WAR AND NEW BEGINNINGS: 1915-38
Above: Postcard, Ian Fairweather to Annette Fairweather (his mother), from POW camp in Mainz, Germany, 7 August 1915. National Army Museum, London. © Fairweather Estate. Letter 1. Opposite: Lafayette Photography, Ian Fairweather, Second Lieutenant, Land Forces, 1st Battalion, Cheshire Regiment, 1914. Gelatin silver print. Fairweather collection. Courtesy Fairweather Estate.
Ian Fairweather, The Subaltern’s Shed, Torgau, c. 1914. Watercolour, ink and gouache over pencil on thick cream wove paper. 14.5 x 11.2 cm. Purchased 1983 with the assistance of the Philip Bacon Galleries. John Darnell Bequest. Queensland Art Gallery | Gallery of Modern Art, Brisbane. © Ian Fairweather / DACS. Copyright Agency, 2019.
Duncan Grinnell-Milne, Drawing of Grinnell-Milne’s escape from Friedberg POW camp dressed in a German uniform, with his brother Douglas and Ian Fairweather (right), 25 September 1916. Duncan Grinnell-Milne, An Escaper’s Log (1926). (See letter 281.)
Ian Fairweather, Tea Garden, Peking, 1936. Oil on cardboard. 86.4 x 88.8 cm. Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney. Purchased with funds provided by the Art Gallery Society of New South Wales, 2004. © Ian Fairweather / DACS. Copyright Agency, 2019. (See letters 13, 112.)
7 AUGUST 1915 – 1 SEPTEMBER 1938
ON HIS second day of war service, the twenty-three-year-old Ian Fairweather, Second Lieutenant, Land Forces, 1st Battalion, Cheshire Regiment, faced action. His regiment was ‘shelled by high explosives and shrapnell’ during the Battle of Mons, an attempt to hold the line of the Mons-Condé Canal, near Dour, France, in the first major engagement of the British Expeditionary Force of the Great War. Against the numerically greater power of the German 1st Army, the British were forced to retreat, and the regiment was surrounded and captured. Fairweather became a prisoner of war, first in Torgau and Mainz, and later in the camps of Friedburg, Ingolstadt, Crefeld and Ströhen.
During his imprisonment he contributed drawings to POW magazines and read books on Japanese and Chinese art. His four-year incarceration included lengthy periods of solitary confinement as a result of repeated escape attempts. After his release in a prisoner exchange, he studied art at The Academy in The Hague and privately with the painter Johan Hendrik van Mastenbroek, working with him in his studio and painting and sketching en plein air in the Dutch countryside. Later he studied under Professor Henry Tonks at the Slade School of Art, London. Tonks was a formidable and demanding teacher but in Fairweather he had a serious student. While at the Slade, Fairweather was awarded Second Prize for Figure Drawing, his first early success. Photographs of Fairweather from this time suggest that the experience of war and imprisonment had taken a huge emotional toll.
Restless, he travelled in Germany and Norway, painted in Hertford, and worked as a labourer and then a caretaker in Canada before boarding a ship to Shanghai. After more than three years in China, determined to keep painting, he set out for Australia. On the way he spent nine months in Bali then, after landfall in Broome, reached Fremantle. Finding the place ‘so awful’, he quickly took the next boat to Colombo where, with insufficient funds, he was not permitted to land. He later returned to Australia, arriving in Melbourne in early 1934. There local artists organised an exhibition and assisted in finding studio space. But before the year was out Fairweather left again, travelling by boat to Davao in the Philippines, then on to Peking. He then travelled back through East and South-East Asia. Once more with little money, he had difficulty in landing in any of the Asian ports; briefly he suffered the indignity of a prison stay in Jakarta.
He finally settled for a time in Zamboanga, where he built his first studio, and later in Manila. With the help of his old Slade friend Jim Ede, Fairweather’s Bathing Scene, Bali (1933) was acquired by the Contemporary Art Society and presented to the Tate Gallery. Paintings created in China and the Philippines were included in regular group and solo exhibitions at the Redfern Gallery, London, where they attracted favourable reviews and brought in much-needed funds. After periods in non-English-speaking countries and conscious of being a poor white man in Asia, Fairweather again reconsidered his prospects in Australia.
1. To Annette Fairweather
[Mainz] 7 August 19151
I think those picture puzzles are an excellent idea but dont send me any for I have some already. You might tell Queenie 2 to write to me any old thing will do How are the Red setters doing? they’re an improvement on dachshunds any way By the way do you think Grannie3 would like to send some more cake I really appreciated it especially the Ginger one. You send some too! What! and some Plasmon chocolate.
Ian
Annette Margaret Duprè Fairweather (née Thorp, 1852–1944). Mother of Ian Fairweather, born in Simla, India, the third child of Edward Thorp, Surgeon General, Indian Medical Service, and Sarah Meadows (née Nicholson). In August 1871 in Simla, Annette married James Fairweather (1828–1917), medical officer, 4th Punjab Infantry, later Surgeon General, Indian Medical Service.
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1 German postcard: Absender (Sender): Kriegsgefangenensendung (POW mission), Ian Fairweather, The Cheshire Regt., Abteilung (Department) II, Stube (Room) 67, Offiziergefangenenlager (Officer prison camp), MAINZ; Kriegsgefangenensendung (POW mission), Feldpostkarte (Field postcard); to Mrs A. Fairweather, Beaumont, Jersey, Channel Islands, England. Postmarked 17 August 1915.
2 Annette Waters (1884–1965), Fairweather’s older sister, known in the family as Queenie, the seventh of nine children.
3 Sarah Thorp (1827–1916), maternal grandmother of Ian Fairweather. She had married Edward Thorp in Jullunder, Bengal, 13 July 1848.
2. To Jim Ede
Post Office Brithdir near Humboldt, Saskatchewan Canada– [c. July 1928]
Dear Ede–
I have just come across your letter which I got before leaving but had not the time to answer. No I regret that my people would not raise a finger to help towards anything to do with art–and I beg you not to communicate to them in any way my address–for though I hope to return home one day, I do not wish them to know of me any more–
You say my inability to paint is you think due to nerves–I think it is–that is why I dont wish to get in touch with my people again–they are so bitterly opposed to art. I feel their opposition–I had been longing for years to get away like this for a moment–to have time to think things out a little–to ‘reculer pour mieux sauter’1–and I feel that already I have made more progress than in years in Hertford where I was always so worried and hurried and driven on that it was more like a nightmare than living 2–of course physically it is terrible here–I am a hired man on the farm–and they are very poor and give me hardly any food so that I have to steal from the granary and spend my odd moments masticating wheat–in order to keep on my legs–and the work goes on eternally from daybreak to dusk–and with it all I dont feel I am getting stronger or fitter on it–However I am earning something and seeing a lot–and there is a deserted schack here to which I pin my faith–I think I will have just enough in the autumn to patch it up–get a stove and a sack of wheat and start in for the winter–to paint–that is if they will let me have it–the hope of it anyway Keeps me alive–Unfortunately I have only water colours with me–but I hope some how to get some oils–by then and will send what I do to the Redfern3–I dont suppose you will hear of any job I could get at home but if you do–do write to me–I would get back somehow if I had to hobo it–Yrs.
Ian Fairweather
Harold Stanley (Jim) Ede (1895–1990). English-born museum curator and art collector who began his career as a painter at Newlyn and then in Scotland before war service interrupted his studies. He later received an ex-serviceman’s grant to study at the Slade School, where he first encountered Fairweather. He was a curator at the Tate Gallery in London, where he established contacts with avant-garde artists including Picasso, Braque and Chagall. Although a contender for directorship of the Tate, Ede resigned on health grounds in 1936. With his family he moved to Tangier but later settled at a home he named Kettle’s Yard in Cambridge, now a house museum attached to the university.
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1 To ‘draw back in order to make a better jump’.
2 In 1925 Fairweather was introduced to Frederick Leverton Harris (1864–1926), politician and art collector, and his wife Gertrude by Henry Tonks, Slade Professor of Fine Art, who had taught both men. Fairweather lived in a caravan on their property in Hertford in exchange for £100 per annum and the pick of half of his output of paintings.
3 The Redfern Gallery, 27 Old Bond Street, London, where Fairweather exhibited and sold work from 1935.
3. To Jim Ede
Provost Island B.C.1 [late 1928 – early 1929]
But. Postal address if you should be writing is 165 Joseph St Victoria–that will always find me2–I am most awfully sorry not to have written before to thank you for the paint box–I had left the prarie when it arrived and it took some time following me here–I have been doing various things and have not had time to use it till now–Here I think I may use it–I am all alone on the island–there are some beasts to look after but otherwise little to do. It is altogether a beautiful place–there are other islands all round–and the sea calm like a lake–it is exasperating that there is no boat.
I am making a raft of driftwood3–the whole place is strewn with it–for the water is irresistible–swarms of every sort of duck and diver–seals and other strange beasts–The land is just a bit gloomy–dense forest–huge incredible trees. There are a few clearings–where my house is–on a little spit running into the bay–there is a little prune orchard–and the stables and byre–and up the valley inland are one or two small fields–but all else is trees–I have some goats–sheep–ducks–turkeys–fowls 3 cows–2 horses and a dog for company–and I shouldn’t say I was quite alone–for there is a settler and a lighthouse keeper at the other end of the island who takes my mail for me two miles off–but through the forest it seems a mighty long way–My boss is an irishman–he bought this place in a land boom there was some time ago. but it died down again–he keeps it on I think hoping for another boom–which is not unlikely for the climate is very perfect and people are coming here more and more to stay–
My island is just about half way between Vancouver and Victoria and the steamer route passes it–hence the lighthouse–but I am at the other end so I dont see the steamers otherwise my end is much the nicer–
I spend much of my time on the beach–pottering about amongst all the junk that has been washed up there–when tired of that I go and fell a tree–that is always amusing–I dont fell the live ones–but the dead ones–there are plenty of them. and the way it is done is very simple and easy I bore two holes at a right angle or so to meet in the centre–put in some touchwood and blow till it starts inside then I go away and next morning the tree is down–sometimes I have to finish it off with an axe–but usually it goes all by itself–it is truly an awe inspiring spectacle to see and hear a big one falling For the rest there are the horses–I have a saddle and a harness of sorts–one is an angel but the other is a devil and how to subdue the devil–it is interesting–well so long–and do write and please forgive me that I have been so silent–
Yrs Ian Fairweather
1 Prevost Island, one of the southern Gulf islands off the south coast of British Columbia, owned by Fairweather’s absentee landlord Digby de Burgh, an Irishman from County Limerick.
