A corner of Brisbane was included in the 49th annual exhibition of the Royal Queensland Art Society. While landscapes were a common feature of the annual exhibitions, depictions of the city of Brisbane were considered by a reviewer of The Telegraph to be quite rare.¹ Although specific mention was made of William Bustard's Summer haze, A corner of Brisbane also shares some of the qualities approved by the reviewer in his depiction of the cityscape: a slightly idealised view of trees and roof tops and the muted quality of late afternoon light.² 

The intense building activity in Sydney during the 1920s and 1930s, typified by the construction of the Sydney Harbour Bridge and high-rise buildings, fostered considerable enthusiasm in contemporary art and inspired numerous images of a dynamic city. There was also an increase in the depictions of Brisbane's city centre during this period, although Brisbane had a much smaller population to be energised. A parallel is seen in works by Vida Lahey such as Building the bridge 1931 and The new bridge 1931, which depict the William Jolly Bridge during the course of its construction. 

The building of the Brisbane City Hall (completed 1930) was an even more important focus for civic pride. The street-scape in this painting encompasses the dark mound of the tops of the fig trees that now overshadow the Eagle Street Fountain at the corner of Wharf and Eagle Streets (which is the subject of Vida Lahey's watercolour The carters' rest, Eagle Street) while the view across the river depicts St Mary's Anglican Church above the cliffs at Kangaroo Point. The decorative pediment of the second building at the right of the painting identifies it as the Royal Bank of Queensland, which was located on the corner of Elizabeth and Creek Streets. It is most probable then that the vantage point from which this painting was taken was further along Creek Street, possibly from Norman Chambers, on the north-east cornet of Queen and Creek Streets or the Union Bank Chambers diagonally opposite.³ Vida Lahey's painting Customs House Garden c.1933 (Private collection, Brisbane)⁴ depicts an adjoining site, although the view in this instance is directly across the river to the opposite bank.

In Charles H Lancaster’s painting the buildings are rendered in simplified blocks of pigment and, as the day wanes, the artist depicts the light and shadow in broad swathes. Lancaster’s painting accords closely with the simplified decorative style that was the acceptable face of Modernism in Brisbane at this time.

Essay by Glenn R Cooke, former Research Curator, Queensland Heritage, QAGOMA, January 2003. 

Endnotes

1. ‘Art Society's 49th Annual Exhibition Opens Tomorrow’, The Telegraph [Brisbane], 26 October 1937.
2. Ibid. 
3. Dianne Byrne (Librarian/Archivist, Original Materials, John Oxley Library, State Library of Queensland), email to Glenn R Cooke, 17 February 2006.
4. Illustrated in Bettina MacAulay, Songs of colour: the art of Vida Lahey, QAG, Brisbane, 1989, p.65.