Loudon Sainthill
Still life in Red Room
For Loudon Sainthill, a talented theatre designer, art was a
"poetic expression of the spirit". Inspired by performances
of the Ballet Russe Ballet in the late 1930's, Sainthill, who had
studied briefly at Melbourne Technical College, travelled to London
with the ballet company. When he returned to Australia
in the early 1940's he exhibited at the Macquarie Galleries Sydney
and undertook a series of commissions to create costumes and set
designs. A member of a group of artists who lived and
worked at Merioola, Sydney during the 1940's, (later dubbed
demeaningly by Robert Hughes as 'the Sydney Charm School'),
Loudon Sainthill was a neo-Romanticist with an interest in the work
of Italian painter and theatre designer Giorgio de Chirico as well
as the décor of the Russian ballet.
Painted before he left permanently for London in 1949 Sainthill
has created a simple yet evocative image with a timeless
quality in 'Still life in Red Room' with its vivid colours
reminiscent of Ballet Russe stage sets and contrasting broad areas
coupled with fine detail.