Horace Hurtle Trenerry

For those who know of the artist Horace Hurtle Trenerry (1899 – 1958), he is revered and his lyrical, atmospheric landscapes much admired. Although his career has largely been confined to South Australia, the efforts of Lou Klepac in particular, have brought this talented artist to a greater audience, and a better understanding of the inspiration he drew from his constant observation of nature.

Trenerry fits the stereotypical tortured artist narrative: from early precocious talent to living an isolated bohemian life where art was his all, to his tragic early death from a hereditary neurodegenerative disease. As Klepac notes “he was solitary, poor, temperamental and he received little recognition during his life.” Certainly, a few key people appreciated his talent, with two of his paintings selected for the Tate Gallery exhibition of Australian Art in 1963, which caught the attention of London critics, with The Observer noting him as a “first-rate offshoot of French Impressionism and the Whitechapel Gallery Director, Bryan Robertson rating him as a “marvellous painter.”

Trenerry worked outside any Australian art movement with a unique vision and personal focus. That is not to say he did not have his influences, including Elioth Gruner; Hans Heysen and Kathleen Sauerbier. He came to know Gruner when studying at the Julian Ashton School in Sydney in 1922, where he was drawn to painting the harbour.

On his return to South Australia, Trenerry based himself at Woodside in the Adelaide Hills and held his first successful solo exhibition in 1924. At Woodside Trenerry was offered support and advice from South Australia’s most recognised and celebrated artist, Hans Heysen, and images of majestic gum trees became a popular theme in his own work.

It is likely that it was through Heysen’s influence that Trenerry made a painting trip to the Flinders Ranges in 1930 where Klepac notes a development in his art as he appears to be “more aware of picture plane, reducing space and distance into tones and texture with his even downward brushstrokes.” The landscape in the Flinders Ranges was different, grander and more open so Trenerry looked to more effective compositional devices to convey this. The glowing colour in these works is intense, however the deep tones are more limited as these works are often more about shapes and design and capturing atmosphere.

The titles of his paintings also reveal Trenerry’s concern with the change in the landscape under the the effects of climate and time, reflected in such titles as Dusk, Sydney Harbour; Evening Light, Flinders Ranges; Woodside Landscape, Summer Morning; Early Morning, Willunga. As noted in the Memorial Exhibition of 1964 “In his humble way Trenerry could be called the Monet of South Australian painting.”

Around 1933, Trenerry moved to Port Willunga, which was to be the next great location of influence for his art.

Many works from this period are characterised by a use of cooler colours, a greeter freedom of expression, and his development of a chalky paint texture. Faced with the landscape of cliffs over the water in a quiet rural area, Trenerry continued to show himself as an instinctive painter.

The outbreak of the second war world coincided with the onset of symptoms caused by Huntingdon’s Chorea, eventually depriving Trenerry of movement and forcing him to hospice care by 1951. He had lived most of his life in isolation, perhaps a necessary factor for him to focus on his painting