A central Victorian artist renowned for his work with paint and glass is being remembered by the region’s leading art voices as a reclusive genius.
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Heathcote artist Leonard French died this month after a long battle with diabetes-related illnesses.
He is perhaps most renowned for creating the stained glass ceiling atop the National Art Gallery of Victoria.
Spanning 61 metres by 15 metres and consisting of about 10,000 pieces, the work was unveiled at the gallery’s opening almost 50 years ago.
But local art lovers will also recognise his imposing Journey of the Sun, an 11-metre-long piece crafted from enamel, gold leaf and hessian.
Its 12 panels depict each of four seasons and also feature his signature biblical references in the form of fish and a serpent.
“Art was his religion,” the artist’s friend and biographer Reg MacDonald said yesterday.
He described Mr French as a genius and a recluse, a man who shied away from the “nonsense” of Australia’s contemporary art scene.
Few Heathcote residents knew there was an internationally acclaimed artist working in their midst.
“He loved anonymity and he loved the solitude and privacy that enabled him to work,” Mr MacDonald said.
“He spent thousands of hour in that studio working on not only his artisinal things, but also his painting.”
Bendigo Art Gallery curator Leanne Fitzgibbon said her institution was fortunate to have five works by Mr French in its collection, including the iconic Journey of the Sun.
“It has such a golden light permeating the work, and the vastness that we connect with our landscape,” she said.
The popular work will hang in the gallery’s 130th anniversary exhibition this month.
Mr French was a visitor to the gallery, even dropping in on a school group who were discussing Journey of the Sun.
“He was obviously quite chuffed the students were focussing in on his work,” Ms Fitzgibbon said.
The political messages embedded in his work will also live on.
His final piece, Chaos, depicts a decaying world, while The Bridge – housed in the library of South Africa’s billionaire Oppenheimer family – is a dissertation on apartheid.