Clive Stephen

Clive Stephen was born in Caulfield on 10 November 1889, the son of Blanche (née Travers) and Sidney James Henry Stephen, a solicitor, of 'The Pines' in Middle Crescent, Brighton.{{Cite web |last=Smith |first=Tim |date=16 September 2016 |title=Assessment Of Cultural Heritage Significance And Executive Director Recommendation To The Heritage Council : The Pines, 10 Middle Cres. Brighton |url=http://heritagecouncil.vic.gov.au/wp-content/uploads/2014/10/Attach-1-The-Pines-ED-Report.doc |website=Heritage Victoria}}

Stephen studied medicine at the University of Melbourne{{Cite news |date=11 April 1914 |title=University Commencement. |pages=38 |work=Leader |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article89311810 |access-date=2022-08-01}}{{Cite news |date=4 January 1913 |title=University Of Melbourne. |pages=18 |work=Argus |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article10758105 |access-date=2022-08-01}} in Ormond College, entered third year in 1912,{{Cite news |date=6 January 1912 |title=University Of Melbourne. Medical Examinations. |pages=16 |work=Argus |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article11644202 |access-date=2022-08-01}} and attained the Bachelor of Medicine and Bachelor of Surgery with Third Class Honours in 1914.{{Cite news |date=17 April 1914 |title=University Of Melbourne |pages=12 |work=Argus |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article7232148 |access-date=2022-08-01}} He was resident medical officer of the Alfred Hospital

Stephen enlisted in the Royal Army Medical Corps in England{{Cite news |date=8 March 1915 |title=Doctors For The Front. |pages=10 |work=The Argus |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article1501405 |access-date=2022-08-01}} and was posted to the 14th General Hospital, Wimereux, near Boulogne, in the north of France.{{Cite news |date=30 August 1915 |title=Personal |pages=6 |work=The Argus |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article1554431 |access-date=2022-08-01}} Stephen publicly promoted the cause of the Red Cross.{{Cite news |date=19 May 1917 |title=British Red Cross. |pages=3 |work=Elmore Standard (Vic. : 1882 – 1920 |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article266609802 |access-date=2022-08-01}}{{Cite news |date=19 May 1917 |title=Red Cross Work. |pages=3 |work=Elmore Standard (Vic. : 1882 – 1920 |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article266609832 |access-date=2022-08-01}} He was made an Army Captain in March 1915,{{Cite news |date=15 March 1917 |title=Australian Military Forces. |pages=494 |work=Commonwealth of Australia Gazette |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article232453208 |access-date=2022-08-01}} and in mid-1916 was married in Chichester. His brother, Lieutenant K. T. Stephen was killed in France in May 1918.{{Cite news |date=11 May 1918 |title=The Supreme Sacrifice |pages=3 |work=Elmore Standard (Vic. : 1882 – 1920 |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article266613464 |access-date=2022-08-01}}

Stephen lived in Elmore and practised medicine in Central Victoria,{{Cite news |date=5 January 1918 |title=Sad Fatality at Avonmore : The Inquiry. |pages=3 |work=Elmore Standard |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article266612206 |access-date=2022-08-01}}{{Cite news |date=1 June 1918 |title=Obituary. |pages=3 |work=Elmore Standard (Vic. : 1882 – 1920 |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article266613727 |access-date=2022-08-01}} and was Public Vaccinator for the Northern District during the Influenza Epidemic.{{Cite news |date=1 February 1919 |title=They Say! The influenza scare... |work=Elmore Standard (Vic. : 1882 – 1920 |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article266616206 |access-date=2022-08-01}}{{Cite news |date=10 May 1917 |title=Department of Public Health |pages=267 |work=Victoria Police Gazette}} There his wife, Dorothy Edna, bore a son in 1918.{{Cite news |date=12 October 1918 |title=Family Notices |pages=11 |work=Argus |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article1432125 |access-date=2022-08-01}} He left the district in February 1919{{Cite news |date=1 February 1919 |title=Our Folks. |pages=3 |work=Elmore Standard (Vic. : 1882 – 1920 |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article266616167 |access-date=2022-08-01}} to live in High St., Prahran and later at 537 Malvern Rd., Toorak. During WW2 Stephen served in the Citizen Military Forces.

