With experience as a stained-glass draughtsman working on windows for cathedrals in Great Britain and North America, William Bustard (18 April 1894-1973) migrated to Australia with his wife Lily in 1921 and settled in Brisbane. As chief designer for Brisbane company R S (Robert Skerrett) Exton and Co. — renowned painters, decorators and glaziers — he devised stained-glass windows for St John’s Cathedral, St Augustine’s and other churches, both in Queensland and interstate.
Bustard soon became involved in the Royal Queensland Art Society, exhibiting prominently in its annual exhibitions. In 1937, Summer haze (illustrated) featured in the Society’s 49th Annual Exhibition, the painting depicts the view from St Andrew’s Church (right) and Brisbane State High School (left) on the corners of Vulture and Ernest Streets, South Brisbane at the base of Highgate Hill.
The artist has captured the city in the distance with the focal point on Brisbane’s City Hall — completed just seven years earlier — its clock tower an important focus for civic pride, being the highest structure at the time, a symbol of a modern city. Bathed in heat and humidity, this was one of many Brisbane city scenes which Bustard was to exhibit during his lifetime.
William Bustard ‘Summer haze’ 1937
Brisbane City Hall
The construction of the Brisbane City Hall was the second most expensive activity in Australia after the Sydney Harbour Bridge. Built between 1920 and 1930, the three-storey building’s clock tower, standing at 87.47 metres houses five bells — four bells weighing over three tonnes that chime every 15 minutes and a 4.3 tonne striking bell that marks the hour. Once the tallest building in Brisbane, its four clock faces on each side of the tower were at the time the largest in Australia at 4.8 metres in diameter. Covering two acres, the Brisbane City Hall remains the largest city hall in Australia.
St. Andrew’s Church of England
St Andrew’s Anglican Church was made of ‘Brisbane Tuff’ and constructed in the Gothic-style in several stages: 1878–1883, 1887, and 1931–1932, however the original design included a tower and spire, which were never built. The construction of St Andrew’s reflected the growing population of the area and the general move of residential and public buildings up the hill away from the river and its industry.
Brisbane State High School
Brisbane State High School was founded in 1921, the first state secondary school established in Brisbane, as well as the first academic state high school in Queensland. Relocated to its current campus at the southern end of Musgrave Park at South Brisbane in 1925 with the laying of the foundation stone of the Red Brick Building in 1923.
Bustard was an important figure in the development of art in Queensland from the 1920s to the 1960s, and a founding member of the Queensland (National) Art Gallery Board of Trustees and Arts Advisory Committee in 1931. A strong advocate for Queensland artists he led by example extolling the need for local artists to capture the unique Queensland light and landscape.
Curatorial extracts, research and supplementary material compiled by Elliott Murray, Senior Digital Marketing Officer, QAGOMA
Summer haze 1937 is on display within the Queensland Art Gallery’s Australian Art Collection, Josephine Ulrick and Win Schubert Galleries (10-13).