2 The home of Fairweather’s second-eldest brother, Neville (1878–1966); his wife, Dorothy Benson (1887–1970); and their son, Geoffrey.
3 Fairweather’s first known attempt at building a raft.
4. To Jim Ede
C/o Municipal Council. Public Works Dept. Shanghai1 May 24/31
Dear Ede.
It is along time since I last wrote to you–I was on the island then–I was there for 6 months–but I became too friendly with the dog and the chickens and the Goats–
I would have them about the house–for company–and with them came fleas and rats and mice–I lay awake much at night and one morning before dawn I arose with all my bedding and went down and sat in the sea–it was then I decided I must go–for with them all–I was lonely–I had with me then one relic–a Chinese grammar printed in Shanghai and it seemed as it were an indication2–The voyage was almost romantic I had expected–as it was a Japanese vessel to be the only white man in the steerage–but there were two American school teachers a bolshevist student–a music professor and a young Dane working his way round the world–it was the brightest, most auspicious beginning a prelude I almost hoped to Something–but after two years it remains unique and unchallenged–a delirious moment of conversation–without precedent and without thereafter–I got a job in time to save me from the romantic experience of being on the beach–and then it was more in charity than otherwise–since I was a white man–they made me park keeper–the competition however, with exiled Russians was in that too keen–and rather than turn me loose again–they made me road inspector–and then I met a school master turned road engineer who had once been in Paris–he put me in charge of the asphalt plant–but he advised me for my good–to get out into the world again and now after two years I begin to think he is right–But how I have become lazy–I have a boy to do things for me–I no longer walk but ride everywhere–and I am fourty this year. I have learnt some Chinese in spare times I had always wanted to do that–it is something–but other people–the best people here–dont learn Chinese–There is a publishing house–an advertisement house here–I want to try them3–but it means taking down my strivings from the dim walls of my room–taking them into the open into the blatant parlour of the publishing house–and they are still so incomplete. I have so little time–it will be useless but it must be done and then–Australia the never never land4–so lies the trail–for I have another intimation never to go back on the way I have come–though I know I shall never see anything half so beautiful as my island again
But this time I should like to get in touch with someone in advance–and I thought that you might know someone or know of someone to whom I could write and who could put me in the way I wish to go–There are various art schools over there it is more civilized than Canada even though less Americanized–at least so I believe–You know I am cut in half it is three years now since I left and I grow no better I am too old for such a drastic amputation. somehow somewhere I must get back to some sort of art work it matters very little what or where.–but for the sake of homogeneity help me.
Yrs sincerely
Ian Fairweather
1 Fairweather had crossed out his actual address, 235 Szechuen Rd, Shanghai. The Public Works Department of the Shanghai Municipal Council maintained public infrastructure within the Shanghai International Settlement, a territory where foreigners from treaty nations could live and trade according to the laws of their own country.
2 In 1921, while at the Slade, Fairweather enrolled in a Japanese-language course at the School of Oriental Studies, University of London, and there developed an interest in Chinese.
3 Likely the American journalist Carl Crow, who established the English-language newspaper Shanghai Evening Post and Mercury (1929–49) and the first Western advertising agency in Shanghai.
4 As well as alluding to Mrs Aeneas (Jeannie) Gunn’s We of the Never-Never (1908), this may refer to Fairweather’s attempt to migrate to Australia in 1926.
5. To Jim Ede
Perth West Australia [late 1933]
Dear Ede–
I am sending you two paintings I did in Bali.1 I brought them here with some idea of trying to sell them in Sydney but fate has sent me round this end of Australia instead–and I feel the place is so awful–even if I could sell them–even if I could get some job advertising or something, which was my idea in coming–still it would be terrible to stay here–I’ve been going west ever since I started I’m going west again from here–and its no use carrying these things round any longer–I just got to drop them somewhere–The little carved figures, are Balinese work. I had some wild idea that someone might be interested–they fit so well into the modern interior–I could have sent some more–but now I dont know what I am doing–my plans have all gone. I only know this place is terrible and I must get out of it
If ever I get a permanent address again I will write–
Yrs I Fairweather.
P.S.
Dont think too badly of the paintings–they are terribly crude on the surface and were done under trying conditions If you put some paper or something round them by way of a frame–and look at them by candle light you will see them at any rate as I saw them– oh hell–
Bali was somewhere near to heaven.
P.S. Ive got a boat out of Fremantle–allright–I’m sending the paintings on–when I get off it somewhere–
I find I cant pay the freight this end they dont know what it is–I’m awfully sorry–I can only suggest that you sell the carvings and make it up that way–I hope I shall be able to write to you before long–from somewhere.
The box is sent through Cox & Kings of 13 Regent Street–
1 Bathing Scene, Bali (1933); Procession in Bali (1933). Fairweather had spent some nine months in Bali before moving on to Australia. The titles of paintings and dates given here and elsewhere in the notes correspond with those cited in Murray Bail, Fairweather (2009), unless otherwise stated.
6. To Jim Ede
Dear Ede.
Well–this is goodbye to the East–I suppose. Ive done everything I can to stay but it is no good–they clipt my wings–before I was allowed to land they seized all my money but £10–the alternative was to remain on the ship and go on to England–with £10 over–no never again–I met an American painter stranded here and for a time we thought of breaking away together–up north–through India It would have been grand–but they are a lot of curmudgeons–they made me feel like a criminal to be painting–when honest to goodness plantation owners were going short of alcohol–oh well–Ive been very very happy–its been lovely–but I ve never been really bored for a minute now–O–oh–
Melbourne1–
I seem to have done nothing but pursue with burning feet (my sandshoes are wearing rather thin) a way through endless Finchleys and Golders Greens 2 seeking a break–an open space–any let up in this colossal monotony–There is no break–it is whole–un–limited–a matriarchy–a million perfect homes the pubs are always closed–and smoking is so much prohibited. I feel mean and decadent with a pipe–even in the street. And the Sundays–oh the Sundays–the Salvation armies prowl the empty streets–If I stay I will have to work in abstractions–it would be too irreverent to represent such wholiness. What is it in Australia that stimulates these multiplications–the sheep–the prickly pears the rabbits–and Mr Symes the grocer–and yet in six long years of wandering it is here for the first time I feel I am not a criminal–trying to make a living by painting They have been very kind3–I’m not responsible for the cutting enclosed4–it is rather inaccurate but it is nice of them to put it in–They auctioned my pictures amongst a few friends5–it hasn’t brought in much–I meant to go north–but I would like if I can to wait till I hear from you. If those two paintings will sell in England I will feel a little more confidence and I should have some more done by then–I cannot give you an address–as I have not found a place yet–but if you write C of The Rev Oliver–The Mission to Seamen–Flinders St Melbourne–that should find me–
Please write soon–So long–
Yrs I Fairweather
1 Fairweather departed Colombo on the Barrabool and arrived in Fremantle on 19 February 1934, before travelling on to Melbourne. He gave as his intended address c/o Thomas Cook & Son, Melbourne. Fairweather began this letter in Colombo and finished it after arriving in Melbourne.
2 New middle-class housing estates developed in north-west London between the 1870s and 1930s.
3 Soon after his arrival in Melbourne, Fairweather had been put in touch with the painter William (Jock) Frater.
4 George Bell, ‘Artist-Wanderer Holds Show Here’, Sun News-Pictorial, 5 March 1934.
5 George Bell, Arnold Shore and others.
7. To Jim Ede
Dear Ede. I got your letter all right and the £48 I cant begin to tell you what a relief it was–things were more or less in extremis–before I could venture down to see if it had come or not–I was in despair over this mural I am attempting–six times I have torn it up–your letter just gave me the courage to go all out and Ive done the centre piece at last–the two side pieces should not be hard so I’m hoping to move again at the end of this month1–the trouble is I dont know where to go–it depends how the picture sells 2–if well–then I think back to that wretched Colombo again–I feel if I could succeed in staying there till I could accumulate a little money. I could go on to India If it doesn’t sell for much. I’ll have to go to one of the islands–anywhere out of here–It is bitterly cold just now–This living on the edge of nothing–more or less is terribly trying for the nerves I sometimes long for the flesh pots of Shanghai again and a fat wage every month–but Ive got to go on now Ive started–if it should come down to labouring on some farm again–I think it would break me up–better starve on some beach in the south seas at least so it seems–Your letter though has given me courage–I’ll write again as soon as I can find another ’ole–and get down to work again and not think at all–I’ll send you the result–it should be better with luck–doing this mural has loosened me up a little–well so long–and wishing you well–you’ve done me a world of good–Yrs I Fairweather
P.S. Have you ever come across Roy Bishop is or was Secretary to Duveen or something–he is my cousin3–maybe he could help sell pictures you might try him if all fails [Ede margin note: ‘Sloane 4567 Hyde Park Hotel.’].
1 Commissioned by the Menzies Hotel, Bourke Street, Melbourne, through an introduction by William Frater, the mural was never finished.
2 Bathing Scene, Bali (1933) was purchased by the Contemporary Art Society from the Redfern Gallery in 1934.
3 Roy Bishop, the son of Fairweather’s great-aunt on his mother’s side, was Assistant Secretary to the series of British Artists’ Exhibitions initiated by the influential art dealer Sir Joseph Duveen, the first of which was held in Leeds in 1927.
