Curator's Highlights: Ethel Carrick

1. Esquisse en Australie (Sketch in Australia) 1908

A recent acquisition by the National Gallery, this painting was undertaken by Carrick in Sydney’s Royal Botanical Gardens and was one of the first post-impressionist works to have been created and exhibited in Australia. It is painted with such great verve and bold colour that it appeared distinctly modern to local audiences at that time. Carrick took this painting, along with La promenade 1908, Au marché c 1908 and another work also titled Esquisse en Australie (Sketch in Australia) 1908, back with her to Paris, where they were exhibited at the Salon d’Automne in 1908. All these works are brought together in this retrospective for the first time in over a century.

2. Christmas Day on Manly Beach (Manly beach—Summer is here) 1913

On Carrick’s second visit to Australia in 1913, she painted one of the most important works of her career of Christmas day on Manly beach. One can imagine how utterly different the scene at the beach of a communal celebration under the summer sun would have seemed to Carrick who grew up with cold, winter Christmases. Upon Carrick’s arrival in Sydney in 1913, she told a reporter for The Daily Telegraph, ‘we have had delightful times in Melbourne. Here I am going to paint, and paint, and paint all the beautiful things you have. I hope to do some of your wonderful surf-bathing, and the crowds going across the harbor. For your crowds are so pretty—so bright and dainty’. Christmas Day on Manly Beach was included in a joint exhibition with Fox at the Athenaeum Gallery, Melbourne in May 1914, where it was widely considered Carrick’s best painting in the show. It received a special award, a ‘diplome d'honneur’, at the 1927 International Exhibition in Bordeaux.

3. Arabs bargaining c 1911

This is one of Carrick’s most significant paintings, depicting the milling crowd of the busy market square of Bou Saada, Algeria. In the foreground pomegranate merchants sit with their red fruit on display. They take reprieve in the cool shade as intense sunlight washes over the market square, illuminating the buildings behind. In this painting Carrick combines vibrant colours and bold brush work to capture the humming energy of the market.

4. Le bac, Kashmir (The ferry, Kashmir) 1937, also known as Paysage d’Inde-le-bac (Landscape at Inde-le-bac)

This painting depicts groups of people embarking a boat and floating down the Jhelum River in Srinagar, Kashmir. The banks of the river are lined with traditional, multistorey wooden houses and in the distance is the steeple of Ragunath temple. As always, close observation informs the painting, brilliantly conveying the ambience of the location and movement of water through brisk brushstrokes. It is a painting about contemplation and states of being, reflecting a sense of the spiritual dimension of Carrick’s experiences in India. Carrick exhibited this work at the Salon d’Automne in 1937, following her return to Europe. She returned to India in 1939, when she spent time living on a houseboat in Kashmir. Carrick found the experience idyllic and inspiring, describing it as a paradise for painters.

5. The market 1919

After World War I, Carrick began to paint outdoors again, returning to her favorite subjects of gardens and markets. By 1919, the Paris markets were back in full swing, with fruit and flower vendors selling their produce while throngs of people gathered in the gardens to enjoy the fresh air. This remarkable painting, with its mastery of dappled light, dress details, and depth and richness of colour conveying an overall sense of the joy in being alive. It was also a forerunner of things to come in her Nice flower markets. In 1925, Carrick later told a reporter for The Register, ‘The artist has a message and a mission. The more beautiful her life is, the more beautiful will be her pictures, but always she has something to say to every spirit capable of understanding.'

Ethel Carrick is on display at the National Gallery from 7 Dec 2024 – 27 Apr 2025.