Charles Conder

1868 - 1909

A direct descendant of the great 18th-century sculptor Roubiliac, Charles Conder was born in Tottenham, then in Middlesex. In 1884, he emigrated to Australia to work for his uncle, a surveyor, but he gave this up for art. He mainly painted landscapes at this time and was influenced by Tom Roberts and the Heidelberg School, exhibiting some iconic cigar-lid paintings in the "9 by 5 Impression" Exhibition of 1889. Returning to Europe, Conder briefly visited England before moving to Paris, where he studied at the Académie Julian and became part of a circle of artists, including Bonnard and Toulouse-Lautrec, appearing in two of the latter's paintings of the Moulin Rouge. Like Lautrec, he led a disolute life, and his friend William Rothenstein said he was ‘often without a sou, but…never without a lady’. Although he died young, Conder undertook a number of decorative commissions for interiors, and the present work may relate to one of these.