Stephen attended George Bell's Saturday afternoon classes at Selborne Road 1925–30,{{Cite book |last1=National gallery of Victoria (Melbourne |first1=Australie) |url=https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/1264075973 |title=Classical modernism: the George Bell circle |last2=Moore |first2=Felicity St John |date=1992 |isbn=978-0-7241-0155-9 |language=English |oclc=1264075973}}  but otherwise was a self-taught painter and sculptor. His background as a doctor, and as nephew of Chief Justice Sir John and Lady Madden{{Citation |last=Campbell |first=Ruth |title=Madden, Sir John (1844–1918) |url=https://adb.anu.edu.au/biography/madden-sir-john-7453 |work=Australian Dictionary of Biography |place=Canberra |publisher=National Centre of Biography, Australian National University |language=en |access-date=2022-08-01}} and a relative by marriage of the late Mrs Ellis Rowan,{{Citation |last=Hazzard |first=Margaret |title=Rowan, Marian Ellis (1848–1922) |url=https://adb.anu.edu.au/biography/rowan-marian-ellis-8282 |work=Australian Dictionary of Biography |place=Canberra |publisher=National Centre of Biography, Australian National University |language=en |access-date=2022-08-01}} was noted in an Argus newspaper article on "Artists' Aliases"."Artists' Aliases : Everyone at the opening of the Group Twelve exhibition yesterday was interested in the provocative pictures but some were almost as interested in finding out the personalities hidden under the names of unfamiliar artists. M Barren Is Lady Barrett wife of the Chancellor of the University of Melbourne, Maie Casey is Mrs R G Casey wife of the Federal Treasurer, and Mary Alice Evatt is the wife of Mr. Justice Evatt of the High Court of Australia. Not all the exhibitors are in Melbourne. Mr. Roger James sent his exhibits from London and Miss K Sauerbier from Adelaide. Mr Pulleine, the son of a well-known South Australian doctor, the late Dr Pulleine is here, and Miss Marjorie North, Miss Bell and Dr Clive Stephen who varies medicine will sculpture in the modern manner, are well known in Melbourne. Dr Stephen is the nephew of the late Sir John Madden and Lady Madden and a relative by marriage of the late Mrs Ellis Rowan. Another absentee was Miss Moya Dyring who is in New South Wales painting in the hills near Sydney." {{Cite news |date=17 June 1936 |title=Heard Here and There |work=Argus |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article11042604 |access-date=2022-08-01}}

When in 1933 he exhibited with other students of Bell and Arnold Shore's school, Blamire Young commented that "Clive Stephen ... has a sound method of putting a design together. His colored drawings are rich and full of promise."{{Cite news |last=Young |first=Blamire |date=17 July 1933 |title=Modernists' School : Students' Exhibition |pages=4 |work=The Herald |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article245417120 |access-date=2022-08-01}} During the same period, Stephen and his wife Dorothy, a painter, conducted life-classes that attracted such artists as Will Dyson, and others in the nascent modern movement in Melbourne.{{Cite book |last1=McCulloch |first1=Alan |url=https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/1135181250 |title=The new McCulloch's encyclopedia of Australian art |last2=McCulloch |first2=Susan |last3=McCulloch Childs |first3=Emily |date=2006 |publisher=Aus Art Editions; in association with the Miegunyah Press |isbn=978-0-522-85317-9 |location=Fitzroy, Vic.; Carlton, Vic. |language=English |oclc=1135181250}} In the late 1930s he exhibited with the association of Modernist sculptors formed in 1935 by Ola Cohn,{{Cite news |date=4 October 1935 |title=The Plastic Group. |pages=18 |work=Age |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article203850739 |access-date=2022-08-01}} who named themselves The Plastic Group, and he also showed with Group Twelve.{{Cite news |date=17 June 1936 |title=Heard Here and There |pages=12 |work=Argus |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article11042604 |access-date=2022-08-01}}

McCulloch attributes influences on Stephen to primitive sculpture via European artists such as Jacob Epstein and Henri Gaudier-Brzeska, resulting in his abstraction. He was one of the first Australian stone-carvers thus inspired. Gino Nibbi in Art in Australia of 1939 notes that he;

"...tends by culture and temperament towards abstract art. After searching, let us say, on the surface of his material, by carving its external coat, he begins now to cut it, to excavate into it, to free from it some secret, without which sculpture is in danger of remaining at the bas-relief stage, and of being too elusive. Stephen is a gifted artist showing great potentiality of further development."{{Cite journal |last=Nibbi |first=Gino |date=August 1939 |title=Ideas Behind Contemporary Art |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.obj-351472479 |journal=Art in Australia|issue=76 |pages=18}}

Stephen was also an ardent collector; as early as 1934 he acquired Head of a woman (1933),{{Cite web |title=Head of a woman (1933) Ian Fairweather |url=http://www.ngv.vic.gov.au/explore/collection/work/27125/ |access-date=2022-08-01 |website=National Gallery of Victoria |language=en-AU}} painted in Bali by Ian Fairweather (likewise an artist influenced by the primitives), which he gifted to the National Gallery of Victoria in 1948.{{Cite book |last=Roberts |first=Claire |url=https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/1317822294 |title=Fairweather and China |date=2021 |isbn=978-0-522-87716-8 |language=English |oclc=1317822294}}{{Cite book |last1=Fairweather |first1=Ian |url=https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/1108158022 |title=Ian Fairweather: a life in letters |last2=Roberts |first2=Claire |last3=Thompson |first3=John |date=2019 |isbn=978-1-925355-25-3 |language=English |oclc=1108158022}}

Though he was an artist of great energy and enthusiasm, soon after retiring from medicine to devote his life to sculpture, tragically Stephen died in 1957.

