Networks and Networking: Rupert Bunny in Full Stride

Abstract

Rupert Bunny spent close to thirty years working and exhibiting as an artist in Paris and to lesser extent in London. During the Belle Epoque, he exhibited regularly at the Salon des Artists Francais, and postwar at the more radical, émigré populated Salon de Automne. However his allegiances also suggest an artist who spread himself across the Salons and the evolving commercial galleries sector in Paris. He also exhibited prewar at the Gallerie Grove and in later years at the Gallerie George Petit. His exhibiting horizons were not limited to Paris, and his pattern of showing work suggests that he needed to exhibit more broadly. London was an obvious outlet, and given his subject matter tapped into late Victorian and Edwardian issues, his showing at the Royal Academy until 1910 ensured he also operated for an English market. He also showed simultaneously at more progressive British outlets such as the New English Art Club (NEAC) and Grafton Galleries, along with establishment operations like the Royal Institute of Oil Painters. At the same time, Bunny maintained an active international exhibiting profile sending work regularly to the Carnegie exhibitions in Pittsburgh, to Brussels and to Liverpool. His Paris base implied this kind of internationalism. As well, he sent work ‘home’ to Melbourne and Sydney. Hence Bunny is a prime example of an internationalist who kept all exhibiting systems running simultaneously until the 1930s Depression meant he could no longer operate this kind of career from Paris. This paper will critically examine Bunny’s strategic patterns of exhibiting and networking.