AUSTRALIA’S LOST IMPRESSIONIST - JOHN RUSSELL

“A close friend of Claude Monet, Vincent Van Gogh and Henri Matisse, John Russell was a great vanguard painter, as well as a magnetic personality and long-term resident of the windswept French island of Belle-Ile. This wild and picturesque island had an enormous impact on the development of modern art. It features in the development of many artists from Monet and Matisse through to Ellsworth Kelly. Russell is one of the most interesting figures in Australian art, and a crucial figure in the story of Impressionist and post-impressionist art in general.”
Sebastian Smee, 2011 Pulitzer Prize for Criticism and art critic for the Washington Post

Russell is arguably Australia’s most influential artist in terms of his role in the development of Impressionism and Post-Impressionism internationally. But who was he and why has he been largely overlooked by mainstream art history?

Over the course of an hour, we look at Russell’s life and work through the eyes of contemporary artists and historians. We travel with them to Belle-Ile to uncover Russell’s ongoing legacy. Through his own paintings and his influential artistic friendships, we reveal his pivotal impact on the way the world responds to colour today. This is an artist who deserves to be held on a pedestal beside his closest peers - Monet, Matisse and Van Gogh.

Russell is a role model for anyone who has a creative vision and the desire to chase it.

THE TEAM
Writer/Director/Producer: Catherine Hunter, Producer: Erica Drew Cinematographer/Editor: Bruce Inglis, Composer: David Bridie,
Line Producer: Shelley Maine, Post Production: Sandcastle Studios

THE CAST
John Peter Russell: voiced by Hugo Weaving
Gisele Borgnis-Desbordes – Belle-Ile resident and granddaughter of Russell’s housekeeper
Anne Galbally - Australian art scholar and author of books on French Impressionism and JP Russell
Patrick Jourdan, Director, Musee Morlaix, Brittany
Euan McLeod – Australian painter
Chris Riopelle - Curator of post-1800 Paintings, National Gallery, London
Hugh Russell - Russell’s Great Grandson
Luke Sciberras – Australian painter
Sebastian Smee - Art critic, Washington Post, USA
Hilary Spurling - International art scholar and Henri Matisse’s biographer
Wayne Tunnicliffe - Curator of Australian Art, Art Gallery of NSW and exhibition on the art of John Peter Russell.
Sarah Turnball – Author