• National Gallery of Australia{{Cite web |title=Clive Stephen |url=https://nga.gov.au/template/search-the-collection/ |access-date=2022-08-01 |website=National Gallery of Australia |language=en}}
• National Gallery of Victoria{{Cite web |title=Clive Stephen, NGV |url=https://www.ngv.vic.gov.au/explore/collection/artist/771/ |access-date=2022-08-01 |website=National Gallery of Victoria}}
• Art Gallery of New South Wales{{Cite web |title=Works by Clive Stephen {{!}} Art Gallery of NSW |url=https://www.artgallery.nsw.gov.au/collection/works/?artist_id=stephen-clive |access-date=2022-08-01 |website=www.artgallery.nsw.gov.au}}
• Queensland Art Gallery{{Cite web |title=STEPHEN, Clive {{!}} QAGOMA Collection Online |url=https://collection.qagoma.qld.gov.au/creators/stephen-clive |access-date=2022-08-01 |website=collection.qagoma.qld.gov.au}}
• Art Gallery of Western Australia{{Cite web |title=Clive Travers STEPHEN |url=https://collection.artgallery.wa.gov.au/persons/8184/clive-travers-stephen |access-date=2022-08-01 |website=Art Gallery WA Collection Online |language=en}}

• 1939, 30 May – 10 June: Plastic Group – sculpture and drawings. With Ola Cohn, Edith Hughston, Moya Carey, Ethel Reynolds, Val Blogg, M. McChesney Matthews, C. de Gruchy, Nellie Patterson. Victorian Artists' Society Gallery, East Melbourne{{Citation |author1=Plastic Group |title=[Plastic Group : Australian Gallery File] |url=https://trove.nla.gov.au/work/32485101 |access-date=1 August 2022}}
• 1937, 7–18 September: Plastic Group – an exhibition of sculpture, with Ola Cohn, Nellie Patterson, Moya Carey, Christine de Gruchy, Val Blogg, M. McChesney Matthews, Reg. Cordia, Edith Moore, the late John K. Blogg, Michael O'Connell. Hogan's Gallery, 340 Little Collins Street, Melbourne
• 1936, June: Group Twelve. Athenaeum Gallery{{Cite journal |date=24 June 1936 |title=Melbourne Chatter |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.obj-631364223 |journal=The Bulletin |volume=57 |issue=2941 |pages=43}}
• 1933, July: Students of George Bell's and Arnold Shore, Atheneum Gallery

• 2012, McClelland Sculpture Park + Gallery{{Cite book |last1=Stephen |first1=Clive |url=https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/816140154 |title=Clive Stephen: sculptor. |last2=Scarlett |first2=Ken |last3=McClelland Gallery + Sculpture Park |date=2012 |publisher=McClelland Sculpture Pake + Gallery |isbn=978-0-9804290-8-4 |location=Langwarrin, Vic. |language=English |oclc=816140154}}
• 1996, from 28 April: Clive Stephen : sculpture & works on paper, including works in oil and on paper by Dorothy Stephen. Eastgate Gallery
• 1992: Classical Modernism: The George Bell Circle, National Gallery of Victoria
• 1991, 17–28 April: The George Bell Group exhibition. A tribute to George Bell. Eastgate Gallery, 729 High St., Armadale
• 1988: The Great Australian Art Exhibition
• 1986: Frances Derham, Ethel Spowers and Clive Stephens. Jim Alexander Gallery, 13 Elmo Road, East Malvern
• 1980-1: Melbourne woodcuts and linocuts of the 1920's and 1930's. Ballarat Fine Art Gallery travelling exhibition curated by Roger Butler. Toured by AGDC to McClelland Art Gallery, University of Queensland Art Gallery, Newcastle Region Art Gallery, Victorian College of the Arts Gallery, Ballarat Fine Art Gallery
• 1978: Clive Stephen, sculptor. Gryphon Gallery{{Cite web |last=The Parliament of the Commonwealth of Australia : Australia Council |date=1976–1977 |editor-last=Blainey |editor-first=Geoffrey |title=Parliamentary Paper No. 52/1978 : Australia Council Annual Report 1 July 1976 – 30 June 1977 |url=https://nla.gov.au/nla.obj-2721009739 |access-date=2022-08-01 |website=Trove |language=en}}
• 1959, from 10 February: Memorial exhibition, National Gallery of Victoria

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Category:1889 births

Category:1957 deaths

Category:Australian medical doctors

Category:Australian male sculptors

Category:Australian military doctors

Category:20th-century Australian surgeons

Category:20th-century Australian sculptors