8. To Jim Ede
Dear Ede
I am writing this on the boat–maybe it will save time–as soon as I can give an address I’ll send it off–I’m in an awful jam–I had to take a chance and get out of Australia whilst I could–I had counted as I told you on that wall painting to make my path smooth but it was wrong from the start–after six months of work–frenzy rather–I had to tear it up–its nearly wrecked me all together–ever since I landed in the place I have been ill–I couldn’t afford to buy a mattress and all through the winter I have had chill after chill till I can neither taste or smell or even hear now–I am deaf–I never knew that such a thing was possible there was nothing to do but get out of the place quick–Thank God–here is the Sun I can put my filthy clothes out in it and need’nt wear any more clothes
Thank God–
Have arrived in Davao–it was my intention to go from here to British Borneo–but now realize it will cost me nearly all I have to get there and there is no hope of a job–moreover I have found a house here–it stands on stilts amongst the cocoanuts trees on the edge of the beach it looks something like a bird cage–on the ground beneath it–chickens and pigs and boats–babies and land crabs–Its the sort of place I ve dreamt of1–I’m going to stay–at least that is my
oh. heck. it doesn’t seem any use looking forward about anything in fact I darent–I am sitting in the bird cage house–the waves are nearly up to the piles–will you write to me C of. the British Consulate. Davao Mindanao–Philippine Islands.
Mindanao is the south island of the group and Davao is on the SE corner of it–If that other picture I sent you has sold and there are any proceeds it will be quite safe I think to send them as above2–
If at the end of the month I have something I can send you I’ll send it–Please bear with me if you can I am having a hell of a time–
Yrs I Fairweather
1 Fairweather’s house at Piapi was a short walk south around the shoreline from the Santa Ana Wharf, where the tramp steamer had berthed in the city of Davao.
2 Procession in Bali (1933) was purchased by the Museum and Art Gallery, Leicester, from the Redfern Gallery in 1936.
9. To William Frater
C of The British Consulate, Davao, Mindanao Philippine Islands– [c. late September 1934]
Dear Frater– That address should find me if you happen to be writing–Ive stayed here just where I got off the boat. So I am still in direct communication with Australia–dont feel quite so lost–
The first afternoon here I went for a stroll along the beach and came on the house I am now writing in–it stands on stilts–amongst the Coconut trees–on the very edge of the beach–there is a kind of village stretching along the shore–underneath my house there are boats babies–sand–pigs–chickens–There are so many windows there is really no wall at all–& there is something–really something to see out of each window–I have been bathing in the sea–it is only ten yards from the door–to night it is very loud–two of the villagers have been in to palaver–we had to shout to hear each other–but its not annoying I’m sure I shall sleep, well, despite the bed which is just plain mahogany and no mattress, In fact I am sleeping now, so here is wishing you the best. I’m going to hit the mahogany–I believe it should be quite possible to send colours here–but that is in the far future–if all goes well. I simply daren’t contemplate the alternative–my salaams to Bell and Shore–So long.
Yrs I Fairweather–
William (Jock) Frater (1890–1974). Scottish-born artist and stained-glass designer. Frater arrived in Melbourne in 1910 but returned to Britain to study painting in Glasgow. He came back to Melbourne in 1914 and built a reputation as a leader of the emerging modernist movement. When Fairweather reached Melbourne in 1934, Frater introduced him to other artists, including George Bell and Lina Bryans, found him a studio, and helped him secure a commission to paint a mural at the Menzies Hotel. Later, when Fairweather was living in Cairns (1948–49), Frater urged Macquarie Galleries to write to him, laying the foundation for the long partnership between the artist and his Sydney dealers.
10. To Jim Ede
C of British Vice Consulate–Davao–Mindanao, Philippine Is– [Ede note: Oct 12 1934]
Dear Ede–I am trying very hard to write calmly–my house is unfortunately situated–near a sort of fruit stand where they sell coconut toddy and a sort of preserved blood here they come and sit around–the village lads–with yukeleles and oh–God–they sing–in the beautiful–with the throb of the waves–in the tropic night–they are asserting their modernity
I am sending you 7 pictures–I am putting them in a box–I cant say any more–that is all there is to say–oh Christ.
Yrs. I Fairweather–
11. To Jim Ede
C of British Consulate Davao. Mindanao. P.I. [Ede note: Oct. 25 1934]
Dear Ede. When I wrote that last letter I was nearly distracted and left a lot unsaid–I wanted to say–I do not like these Philipinos–they have a habit of addressing one in the street with ‘Hullo You’–they are really the same breed as the Japanese–only without the Chinese strain which has made the Japanese practical–the effect of America upon them is I think the worst possible–they flaunt their darned equality–and charge American prices–an old hag here has been bleeding me white. sending me up such stuff to eat–a squid floating in pure sepia–charging more than a first class resteraunt–my stomach has gone on strike–Ive been very sick and Ive had fever
I have had to move out of the house on the beach–the row every night and all night was incredible–they sing our songs with guitars some have really quite good voices but they are completely without susceptibilities of any kind–they crucify one–and they will sing one song a month at least–I have been here six weeks and it has been Jigolo a[nd] Jigalette1–every night and morning since I came–I have painted four more sketches–besides the seven I sent you–I’ll send them off in a few weeks. I hope I can add a few more by that time but distractions a[re] piling up
I got my legs scratched diving for coral–and both have gone sceptic and started turning into ulcers–I ought to have taken care I had read about it before–but–well–there it is–it puts the wind up me–and I’m in rotten health for some reason–I thought that the sun here would put everything right–but I must be looking bad for when I go into a shop to buy something they at once jump to the conclusion that what I want is alcohol–It annoys me like hell–its just like them so damn smart and always wrong–And today I have been counting these blessed pesos–Ive spent about half what I had and have only been here six weeks.–I still have the rest of my ticket to Shanghai–but the boat only goes once a month–so when it comes to December 15 if it comes that far. Can I possibly go on the one more month that may make all the difference–for it is just in that month that your letter should reach me–Well I’m quitting the old hag that feeds me and skins me–I’m starting in to feed myself–somehow–it sounds easy–but remember there is no milk, no butter–no meat that I can get–no fresh bread–of course if one puts ones mind to it–but I hate it–I seem to have been cooking for myself all my life–and here in the tropics its about the last straw.
Anything however is better than going back to Shanghai–broke–I dont think I told you why I left there–Painting of course–it was mostly that but I think I should have stayed on at least a year till I was due for leave if I hadn’t been stung into going right away–I have not written to any of my people since I left but nevertheless the tale got through that I had been dis missed from the army for cowardice–one can do nothing against such a tale–it is swallowed with avidity like a glass of grog–besides it sickens me–and God–I’m weary. Of course I have never heard the tale–innuendos perhaps you can oblige me with your version of it–
this has been something like an attempt to escape–like Germany over again–but I was never quite successful there–I could get out–I even got onto the frontier once–and saw freedom just a few hundred yards away–but I failed 2–I suppose some are doomed to fail always–and come to think of it–even if I could make it–I must lean on you helplessly–its a queer way to try to be independent–asking the man who tells me that suicide is the only decent thing left for me asking him to help me live–Christ–its a cockeyed world.
thats how it is
Yrs I Fairweather
1 Gigolo and Gigalette, characters in the 1934 hit song ‘Boulevard of Broken Dreams’, composed by Harry Warren with lyrics by Al Dubin.
2 Descriptions of Fairweather’s escape attempts from POW camps at Friedberg and Fort 9, Ingolstadt in Germany appear in A. J. Evans, The Escaping Club (1921) and Duncan Grinnell-Milne, An Escaper’s Log (1926).
12. To Jim Ede
C of British Consulate. Davao. [Ede note: Nov. 16 1934]
Dear Ede. I have your letter and cheque for £16–I haven’t asked the Consul about cashing it but I dont think there will be any difficulty about that–wether you have written to–him or wether it was the official appearance of your envelope–that impressed him1–he deigned to notice me today for the first time–I have often been in his office–he is the agent here for the Shell Oil Co. but till now I have only been able to speak to one of his Clerks–he presented me with your letter in person and offered most cordially to be of any assistance–please always use official envelopes they have a magic effect–what ups and down one has–only last night I was nearly having a scrap with some dirty Philipino–at the cinema he put his bare feet up on the back of my chair–I had gone in the cheap seats–I felt very low–after that to be treated pleasantly by a person in clean linen–its very pleasant–I have a lot to thank you for–your letter has come marvellously quickly I had thought a month more at least–this makes me more hopeful–more air minded–I’d never have thought of the air mail but for your letter to Melbourne–I hope you will get the £6 back all right–The pen and ink sketch is Balinese work.2 I cant do anything like it I’m afraid–I feel very bad about the statues. I meant them for you–and I feel still worse about this £10 you have sent me on account
I can only hope that things will work themselves out all right in the end. I expect to send off another batch of 6 or 7 sketches–they should be a little better I think than the first lot–I have done them on cardboard and sized it so that the paint will not sink in so much–they should be permanent I think–now about this I do want you to give me a very candid answer and by air mail–as I shall have to act upon it–I think I can keep up sending you 4 or five paintings every month they should be a little better than the first lot–but suppose they are about the same–will they bring in about £15–If you think they will I am going to let my ticket to Shanghai lapse–and start trying once more to get westwards–I am longing to get out of here–though this place has many advantages–and every move to a new place–is apt to be ruinous unless one is extraordinary lucky You see Shanghai is old ground–and back in Canada I could live in a hut there for very little–If I turn west from here I burn my boats–it is very much into the unknown–Still I want to do it above everything–So will you tell me what you think–I think I can go on sending you paintings every month but are they good enough–for say even £10. Please let me know my fate–soon. This should get to you about the new year
I send it with my best wishes and thanks–
Yrs I Fairweather
1 Ede was then a curator at the Tate Gallery, London.
2 A Kamasan painting of Sita’s Ordeal by Fire in ink and colours on cotton was used as a wrapping for Fairweather’s paintings sent to Ede. It survives in the collection of Kettle’s Yard, Cambridge. Ede later wrote: ‘The “cloth” has always been very precious to me’.
