arthur Ritchard, Roland Strasser , Peter Kaiser, Jocelyn Rickards and Alec Murray (photographer ). The prices for works on offer were peanuts compared to modern day art sales .
Married to Sir Gilbert Boileau , with whom she had two daughters, she separated from her husband and went to London in 1936 .There she rented a house and let rooms to two Australians , Loudon Sainthill and Harry Tatlock Miller , both to become prominent and influential in the art world .
Sainthill, born 1919 , Hobart , Tasmania , a member of a family which had held high positions in colonial days , he travelled to Europe in 1939 with the Colonel de Basil Russian Ballet Company , where he held a solo exhibition of his art in the Redfern Galleries, London .
Miller , born Victoria ,1914, a member of the Melbourne Herald literary staff , edited Manuscripts A Miscellany of Arts and Letters 1931-35, also went overseas in 1939 and in London he organised the British Council Exhibition of Art for Ballet and Theatre which was to tour the commonwealth .
At the outbreak of war, she came back to Australia and in 1941 rented out Merioola , joined by Sainthill and Miller . Then , known as Chica , " from the attic to the cucumber frame " , she filled it with a wide range of artists and writers, some European refugees . Her philosophy was never to see anybody who bored her , according to Christine France of the National Trust of Australia . In 1946 she married an American , Bernard Lowe, but he died within a year .
While individual residents had held solo exhibitions , in 1947 the Merioola Group held an inaugural exhibition in the Myer Gallery , Melbourne.
This was followed soon after by another at Sydney's David Jones Gallery . A copy of the inaugural catalogue for the Myer event shows it consisted of paintings , sculptures and photographs . Those represented were Arthur Fleischmann, Justin O'Brien ,Loudon Sainthill, Donald Friend, Arthur Ritchard, Roland Strasser , Peter Kaiser, Jocelyn Rickards and Alec Murray (photographer ). The prices for works on offer were peanuts compared to modern day art sales .
In the foreword , written by art and ballet critic Harry Tatlock Miller , he described Chica Lowe as the "chatelaine " of Merioola . Merioola, he went on to say, was a centre and force in the present day art of Australia . Artists who had at some time lived, painted and sculpted in Tibet and Mongolia, London , Paris and Prague , were now all gathered there , working beneath the one roof .
Miller wrote : "Each brings to his , or her ,work an altogether individual approach and vision. They share no common cause or way of art . One may paint the Lhama of Tibet , another the kiss of Judas, design a costume for a vivandiere , a ballerina. Where one will seek the satiety of completed forms, for another the search may be beyond appearance to the spirit beneath ."
The talented lodgers were the subject of an exhibition by the National Trust at the S. H. Ervin Gallery in Sydney , the Newcastle Regional Art Gallery and the Geelong Gallery in 1986. In the above posed 1947 photograph on the front of the well illustrated, highly informative souvenir catalogue , the landlady , Chica, is seen in the back row , third in from the right , next to the ladder.
At the back of Merioola was a small shed painted pink, known as the " Lolly Lodge ", where rent was paid , Chica shown above outside the building . In the main hall notes and messages for tenants were left, often on a flower bedecked rocking horse .
Visitors to Merioola included artists William Dobell , Jean Bellette, Paul Haefliger , Margaret Olley , the Drysdale family , Sali Herman , Sidney Nolan ; David Strachan also dropped in . Hector Holthouse ,chemist , journalist and lecturer in journalism at Queensland University , author of 30 books on Queensland history, came by .
It was pointed out that the bohemian household ironically influenced the revival of religious painting in Sydney , Merioola artists dominating Blake Prize awards.
A number of lodgers returned or went overseas for the first time . In the case of Loudon Sainthill , he became the finest theatrical designer Australia had produced with an international reputation . His longtime partner , Tatlock Miller , on returning to London became director of the Redfern Galleries , promoting Australian artists with the first exhibitions there of Nolan , Friend and Sainthill . Merioola was demolished in 1951. Chica set up another boarding house , opened antique shops , sold sandwiches , died 1983.
Visitors to Merioola included artists William Dobell , Jean Bellette, Paul Haefliger , Margaret Olley , the Drysdale family , Sali Herman , Sidney Nolan ; David Strachan also dropped in . Hector Holthouse ,chemist , journalist and lecturer in journalism at Queensland University , author of 30 books on Queensland history, came by .
It was pointed out that the bohemian household ironically influenced the revival of religious painting in Sydney , Merioola artists dominating Blake Prize awards.
A number of lodgers returned or went overseas for the first time . In the case of Loudon Sainthill , he became the finest theatrical designer Australia had produced with an international reputation . His longtime partner , Tatlock Miller , on returning to London became director of the Redfern Galleries , promoting Australian artists with the first exhibitions there of Nolan , Friend and Sainthill . Merioola was demolished in 1951. Chica set up another boarding house , opened antique shops , sold sandwiches , died 1983.
