The Northern Territory loomed large in the lifetime highs and lows of the artist, Russell Drysdale, one of whose paintings hangs in the Wall Street Journal office of media magnate Rupert Murdoch. Born in England to well off parents, Drysdale worked on a North Queensland cane farm owned by a relative from l9l9 to l921 and studied art in Australia , England and Paris. Due to a detached retina, he only had effective vision from one eye and was rejected for war service .
In 1944 he captured the drought for the Sydney Morning Herald in a stark series of painting and was described as a kind of 20th century Henry Lawson of painting because he told the truth, harsh as it might be.
Seeking inspiration in 1957, Drysdale took his first wife, Elizabeth, known as Bon, , and their son, Timothy, to Ayers Rock, the Olgas , Alice Springs and Darwin. Mrs Drysdale returned home from Darwin and her husband and son continued on, flying to Melville Island , then going to Hall’s Creek , Derby, Broome and Perth.
From there they drove across the Nullarbour to Adelaide. As a result of this and other outback trips he became known as a pioneer of regional paintings, Aborigines increasingly appearing in his work. His Aboriginal paintings were described as being the first significant ones since the 19th century when they were depicted either as noble savages or curious survivors of the Stone Age and European massacres.
Returning to Australia from England in June 1958, Drysdale once more headed to the Territory with son Timothy. They drove to Darwin in a Land Rover and the artist left his son at the Don Hotel after giving the manager, Alf D’Ambrosio, brother of Darwin businessman and alderman , the late Ted D’Ambrosio, some money , asking him to look after the boy . Drysdale then headed off as official artist for an expedition into the Kimberley and central desert country with zoologist Jock Marshall , a bower bird expert, whom the Drysdales had known in London.
Soon after , police arrested Timothy, 18, and charged him with drink driving. Darwin Police Court was told that Drysdale , who pleaded guilty, had been seen driving erratically and at a fast speed around Darwin . Youths in the car had called “chicken” when a driver swerved out of the way. Drysdale had staggered about on the footpath . Arrested, he cried when taken to the police station . At the time of his arrest he was employed as a yardman at the Don Hotel in Cavenagh Street, now known as The Cavenagh.
Stipendiary Magistrate Stuart Dodds gave Drysdale some fatherly advice : “ You have to learn how to skim the fat off your own soup and blow the froth off your own beer as a man . It is up to you to make a man of yourself. You have not made a good start out on your own . Working as a yardman won’t help you . Possibly, the company you were with contributed to your foolishness to a large extent . If drink is your problem , realize that men who help you to drink are not your friends, son .” He was fined $80 and his licence cancelled for six months . His court appearance received national media coverage.
Timothy left Darwin and joined his father on the expedition, out of which came the profusely illustrated book Journey Among Men co-authored by Drysdale and Marshall. A troubled youngster, Timothy suicided at the age of 21 in July 1962. His mother took her life in November l963. Her suicide prompted artist Donald Friend , a longtime associate of the Drysdales, to refer to Timothy in his diary as “ that little swine.” Renowned for his caustic tongue, Friend was not impressed by the paintings of Aboriginal artist Albert Namatjira , and his diary was scournful of people who showered attention upon him.
Drysdale’s biographer, the late Geoffrey Dutton, said the paintings the artist produced during those grim years reflected the trauma in his life . He wrote: “ The works that emerged were sweated in blood through a period of acute psychological depression …The wounds in Drysdale’s life led him to draw his creative bow more strongly than ever before .”
Composer Peter Sculthorpe , a close friend of Mrs Drysdale, was so affected by her suicide he wrote and dedicated to her a piece of music which resulted in him receiving the first Alfred Hill Award. His career blossomed, and he developed an international reputation for presenting the Australian landscape , including Kakadu and Aboriginal culture, in his evocative music . The double family tragedy sparked an interest in the need for suicide prevention and education about the taboo subject .
In l964, Drysdale married Maisie Purves Smith, the widow of a painter confrere. Knighted in l969, Drysdale was immobilized by a stroke and died in 1981. At the funeral service Donald Friend delivered a passionate eulogy , saying he had been greatly influenced by Drysdale. Drysdale’s landscapes, set beneath relentless skies , with leafless trees , grassless land, hopeless blacks , scrawny, lonely station hands and their unfilled wives and lives appeared to be dreams of hell. His superb, sad and empty pictures were ones in which a town was one lonely street and a pub one bored man leaning against a verandah post.
This grim perspective, Friend continued, was at variance with Drysdale’s non- painter’s life. In life, Drysdale had enjoyed gaiety and wild talk, drink, laughter and companionship, everything that was the opposite to his pictures. A Drysdale sold for a record $1.62million about a year ago.