13. To Jim Ede
Kwang Chang Hutung1 15/5 [early March 1935] Peking
Dear Ede–This is just a line to let you know my address–I waited in Davao till the last moment but the cheque never came back I found when I got to Shanghai that the man I had sent it to was away on leave in England–Possibly it may reach me here eventually–In the meantime I am glad to say I am finding this a very cheap place to live in–my Chinese is of some use up here–and I am getting most proficient with chopsticks–It is a fascinating place to be in–I have never in my life had such material to paint–but I cant afford to buy paints–I am using Chinese chalks I cant see what is going to come of it all and I’ve given up trying–There was no chance of a job in Shanghai the place is full of refugee Russians–waiting in queues for ever[y] job there is–I tried to get some introductions to people who might buy pictures–but failing that–went round to their houses and left my pictures with a note–the usual answer was ‘not interested’ It made me rather wild for I think the things I have here–are in a way the best I have done yet–I eventually got an introduction to the President of the Fine Arts Institute up here An American woman married to a Chinese and of great personality I was told2–I came up with high hopes–God it was an awful journey third class Chinese railway–freezing–no blankets–and she also was not interested
Ive been trying to get a job teaching English or art–but again there are queues–this time of Americans wanting to do the same thing–and they have colleges and institutes of fine art to back them up–there’s not a chance for me–so theres nothing to be done but go round sketching–and hoping to God–
Provided this amazingly cheap food doesn’t give me diseases–I should be able to see april in–and if the cheque turns up it will mean four more months–If it comes I will try and send you the pictures I have–There is just a chance you may know of some one here3–I am making a lot of small drawings–ideas for compositions a series of the Gates of Peking etc–my idea is that if I could show–the finished things I have and these sketches of what I want to do but haven’t the paints or money to finish–perhaps some one would back me to the extent of finishing one or two to start with–
Goodness knows–
Yrs. I Fairweather.
1 This laneway was close to Chang’an Boulevard, in the area where the Grand Hyatt Hotel now stands. In the 1930s it was a poor area where few foreigners resided. Fairweather dates this letter 15/5. The text suggests it was written in March.
2 Likely Lucy Monroe Calhoun, the widow of the former Envoy Extraordinary and Minister Plenipotentiary to China who had died in Chicago in 1916. Mrs Calhoun returned to Peking in 1921, where she remained until 1937. She was a key member of the Peiping Institute of Fine Arts.
3 In what is thought to be a later annotation, Ede wrote at the top of this letter ‘Miss Bieber fond of young artist’, a reference to Caroline Bieber (1906–69), a wealthy Englishwoman who lived at Beiheyan in Peking, a collector of textiles and related objects whom he likely introduced to Fairweather.
14. To Jim Ed
Kwang Chang Hutung–15/5 [12 March 1935]
Dear Ede. Your two letters have reached me here today March 12–the last one is dated Jan 15–I’m glad to hear about the pictures but this £25 business is terrible–where the hell is it–I haven’t had it–I have a vague hope that the £16 you sent–will reach me some where some how–If I can wait any where long enough for it to catch me up–I am afraid I am dreadfully depressed–and am wishing I had never left Australia where there were some genuine artists and human beings–a very rare combination it seems–I have run into the most awful bunch of guilded effigies up here–I unfortunately got some introduction from an American in Shanghai I said I wanted to meet some artists–I had been helped so much in Australia. I hoped that if they liked my stuff they might help me here too in a small way–some small job or something–but they seem to think I have come with the idea of crashing the social portals of Peking–The local nabob in the art world here–a young American of the name of Handforth1–who draws what look to me like American magazine illustrations which he hangs in a magnificent Chinese temple–invited me to dinner last night and to bring my paintings–however I smelt a rat and only brought a few chalk drawings–it was fortunate–for my things at their best are little more than could be shown to some other struggling art students–but in that atmosphere of wealth and self sufficiency and Chinese perversities–they were utterly out of keeping–There was a poet of the name of Acton 2 there–I dont know if you know him by repute–he seemed quite nice–the executioner–was an English maiden lady whose name I dont know–but who knows everyone and everything in Peking and every where else–she was brought there to execute me and she did–all hope I ever had of getting any help in Peking have gone up in smoke–There is one Chinese artist who has offered me the use of a room–but I think it will only prolong the agony. I came here because I wanted to paint–because its the only thing I can do–because Ive tried to get another job and failed–to meet with this frigid suspicion and social bloc–its made me feel sick–I dont know what I can do anymore–
Yrs I Fairweather
1 Thomas Handforth (1897–1948), American artist and printmaker who arrived in Beijing in 1931 on a Guggenheim Fellowship and stayed for six years.
2 Harold Acton (1904–94), British writer, scholar and aesthete who lived in Peking from 1932 to 1939.
15. To Jim Ede
College of Chinese Studies1 Peking. March 25. [1935]
Dear Ede
I paid my weekly visit to the above address to see if any letters had come–I wasn’t expecting any–I thought I had heard the last of Davao–but there were two of your letters awaiting me the last dated Feb 12–and such news 2–I was feeling very frozen and down in the mouth–for I have now less than 20 dollars misc. and the Gentleman with my £16 is still on leave–but really I was cheered–you have been working miracles–and from a sick bed–I feel very guilty troubling you–I dont know now quite what is going to happen I have moved into a room in the art school–which I get free–but the owner is returning in 3 weeks so I will have to move out again–I am hoping I can induce him to find me a cheap Chinese house–then perhaps at last I shall be able to get down to work again–Here I am frozen–the floor is stone and the windows paper and full of holes–I have to spend the day walking round making notes–at least I am getting plenty of material–I must really stop now I am getting frozen sitting still–This place is the Chung Hua College of Art3–but if you are writing–the ‘College of Chinese Studies’ is a better address–it is an American place and by now they know me fairly well there–To date no money has arrived or word of it–but am expecting this bird from England back in 3 weeks
So long and many many thanks.
Yrs I Fairweather
1 Originally the North China Union Language School, established in 1910 to teach Chinese to foreigners in Peking. From 1925 it was located at 5 Toutiao hutong, East City.
2 The Redfern Gallery sold eight oil paintings by Fairweather between 23 January and 15 February 1935.
3 The Chung Hua College of Art was established in 1924 by Taiwanese-born artist Wang Yuezhi who had studied oil painting in Japan. It was located on the western corner of Zujia Street and Nan wei er hutong, now Xisi beiliutiao.
16. To William Frater
3 Nan Wei Er Hutung West City. Peking 26 April/35
Dear Frater. Your letter reached me just before I left Davao–and this is the first settled moment I have had since then–I have got a room here at long last–and I have heard that some of the pictures I did in Davao have sold at home–and some money has at last begun to come through–If it were only a little more I think I would make a bolt from here–I am really very ill–the cold and this awful dust that they get here my lungs have got filled up with it–worst of all I have got entangled with this art school–I had a ghastly time when I first came–I was really quite desperate–I had tried Shanghai but could get nothing–and coming up here was a senseless thing to do but I thought there might be some artists here–well there were–mostly Americans–and they gave me the coldest reception–but I met one Chinese artist who oddly enough seemed to like my things and offered me his room in the school while he was away–I was so poor I had to take it–now he has come back and I have got a place outside the school–but they want me to teach there–at least they say so–for the princely sum of 2/6 a week–I feel I owe them something–so must teach–also there are others who want English lessons–for nothing–and how to shake these all off–to get solitude–it seems the hardest thing in all the world–I cant tell you what an agony it was in Davao to have to live in that menagery–The missionary used to have a house on the hill–alone with the tree tops and the stars–Oh Christ! how I used to envy that man–Here I have tried and tried but cant get a house–apart–I am lucky to get this place–and the amount of suspicions and predjudices which had to be overcome–without the school to help me–I should have never got it–But now I have got it–and have put up an easel (part of the three ply I got in Melbourne) and started to buy paints–But some how this is not the place–I dont know what’s wrong–The last two months have taken it out of me I think–and the difficulties in getting paints–and paper–incredible in a place like this–I could get far more in Davao–Its been the long waiting here–three months–Kicking my heels–waiting for a cheque which reached me in Davao–but no one would cash–it had to go back to England again–and only now, five months later–I have been paid–There is one thing about this place it is cheaper than any place I know–
Well–so long–now–Do write and tell me about yourself–I feel pretty lonesome up here–And please remember me to Bell and Shore and Lawlor1–and what was that lad who wanted to go to the islands–I forget his name–tell him that I still believe in the islands–you see, the work I did in Davao has sold–and I’m ready to go again to any of them–for the half of a chance–its worth it will you let me know if you hear of anything?
–So long.
