Hugh Ramsay Symposium - Mary Eagle - Australian context

Hugh Ramsay in an Australian Context "Ramsay's continuing challenge to artists is for the grace and honesty of his expression" Hugh Ramsay has figured in the century since his death principally for a style of decorum. By comparison with the conspicuous Edwardian trends of the florid, the subtle, the swashbuckling and the clever, he was distinctive for an unerring poise and candor of address. Of his generation, Lambert manner was of nervous theatricality, Meldrum's was of dowdiness, and Norman Lindsay's of pneumatic vitalism. These artists did not inspire authoritative emulation beyond the succeeding generation. Ramsay's limpid honesty, however, did continue to challenge the capacity of artists.