Mr Menpes I Presume

I have just stumbled upon the wonderful work of Mortimer Luddington Menpes. Although he lived the greatest part of his life in the UK there was always something of the outsider about Mr Menpes and he never lost an Australian artist’s feeling for light and colour.


“Dolce far niente” (below) is a portrait of Whistler’s mistress Maud Franklin wearing an oriental robe. Menpes was generally under Whistler’s influence in London.

Menpes visited the elderly painter Kawanabe Kyosai in Japan and incorporated Japanese style and techniques into his own work. His pictures of Japan show this influence but at the same time he retains a Western sensibility.

He also ventured into India, another of the trips he turned into a travel book.

More: The Library Time Machine