Yrs
I Fairweather
1 Adrian Lawlor (1889–1969), painter, writer and critic.
17. To Jim Ede
College of Chinese Studies–Peking– [April 1935]
Dear Ede– Thanks for your long and cheering letters–I feel I have been giving you an awful lot of trouble–and believe me I am very sorry about it
I must have missed your wire to Davao by about 4 days. If I could only have known–what a difference it might have made–there might have been bloodshed on the other hand it might have given me sufficient stability to try and get another house–I was driven to the shere limits of endurance by the people round my house–night or day there was no peace–and I had a tin roof with no shield–the heat was teriffic–
More over the anti foreign feeling is very strong there–the place is overrun with Japs and they are teaching the nation to despise the foreigner1–with a little money one can still get by–but without it–the whole east, it seems to me, is becoming impossible Peking has long been a refuge for poor foreigners–it is the cheapest place in the world I really believe–certainly no where else could I have lived so long on so little money moreover the houses here are just suited to painting in–but the place is military mad They have been lining the streets lately with boy scouts–they order people onto the side walk–and I have seen them stopping old men–and unbuttoning their collars to see if they had an under shirt on–the idea is they are teaching the people cleanliness–but what a way to go about it–the people are so docile that a military class–soon grows beyond all bounds–The student class are particularly effected–they all wear uniforms and in this school which I took to be an art school and hoped was free of the virus–I begin to realize things are as bad as elsewhere 2–for a month now I have begged them find me a house–or rather I have found houses and gone to them and asked them to help fix things–now that the £20 you sent has arrived (by the way it has beaten the £16–the man has arrived and sent me £4 of it–he is very careful though all the useless money orders he sent have been returned to him) I have intensified the campaign–only to discover what I took for inertia–is–smouldering anti foreignism–my feelings this afternoon are particularly bad because I discovered a house at last–by itself–and got a student I thought was friendly to go along and speak for me–The landlord was obviously delighted to accept me as a tenant–a dear old fat Chinaman of the old sort–but after my student had ‘interpreted’ for me–it appeared that the house was already let–that got me wild–then on the tram–the conductor refused me a ticket and told me to get off–I refused–some of the bystanders supported the conductor and there were some mighty nasty looks going around–Then your letter–the servant came grinning and oily and told me there was no letter–(I mean the letter from the bank.) It was lucky the Russian landlord was in–I shouldn’t have got it otherwise–and I noticed it had been opened–against all this what can one do–I despair of finding a place here to work in–I cant go back to Bali–because unless you are a first class passenger–with–a through ticket–you must pay £25–as security for your repatriation–the same was true of Colombo–and every where but the Philippines–that is about £4–But really and truly I dont think I can face those Philippines again–Added to all this the climate here is like Australia–terribly dry and I am ill just as I was there–
My room here has a stone floor and paper windows and no door just a sheet–the extremes of temperatures one endures would do for any but a cotton padded thick skinned Chinaman–it simply isn’t a human habitation I’ve been vilely ill ever since I came into it–If I have to rush away again to some where–please forgive me–Lord knows I long for nothing so much as some place to rest in and if I rush about–it is only to find it–However it is a curious thing that whenever I have suspected and reviled a chinaman–I have found afterwards that I was in the wrong of it–They have the strangest power of reflecting ones moods back on oneself–Still the fault is never all on one side either and it is true that there is a great big bunyan growing under the surface–and getting near to busting–I think if it does bust–it will be the worst thing ever loosed on this poor old stricken earth–
Yrs I. Fairweather–
1 Before World War II Davao had the largest number of Japanese inhabitants in South-East Asia.
2 The political situation in China in the mid-1930s was extremely tense, with threats posed by communist and other rebels and the Japanese military, which had occupied Manchuria in 1931 and would take Peking in 1937.
18. To Jim Ede
8 Hu Kuo Ssu Chieh1–West City–Peking 10 June/35
Dear Ede. I have sent you off to day a bamboo–a split one I’m afraid–the heat and dryness here have been too much for it–and I’m hoping to goodness it will stand the journey–there are seven things wrapped round it–I had hoped for more but there are just seven2 It very nearly didnt go off at all–When I got to the P.O. they grinned and told me I must put seals on it–as I have never had to do it before. I thought it was just another Chinese impertinence and told them to put their seals etc–etc–and walked out. I had a mind to walk out of Peking and back to the islands–come what might–It was all very stupid but it just shows to what a state one is reduced–This morning at 4 am I was roused by a damn cock they have bought and have tethered–so thoughtfully–just outside my window–I have twice removed it–if they put it back I’ll wring its neck–they have had notice enough–in the smallest things one has to go to these extremes–I had to smash the electric light wires because there was an absolutely superfluous light outside my window which for all my asking they wouldnt turn out The servants live in the same wing as I in fact I am in the servants quarters–and they play a Chinese violin 3–which would drive any but a raw savage crazy–I cant stop ’em unless I smash that too–I cant pay them enough to make it worth their while to be civil so I’ve had to give up having a servant at all–and because I am poor–I have to pay my rent in advance–another impertinence–in fact a most bloody and galling situation–I am happiest when I am out of the house–Yesterday as it was the end of a lap and I had packed up the bamboo–I took a holiday–took a bus to the hills and tramped over them–climbed all the heights in sight4–the hills are quite bare–I like them–and the sun beats down upon one–and one is baked. My knees held out quite well–Two years ago I climbed Tai Shan–You know–it is the eastern sacred mountain–particularly dear to Confucius5–there are temples all the way up–it is not very high–old women with bound feet achieve it–and dont turn a hair–but my knees gave out–it was shameful–and with my old ruck sack on my back–that I should have brought it to that–I think it was that that started me on this pilgrimage!–and well–I can climb a mountain again–so that is something–The heat here is worse than the tropics–already the corn is ready for cutting–The rice seems to have stayed where they planted it out–just sticking out of the water–The kao liang6–is about two foot in favoured places–they say it goes to ten and more–and then the bandits camp in it–I am looking forward to see it–There is a village just north of Hsi Yuan (The Summer Palace)7–where the road goes over a bridge–and there is a tea house by the stream oh I had a great drink there–and then a great sweat–and the landlord in mercy produced a fan for me–I think tea–explains fans–So far there are no mosquitoes–it seems incredible to sit in the warmth with bare ankles and not be tortured–but I hear they are coming–and there are scorpions they say–oh dear oh dear–if one doesn’t make ones bed–they like bedding–as I sat in the tea house there were quite a stream of cars passing loaded high with family effects–going to the hills–evidently we are going to have some hot times in the old town–and have you heard of these Japanese insinuations There are to be no Chinese soldiers for fourty miles round Peiping–Poor old Peiping8–Damn it–its awful–So long.
Yrs.
I Fairweather
P.S.
I have just got your letter today–I went round to Kuang Chang on the chance–it must have been there a month–though they denied it–also the one to the College of Chinese Studies–the latter is I think the only safe address I cant tell you how relived I feel that there is something coming to me I was getting a little nervous–That £16 to date has still not arrived–the order came and I sent it to Skuss in Shanghai–but he was too darn lazy to get it and sent it back to me I am getting it now through the American Consulate here–and eventually it should be all right–but had it not been for the timely arrival of your £20 everything would have been just too bad It was very kind of you to send it so quickly–This address seems to find me all right–but I may move–so if you are writing better address it to the College of Chinese Studies, East City But if possible let me have a postcard here to say so for it is a long way off and I don’t often go there.
1 The street was named after the Temple to Protect the Nation Huguo si, established during the Yuan dynasty (1271–1368).
2 These may have included Outside the Walls of Peking; Market Scene, Peking; Bridge in Peking; Houseyard, Peking, all painted in 1935 and exhibited at the Redfern Gallery, 9 January – 1 February 1936.
3 The erhu, a two–stringed bowed musical instrument.
4 The Western Hills, visible from the city on a clear day, is a popular retreat dotted with temples and other historic sites.
5 One of China’s Five Great Mountains, located in Shandong province not far from the birthplace of Confucius.
6 Sorghum.
7 The former imperial Summer Palace, a vast ensemble of lakes, gardens and palaces northwest of Beijing.
8 Peiping (Northern Peace), the name for Beijing (Northern Capital) used from 1368 to 1403 and from 1928 to 1949.
19. To Jim Ede
8 Hu Kuo Ssu–West City Peking– [early July 1935]
Dear Ede– I am a bit worried–I am down to $20 which is a little less than two pounds–and still that £16 hasn’t come. It should come in a day or two but I have been thinking that for nearly a month–This is a very cheap place and how I have spent–so much I dont know–but there it is–If you possibly can send me some more money I’ll be very glad of it–I have sent off seven things from here–they should reach you soon–I’m afraid the two landscapes should not have been included–they are very bad–I just couldn’t realize that they were so bad–because when I brought them here–I was quite pleased with them–only people criticising them here upset me and I tried alterations and ruined them–The procession I have noticed looks terrible in a side light1–it needs to be opposite a window–in fact they all look better that way–but it is too late to make excuses–I’m trying to get some more done–but some how things go hardly here–I dont understand it–This place has everything to commend it–and yet I get more and more miserable here–I have heard that I can get a Japanese boat for £4–to Borneo–and really I believe it might be best to go. That climate seems to suit me and I seem to do work there–I think if you can send me the remainder of the money you have and with that £16 if it turns up–I should have enough to risk it–I feel quite close to home here–only 14 days across Siberia–and Borneo will be months away again–but if it means painting–it seems the only thing to do–my only fear is that they may refuse to let me land–if they discover I have only a little money–In that case–I’d go back to Formosa2–I think the Japanese make no such stipulations Anyway it seems worth trying–anything is better than stagnating again–
So long. Yrs.
