Small farms

Kathleen Sauerbier
Australia
21 January 1903 – 11 March 1991

Small farms
1932
pencil on paper
Place made
Port Willunga, South Australia
Medium
pencil on paper
Dimensions
24.9 x 36.2 cm (sight)
Credit line
Gift of Luise Andrewartha in recognition and memory of her aunt Kathleen Sauerbier through the Art Gallery of South Australia Foundation 2024
Accession number
20242G6
Signature and date
Signed and dated l.l. pencil 'K. Sauerbier/ 1932".
Collection area
Australian drawings
Copyright
© Estate of the artist
Image credit
Photo: Stewart Adams

  • Kathleen Sauerbier’s delicate drawing titled Small farms was executed in 1932 which was the year she officially moved to Port Willunga after taking up residence at the Seaview Hotel.  


    A simple sketch, Small farms was perhaps intended for as a preparatory work for a future painting, although the work was included in Sauerbier's first solo exhibition in 1934 at the Society of Arts Gallery at the Institute Building in Adelaide. Writer H.E Fuller commented in his review of the exhibition in the 21 June 1934 issue of The Advertiser the work was ‘a clever little pencil sketch’.


    In Small farms, Sauerbier renders in pencil the view of the buildings looking down the valley of the Port Willunga creek. Devoid of any colour and with minimal infill, the sketch offers a quick glimpse of the region in the early 1930s. The building in the foreground could be the Pier Hotel which was also referred to “Uncle Tom’s Cabin’.




  • Born in 1903 in the suburb of Brighton, South Australia, Kathleen Sauerbier was known for her paintings of landscapes, streetscapes, still lifes and portraits. Her practice also extended to fabric and jewellery design. Through her studies and travels abroad, Sauerbier would be introduced to modernism and the movement would inform both her aesthetic and personal life.


    Sauerbier undertook formal studies in art in 1922 at the School of Fine Arts in North Adelaide, South Australia under Frederick Britton and later Millward Grey before travelling abroad in1925. While in London she enrolled at the Central School of Art where she studied under the tutelage of Bernard Meninsky, Frederick J. Porter and James Ardern Grant.  Her time overseas also saw her travel to France.


    Returning to Adelaide from Europe in January 1928, Sauerbier would find inspiration and solace in the south coast. The Fleurieu Peninsula, south of Adelaide, has long been an inspiration for artists and Kathleen Sauerbier was one of the first to respond to the area using a modernist approach including simplified forms, expressive lines and limited tones. Sauerbier was often seen outdoors battling the elements with her easel and paints and would paint the sights including built environs and the striking natural features, such as the cliffs, ocean and fields. Frequently Sauerbier invited fellow artist and friend Horace Trenerry to paint alongside her and it is around this time that Trenerry's palette embraced the muted mauve, pink and grey tones favoured by Sauerbier. It is also at this time that Sauerbier exhibited her work in Adelaide with the South Australia Society of Arts until 1935. She would later exhibit with the Group Twelve and the Melbourne branch of the Contemporary Art Society after moving to Melbourne in1937.


    Living in South Yarra, Melbourne, Sauerbier was inspired by the dynamic city bursting with energy that was near her. Sauerbier’s paintings from this period, of streetscapes and rooftop views, recall the energy and fast pace of London which she’d painted ten years earlier while studying overseas.  

     

    By the 1950s, Sauerbier moved to the quiter suburb of Donvale and she directed her artistic energy to fabric, jewellery and landscape design. However, although now permanently living in Melbourne, Sauerbier would continue to visit Port Willunga annually and paint, drawing inspiration from the south coast.

     

    Sauerbier passed away in 1991.

  • [Article] Fuller, H. E. 1934. Fresh Field In Art.