This is a short collection of photographs taken around 1900 in Paris, set to music. This website gratefully acknowledges the permission to use this collection given by its creator Guillaume Edouard, of France. The viewer may better sense the wonder Ramsay must have felt arriving in what was considered the artistic and cultural centre of the world.
Ramsay ready to take on the world; engaged, about to travel to Paris, eager to fulfil his artistic promise.
Read MoreRamsay at the piano with Frieseke and MacDonald at a party in his studio. 1901. Frieseke lived until 1939. He settled in a house next door to Monet and painted in the style of Renoir.
Read MoreRamsay was quickly recognised as the outstanding talent of the school, although he didn’t win a travelling scholarship.
Read MoreRamsay painting Consolation in his studio at 312 Flinders St. Melbourne, at about 1900. This painting was inspired by the Keats’ poem Hyperion and it remained one of Ramsay’s most treasured yet irritating possessions.
Read MoreRamsay continued to rework Consolation in Paris, and it continued to be a source of frustration. After 8 months in Paris he may have felt he had outgrown his first youthful approach to the painting.
Read MoreThis letter to his brothers Harry and Tom describes his visit to Le Grand Palais and reflects his excitement and sense of being at the heart of the artistic world.
Read MoreThe children in 1888, when they moved to Essendon, were William 19, James 15, John 13, Hugh 10, Nell 8, Harry 6, Madge 4, Tom 2 and Jessie not yet one.
Read MoreClydesdale. This was the family home in Essendon, Melbourne. It was built in 1888 and reflected the wealth John Ramsay acquired through an import business and an estate agency.
Read More51 Boulevard St Jacques. A photograph taken at the time Ramsay shared a studio in this street. Number 51was demolished in 1983. It was a typical artists’ ghetto and the studio he shared with MacDonald was one of many on the top floor of a
Read MoreThe Academie Colarossi was one of many art schools in Paris. It would seem that Ramsay enrolled there because it was close to his studio, the fees were cheap at 500 francs a year and models of all types were available.
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