I Fairweather–
1 Peking Procession (1935).
2 Now the Republic of China, Taiwan became a colony of Japan following the first Sino-Japanese War (1894–95).
20. To Jim Ede
College of Chinese Studies East City. Peking– [mid-July 1935]
Dear Ede–At last the £16 is here in Peking I went round this afternoon to get it–but of course the man was out–but it is here–so all is well–at the same time I got your letter of May 28–it has taken over a month to get here–I believe in my last letter I gave you 8 Hu Kuo Ssu as an address–and I am hastening now to tell you not to use that address–as I have just heard of a letter addressed there that has been returned–so I shall just have to go on using the language school–as above–also letters sent via Siberia only take two weeks I am afraid in my last letter I was very depressed–but now I am glad to say I am not contemplating going to Borneo–Painting is going a little better I believe for one thing–and I have managed to silence the servant for the time being at any rate–he plays a Chinese fiddle–a thing with the bow fixed to the string–it was driving me crazy–also the police have been promised the guarantee they require–All foreigners living in a Chinese house have to supply a guarantee from some Chinese firm or bank–I cant do it and have been in a fix but at last the School have consented to do it–so that is a relief–Also I have just had a smack back at the police for keeping me out all night we had a bandit raid the other day but I knew nothing of it and went for a walk in the hills–when I came back the city gate was closed–I spent a most miserable night partly at a Chinese inn where–I was bitten by fleas mosquitoes and bugs all at once–at midnight–I had to jump out of bed and out of the inn and spend the rest of the night on the road–Two days ago I went out again thinking by now–the scare was over–and I was back well before sunset–only to find the gate closed again–I felt real mad They have patrols going round the walls but I managed to skirt round till I found a wooded place where there was some concealment and so climbed the wall–it was quite a climb–and I think the top of it would have quite defeated me–but I found a friendly loophole–into which I could just squeeze–It was about six foot thick and squirming through it was a long and painful process–for I haven’t done anything of the sort for years–also my legs were waving in the air and I felt sure they would be seen–but all went well and I was glad to find when I got back that the Gate here was open–for this place too is like a minature city–with a huge wall all round and a gate like a fortress which they bolt and bar every night–Coming to think of it all I believe this bandit scare was all a put up show–You may have heard that the Japanese objected recently to there being too many troops in Pekingand insisted on their being moved further south away from the Wall–So they went1–but now comes this bandit scare–and it is made a pretext for military law and getting all the troops back again–one has to be in ones house by ten and this gate business is most annoying–I must say for once I was rather in sympathy with the Japanese–for we are just creeping with uniforms here–and now after all the plague is to go on–I’m sorry–But any way I can get in when I want to–thats something–About the £35 It will save trouble I think to send it all at once–and I think the best way is as you sent the last i.e. to the Hong Kong & Shanghai Bank–I have been a little extravagant over this last but will try to make the £16 go a long way–It should for it is really very cheap here–and should be cheaper if the exchange will go up again–when I left Shanghai it was around 16 dollars to the £–and I lost on that for I was getting dollars then and had to change them to sterling–now it is down to $12 to the £ and–I lose again–Eggs are my chief delight here they are around 5 to the penny–so I can just have as many as I want. I am working away and hope to have another batch to send soon–and I hope there will be some to fill the gaps in that last batch–So long–I am sorry to have been so discursive–
Many thanks for your letters–
Yrs I Fairweather.
1 The English-language Peiping Chronicle reported on 13 June 1935 that a Japanese squadron would inspect the evacuation of Chinese troops from Peiping the following day, and on 18 June that the Japanese had agreed to cease flights over Peiping, an indication of the military tension affecting ordinary people.
21. To Jim Ede
College of Chinese Studies–East City, Peking [29 July 1935]
Dear Ede. The heat has arrived and the thermometer has run up to 102 in the shade–there can be no hotter than this I am hoping or it will blow up–The city has become a place of awnings––buildings have disappeared beneath a shroud of straw, and fat men sit with their bellys naked–flapping a fan–The wasps have built grey palaces under the eaves–they hang by a thin stalk and grow and grow and wax like domes appear upon the grey–and one knows that there is new life–more wasps–work is hard–for the last days I have only been able to paint in the few hours before dawn–which is all wrong–but sleep is not easily got–Last night it was the Pekinese we have a tribe of them here–the moon was at the full–there was no sleep at all–and now tonight there is no electric light It has been cut off from my part of the house though my landlord has it in his–you may imagine my feelings–I was counting after a day of sweltering inactivity of getting some work done tonight–and now this–I have been round to see him about it–he lives secluded in an inner courtyard with the Pekinese–but I only got as far as the two grand mothers who were sitting fanning themselves on the porch–and they wouldn’t or couldn’t understand There were various wives sitting around in the courtyard it is shared by several families–brothers & cousins my outer courtyard is occupied by the poor relations and the servants–The tribal name is Sing and you might think from their dispositions that there was harmony among them–but seldom a day passes without one of the wives starting a hullabaloo–and then the others join in–the place is in an uproar–like a cormorant cave–and in despair I have to lay down my brushes and wait till the typhoon is past–and that may be a long time–Sometimes when they dont get satisfaction in the compound they go out in the road and keen and moan and tell the world–our doorway like the rest has a screen across it–with lucky signs to keep out devils–which go only straight–they say–but Einstein must be right they must go round as well–and catch our ladies when they take their shirts off–how else explain my sentiments tonight–no sleep–no light–sans shirt and sans culottes–a thousand devils–They can bawl a morning through in a language without an oath–but I must weep to you across Siberia–Heck.
Another day has gone–and now another night–and there is light–in my room–and round about the courtyard–the servants too can bask all night beneath their bulb again–The reason is I’ve consented to pay for it all–heck.
I’ve often wondered at these orientals preferring to sleep with the light on–it is universal. I guess the answer is–bugs!
The city gate is still closed–and there is no earthly reason–It cuts me off from my one and only walk–the one thing that makes this place endurable–along the canal–into the sun and towards the hills–Hang them–
24th Your £10 has arrived–there was no name–but I take it it must be from you–Many many thanks–on the strength of it I have bought some Yatren for my wretched stomach1–perhaps I shall get some work done now–
29th I have packed up seven pictures and will send them off with this letter–Now I must rush and shave and get down to the post–so long–
Yrs I Fairweather
1 A drug used to treat amoebic dysentery, also known as Quinoxyl.
22. To Jim Ede
8 Hu Kuo Ssu–West City, Peking [early to mid-August 1935]
Dear Ede. I have drawn the £25 today–the last!–oh dear oh dear–do you think it is?–I’m simply not going to think at all–what’s the use–The news about the Bali picture is of course splendid–I feel rather ashamed–looking at the photo paper and thinking of ‘that’–in the Tate1–Still it gives me the illusion of having a back-ground–I havent written home since I left–but this will be something to say–I hope too that dear old Tonks will be pleased2–By now there ought to be some more things to send you–but the last month–has quite laid me out. I have just sat and read murder stories or walked and walked–(thank God there are hills here–) now I am giving up smoking and am perfectly miserable–I dont know what is wrong with this place–on the surface all is so pleasant, but I am out of joint–really there is something frightfully alien about these people their art–if one could boil it down–or somehow get at the forms one senses under it–the basic forms if there are such things–they would give one the horrors I think–that is if one tried to reconcile them with human forms–
When I first came I used to think what pleasant expressions they all had–I could see nothing but the smile–but now I dont see the smile at all–just the most sinister sub-human eyes, well–better say no more–this no smoking–I can only think of Mussolini defying the Rock of Gibraltar3–and of this rising tide of Asiatics and I’ve got the blues–and if that Peking hound!!–in the small hours of yesterday before it was light–I was chasing that Pekin thing away–with a broomstick–if it starts again–when I’m not smoking–If it starts.–well well–
Yrs. I Fairweather–
1 Bathing Scene, Bali (1933) was presented to the Tate and reproduced in the Listener, 24 July 1935.
2 Henry Tonks (1862–1937), British surgeon and later draughtsman and painter of figure subjects. He was Slade Professor of Fine Art at the University of London, 1917–30, and recognised in Fairweather an unusual talent.
3 The assertion by Benito Mussolini that Britain’s ownership of (the Rock of) Gibraltar was a legitimate target of Italy’s ‘natural right’ to supremacy in the Mediterranean.
23. To Jim Ede
8 Hu Kuo Ssu Chieh–West City Peking [mid-August 1935]
Dear Ede–Many thanks for your very cheering letter–Your P.C. arrived all right too–though a few days later–I was doubtful if this address would find me as it is in a part of the city where there are very few foreigners–I notice you dont address them ‘Via Siberia’–so they take about a month–whereas via Siberia is only two weeks–You seem in doubt about the money you sent–It has all come O.K. £20 in April–£16 in July–and £10 a week or two ago–It is all spent I am afraid but the £10 which should take me through September–I dont know how money vanishes so quickly here–I dare say it is because I cannot resist going to the cinema when there is a cinema to go to–I enclose a photo of the floods we’ve been having, they have been awful1–grey skys with a high temperature–is a ghastly combination It is really a very dry climate here–and it doesn’t know how to rain properly–there are never any clouds–when it is wet it comes on like a wet mist–and it chooses the hottest time of the year to do it–the rest of the time it is bone dry–there is never a sunrise or a sunset to look at–just a brassy glare–there are no colours–and also there are no smells–I hate it–a few days ago–was li chiu–the beginning of autumn according to the Chinese calendar 2–and on that very day the skys cleared–and there has been good weather since–the air is still damp so one can smell the growing things again and there are even some clouds–but it wont last long–there will soon come winds and dust storms–filling one’s nose and it will freeze–but there will be no–snow–only freezing dust–most people find it a bracing climate–I find it a brazen climate–Its all very well for the Chinese–they wear cotton padded clothes–and their skins I think are thicker than ours–they must be–they have a fish like streamlining–their babies are perfect things–they never look gawky–and they never look blotchy–an old ivory tint all over–its very beautiful I try to persuade myself that their eyes are wrong–and the back of their heads are really bad–they are quite flat and there is an enormous breadth between the ears–that I am sure of–yet when I go to the cinema–and see American girls in pyjama trousers–the contrast with the Chinese trousers is terrible–I dont know what to think–here they put on their trousers so artlessly–and they are so pleasant–and theirs with so much artifice and tailoring they are ghastly–I dont know what is wrong with us–this sex conciousness is wrong. The lady across the yard wears a long matronly gown–the young men wear transparent cotton drawers–the children wear nothing at all–The lady when it is hot or she is washing and the gown gets in her way–just rolls it up–regardless of me–and there are times when I scarcely dare look out of the window. I like it best when the children bring out their tubs and bathe in the sunlight–But I see it all through a glass–and just seeing it one should draw no conclusions–but there are such contrasts–I’m getting sick of our music–once given a melody its subsequent evolutions are terribly boring–they sing as a bird sings–But they bind their womens feet and we put them in high heels–and I dont know which is worse–They dont know how to eat–that I know–there is something in picking up a morsel with chopsticks more ethical than sticking a fork into it–but then they cut up a chicken with an axe–and they dont care for flavours–they like sharks fins because of a certain consistency–they crackle gelatinously they have no flavour–they put sea weeds in soup–and buried eggs that can be chewed3–Surely that is an aberation of civilisation–I try to remember that the monkey is the most sapient of beasts–though he lacks grace and though the tiger has symmetry and the fish–he swims–he is but a poor fish–we are ugly–but we make motor cars–we are ugly but we have a passion for fights–they have only a facade the back of their heads is flat–they rouge their babies–we lipstick our matrons
I only know I like a damp climate and I believe in Aryians–I believe that Gentlemen prefer blondes4–
So long Yrs I Fairweather
1 Flooding of the Yangzi and Yellow rivers and their tributaries during July and early August 1935 caused significant loss of life and damage to property.
2 One of the twenty-four solar terms of the Chinese lunar calendar, historically used in divination and informing farming practices.
3 Chicken or duck eggs, preserved with a mixture of earth, lime, salt, wood ash and tea, then buried, known as ‘Thousand-year eggs’.
4 Likely a reference to Anita Loos’ ‘Gentlemen Prefer Blondes’: The Intimate Diary of a Professional Lady (1925).
24. To William Frater
8 Hu Kuo Ssu West City Peking [September 1935]
Dear Frater1– Your letter came a few days ago and now it is the anniversary of the day I left Melbourne–So anyway–George Bells prophesy that I would be back inside 12 months is wrong–I think if I had had the money I’d have moved from here before now–back to the islands again–it was so difficult to get started here–I thought I never should–but things are a bit better now–I’ll try and stay on if I can–There has been some very good news from home about pictures selling–the Bali one has found a home in The Tate–they’ve sent me a photo of it–which makes it look awful I shall not be very proud of my offspring I’m afraid–Somehow work here doesn’t come easily–I’m having to discipline my self in all sorts of ways to keep my nose to the grind stone–Thats never happened to me before–
I still dont know any single soul here except the local Bishop2–and we have decided we dont like each other–I went to borrow some books off him and he gave me Meredith and Jeffrey Farnol3–and I suppose I began yawning or something Since then I have found a lending library run by an American woman–every blessed thing in this place seems to be run by an American woman they swarm here–for some reason there is magic in the name I suppose–but apart from that it is just a dry dusty shabby looking place–if it wasn’t for the hills near by there would be just nothing to it as far as I see except of course–the wealth of life that spumes and eddies everywhere–Thats what I miss in Melbourne–or London–Its Peckham Rye and the back streets that make London human to me4–Melbourne boasting no slums is terrible–I felt more lost there than I’ve ever felt–Sydney was much better–some crooked streets–and Brisbane–a river and hills–no George–You were the best friends I’ve met in many a year–but not all the romantic dames you speak about could lure me back–I’m enclosing a notice of a book by an old friend–he sent it me out hoping I might get the art school interested and get some sales5 I thought maybe you could pass it along–he’s got a nack of saying a plain thing round about which is sometimes suggestive and he picks some nice quotations–
So long, my best regards to the colleagues Yrs I Fairweather
1 Written on pizhi, a paper with long fibres used for Chinese painting.
2 Francis Lushington Norris, Anglican missionary, appointed Bishop of North China in 1914.
3 George Meredith, English novelist and poet. Jeffery Farnol, English writer of historical romance novels.
4 One of Fairweather’s studios in the 1920s was in Peckham Rye.
5 Rowland Wright Alston, The Rudiments of Figure Drawing: A Handbook for Teachers and Students (1933). See letter 30, and also letters 35, 212.
25. To Jim Ede
8 Hu Kuo Ssu. West City Peking [4 November 1935]
Dear Ede. Today–Nov 4. the winter came here in one jump like the ‘big bad wolf ’ and what is worse he is in the room and I’m not going to say I’m not scared–This is awful–quite frozen out–can just sit with everything I have on and shiver
I think this place is going to be even worse than the School last winter–it is so much larger–the little Chinese stove I was relying on is just lost here–it would take a furnace to defeat this stone floor–I have put off writing to answer your last letter hoping to be able to tell you another batch was sent off–well its not sent off but it is ready–I am just waiting to see how some others go because if I bare my walls now and send everything the little illusion of warmth I still have will be gone–I am sorry to say that none of these I have here are according to your specification–or rather the Redfern’s–I cant get interested in the Chinese personally–I only see them in crowds–to me they are terribly lacking in something–they have a grace and a finish beside which we all look ungainly experiments–they are so darn rounded off–they have a huge contempt for our art–their ejaculations at the cinema make me squirm–unbounded contempt–I have squirmed for years at these Hollywood excesses but here I believe in them all the way they are (John) gold fish1–going round in a bowl and seeing their own distorted reflections–This is all very unpleasant and I apologise its the cold I guess–About the war–it doesn’t seem to be coming off–I wrote to Hooper in case 2–I had met a Hooper before and curiously enough in an art class–so I thought it might be the same–However we haven’t met–but he wrote a very nice letter and it appears that I am still on the reserve–and liable to recall–However I doubt if it will ever come to anything. Really a war would be a holiday–a vast relief compared to this life here and now–as for the Show–I cant say anything3 I can send off these next seven but with this cold–goodness knows how there can be any more–I’ll do what I can–but I’ve really got the wind up Christmas will be about zero hour the money you sent me will last till–then I dare say–if I stay that long–but when I get hung up like this & can only sit around and shiver and get nothing done–I get desperate You are always encouraging and kind in your letters–but only a very bright hope and belief could justify my going on like this–Right now my teeth are chattering–and this is only the beginning–To bank all on the chances of getting a job right off in Borneo–or stay on and hope–which is right–I dont know–I dont know which is right
So long Yrs IF
P.S–over
If you think there is any sort of chance of anything coming in around December please send a wire–be quite candid. The last boat goes end of this month–and if there is nothing doing it would be stupid I think to remain–but its so difficult to make a decision–without anything to go by–
P.S. I have just realised that a telegram is expensive–so if it is bad news dont send it–
P.S. In the paper today I see a French astronomer is predicting a very hard winter–
1 ‘John’ or ‘John Chinaman’ was a pejorative term for a Chinese man or Chinese people in general, thought to have been first used in the early nineteenth century by British sailors unwilling to learn how to pronounce the names of Chinese crew.
2 Justin Hooper (1898–1991), Staff Captain, Royal Field Artillery, who was stationed in Hong Kong until late 1936.
3 ‘Ian Fairweather’, Redfern Gallery, 9 January – 1 February 1936.
26. To Jim Ede
8 Hu Kuo Ssu–West City Pekin [7 November 1935]
Dear Ede
This is the 7 Nov. and it is a little warmer and I feeling somewhat ashamed of my outburst of a few days back–still it was bad–my head is fit to bust and every bone sore–Being warmer I crept out this afternoon from the small room I sleep in and found thrown in on the frozen floor of the studio your letter–saying two things have sold–so I’m warm now freezing or no freezing–Its wonderful of you–I dont know however you persuaded any body to pay so much for them–but my blessings–my thanks–its an incredible relief–This damned old Winter–I’ll make it much too hot for him to stay–I’ll get some mats now–I’m glad you like the boat1–it was an evening going through the Moluccas getting near to Davao–Just writing the names gives me a thrill–I’ve got a map of the islands up on the wall–well well–one day maybe–
I’ve no right to carp at this place–I’d like it more if I could find someone to talk to but I’m a ‘poor white’ here–and unsociable anyway–I’m glad to say the local Bishop has at last consented to regard me as having a mind somewhere–I borrow books from him–and he would give me trype–but I waded through it–what does it matter–I said Jeffrey Farnol gave me a pain in the neck–and he said maybe I didnt care for boxing–I’m amazed at an old bachelor still having so much of the feminine alive in him–There is a missionary with him–short of an arm which he lost in the war–he is a curious person–he has sent me a History of the Freedom of Thought2–on the fly leaf is written ‘Prof Burys horrible Book’ and the Bishop has sent a book on Abraham Lincoln–I don’t know why Lincoln should effect me so much but I feel quite miserable and delighted at the same time reading about him It is very unfortunate that the Americans here I have met–I haven’t liked–for I think Lincoln’s character still pervades America and it is damn fine–
About the smoking–no it is only cigarettes I’m always giving them up and then going back to them–I should like to try opium–and in Shanghai I collected all the materials–they were most interesting but I couldnt get the stuff–I got however the stuff you can eat and tried a dose but it had no effect–so I tried a double dose–and lay down with expectations–but after half an hour I felt I had been deceived again so I got up and went out–fortunately I didn’t go far–I had an attack of awful dizziness and was just able to stagger back and flop on my bed–and I lay and sweated most unpleasantly–It was like a very bad bilious attack–I’ve no wish to try it again–When I first came here–I discovered I could get a quart bottle of Chinese wine for 4 pence–I thought it was a great discovery–it is stronger than gin–they make it of Kaoliang–and inspite of its terrible taste–(its like a decoction of coke)–I was delighted that here at last was an amenity I could afford Its effect on me however was most distressing–it acts as a powerful purge–
Chinese food and medicines always intrigue me–I try anything new I can–I had great hopes at one time of ginseng–they set great store by it–but I never got any kick out of it at all–Donkeys skin I am told has valuable properties and pig’s liver is rich in vitamin D, and there is a green thing superior to spinach–Somebody is making a small fortune in Shanghai–with an ointment called Tiger Balm–derived from some Chinese medicine–I’m always hoping to swallow something really remarkable but it hasn’t occurred yet–
The Bali Scene in the Listener–has brought letters from two friends I had quite lost touch with–I’m glad–but who is this Mrs C Fairweather you mention–probably no connection but the impersonality of the C/o Lloyds Bank I find highly suggestive–I dont suppose you have kept her letter by any chance, the initial doesn’t fit in–
Well, its getting cold–must get into bed–I’m thanking you for a very pleasant evening. So long–
Yrs I Fairweather
1 Voyage to the Philippines (c. 1934), exhibited at the Redfern Gallery in 1936 as ‘Ship at Sea’.
2 J. B. Bury, A History of the Freedom of Thought (1914).
27. To Jim Ede
8 Hu Kuo Ssu–West City Peking. 15 Dec/35
Dear Ede Thank heaven your letter has arrived–I am down to 30$ (less than two £) and am feeling as nervy as a cat–I was thinking I would have to borrow from the Bishop and it has given me nightmares–The forecast of a cold winter is coming true here at any rate–25º below during the last days and never rising above freezing point–and this is not even the Little Cold–of the Chinese Calendar–which is only too reliable–The Little Cold is due at the end of the month–and the Great cold Jan 201–What that will be like I tremble to think–Yes they have very nice fur coats–and padded cotton wool ones which I look at enviously–I have got a pair of felt shoes and goats hair socks–they are a blessing–I didn’t get mats but have laid newspapers and cardboard on the floor–it doesn’t look very well and my servant shakes his head at it–he can no longer sweep and seems quite lost and distressed about it–I am rejoicing–for when he sweeps–I choke–I endured the Chinese stove till a few days ago–when despite of it–water which I had in the room froze–So I have a large foreign stove now and am really warm–About paintings I am very worried–I just cant make this date you have given me in Jan. I am committed now to five large things I have started–I have some small things–very few–but I feel it is useless to send them without these larger ones to back them up. For good or ill–I’ve got to finish these larger ones–and then send them all together–when I can–as soon as I can–believe me–I will. Cannot you persuade the Redfern to wait–or is it so important to have a show–anyway–Dont think I am not trying to send you things–I am half crazy trying to send you things–I was glad to hear about my brother–that is good news–I left home with some pretty hard feelings about most of the family and have lost touch with them all–but my brother James who called on you is a good scout–for goodness sake give him my address if he wants it–I’ll be delighted to hear from him 2–I’m so darn lonely here I dont think I have spoken English for 6 months–As for the property?–I mortgaged my share of it when I was still at the Slade3–and finished long since–and I think I was well advised–my mother is one who to my mind is most charming when she is most irresponsible–and she is mostly irresponsible–So there’ll be no property–that’s that.
About the Army–(it seems I must explain this at length to you–) I was in no régime–but in his Britannic Majestys Army at the outbreak of the World War–on the second day of the War–my regiment was surrounded and taken prisoners–en bloc–I was unwounded and a prisoner4–and I resigned after the armistice–what more evidence does Gossip require?–I resigned because my new colonel didnt like me–he had never seen me before but he didn’t like me–Why?–I dont know–I should have asked him–but I didn’t–I just resigned–I didn’t like the army anyway–and I didn’t know the world–not even my own family–There are mean people in the world and mean lies–they’ve had their toll of me God Knows–
Well well– Yrs
I Fairweather.
1 Little Cold (Xiao han) fell on 6 January and Great Cold (Da han) on 21 January 1936.
2 James Fairweather (1876–1941), the third child and eldest son in the family, had been District Superintendent of Police, Central Provinces, India, 1910–28. Ede had written to James Fairweather regarding his brother’s achievements and to enquire about financial assistance for him. James Fairweather replied (2 November 1935): ‘I am not of the opinion that members of our family are inclined to help him. They definitely did a very great deal for him before he abandoned them’.
3 The will of James Fairweather left the family property ‘Forest Hill’, Beaumont, Jersey, to his nine children in equal shares, but with lifetime enjoyment to his wife. However, the house was sold in 1920 for a settlement of £5,250 cash, with the shares distributed to the children.
4 Fairweather was Second Lieutenant, Land Forces, 1st Battalion, Cheshire Regiment. The extent of loss through death, serious injury and capture to the battalion following the Battle of Mons was described by the Commanding Captain: ‘on the morning of August 24th was 27 Officers and 934 Men. The strength on marching into Bivouac near the V of LES BAVAY at 9 pm on 24th inst was 6 Officers and 200 men.’
28. To William Frater
8 Hu Kuo Ssu–West City Peking [postmarked 2 February 1936]
Dear Frater–I was glad to get your letter and what you say about the picture in the Listener is news to me–I heard that Marsh had bought one thing–two boys and a duck? what this two women & a child could have been I cant think–anyway he was just a name to me I’m glad to hear he is such a nabob1–Life at the moment is much as you saw it–giving me a bad time–as in Melbourne–one consolation is, I wrote home on the strength of that Bali picture getting into the Tate–I thought this was something perhaps they’d like–so I wrote–and they’ve been really very nice about it–so thank God for the moment I am not at war with my ain folk2–that is a rotten state of affairs–Just at the moment things are a little trying–The temperature is around 30º below and you know how I dislike cold–Imagine to yourself a large white–washed room facing north and with a stone floor–and no mats and no stove–just stark bare–except for some half done things on the wall.–That is the studio–I cant afford a stove in it–(it would need a furnace) I live in the small bedroom adjoining–where I stand and warm the seat of my pants at the stove–and where I mix my colours and from which I run out and make a few dabs (at 30 below) and run back again Its awful–They told me some time ago that a show could be arranged if I’d send some things–So I’ve been working!–well it has been like those nightmares where a house is burning and one is trying to escape–but something is wrong with ones legs–they have gone into slow motion–one cant run away and the house is falling on top of one. In the middle of this they write to say the show is on!–with some old remnants that no one would buy–they wouldn’t wait for what I had here3–Damn! I feel punctured–Ive been trying to get 20 things done–thats quite a lot–and they are all complicated–and I cant do other wise here–this is a mediaeval city–(I’ve only changed my clothes once since September)–(I’ve not had a bath since the summer and this is February!)–this is a Breugel picture4–Crowds!–in strange padded garments–in fur hats–cooking and eating and living in the streets–There are no shop windows (except in the foreign end)–one walks through the window–into the family–(the in-laws, the cousins, the brothers–etc) and they are all hungry and one buys a doz eggs–and they are delighted–because they have cheated one of two cash–and one is delighted because a doz eggs cost 4 pence–so all is well–in the best of all possible worlds–I like shopping in Peking–But when oh when! are these 20 things to be done–It is turning my hair grey–
The worst cold is over–but really I think there is something in a dry atmosphere that kills colour. Everything I have done here has been with pains and labour–maybe it is the staring whitewashed walls–I hate a whitewashed wall–I like a wooden wall I’ve still got the map of the islands up on the wall and I’m going back there first chance I get–How is Young Roger getting on at the Slade?5–I wish him luck–oh dear! oh dear! one is getting so old–45–You know if this show is a success–I believe I’d almost like to make an attempt at being human–I’ve never met a dame who didn’t turn her nose up at art–(not a thing for a man but for a runt whose sex was perverted)–but will you believe it when you speak of these romantic dames I forget it is just another poor male’s imagination–I forget that mother nature is a chemical formula–Oh Schucks–
So long. Yrs I Fairweather
1 A painting captioned ‘Natives of Bali by Ian Fairweather’ [Mãra (1934)] was reproduced in Edward Marsh, ‘Patronage in Art Today – III’, Listener, 18 September 1935. Marsh (1872–1953) was a translator, civil servant and patron of the arts.
2 Likely an allusion to ‘My Ain Folk: A Ballad of Home’ (1904), a sentimental ‘Scottish’ song.
3 Paintings by Fairweather (Chinese and Philippines subjects), Redfern Gallery, 9 January – 1 February 1936. The exhibition received favourable reviews by Anthony Blunt, Spectator, 10 January, and Pierre Jeannerat, Daily Mail, 15 January.
4 Pieter Bruegel (c. 1525–69), Netherlandish painter.
5 Roger Paton James (1914–92), student at the Bell Shore School in Melbourne. James had purchased Fairweather’s Balinese Woman (1933) from the group of paintings offered to students following Fairweather’s visit in early 1934. He studied at the Slade School, 1935–37.
29. To Jim Ede
Dear Ede–I went to the bank today to draw the £10 which you had sent & for which many thanks–I got up with the firm intention of spending it on a ticket to Borneo–but again circumstances have intervened–There are still lumps of snow melting in the yard and the wind is very cold–but there is a feeling at last of spring in the air–I’m not at all well–its really been something of a nightmare this winter–I had to shave and wash my face to go to the bank it was almost like getting a new face Then they forgot to send round breakfast and I’m so sick of fried eggs that I just didn’t have any breakfast, and by that time it was too late to reach the bank before the lunch hour–so I was all dolled up and nothing to do but go round and look at the walls which by now are fairly well covered with miscarriages–maybe it was because I was all dressed up and washed for once–may be it was the Spring weather–maybe it was that I hadnt had any breakfast–but I began some extensive and constructive alterations and really did more in a few hours than I have done in months–so I haven’t bought the ticket to Borneo–but its robbed the Spring of half its gladness–I shall never like this place–my taste and smell have gone–choked with the dust–a month ago when I wrote you I was all ready to go–but the box didn’t turn up from Shanghai1–the Taku Bar 2 froze over so that no boats could get out and then your letter arrived saying that Hooper had slipped his moorings and might be coming here–I’m glad he hasn’t come I dont want to see anyone here–It seems there is nothing for it but just endure–the Spring is coming on–the £10 you are sending monthly should accumulate a surplus–and then one fine day3 if this is not another illusion I’ll be able to clear the walls and escape–this place is all walls within walls–there are bars on my windows–and dust–it is a prison–
I dont want to say anything about painting in this letter–but I do want to thank you for all you have done about the show–and I do hope that my letter asking for £50 hasn’t troubled you–Your other letter has come and I see you haven’t got it anyhow–so please do just as you think best–I was terribly anxious to go–but for the moment I’m resigned to stay–for a time–I had no idea that you would get things lent for the show I thought it would just be the things that hadn’t sold–so I was very happy–Most of the family seem to have seen it and they seem very pleased which is a good thing–I do hope Mrs Harris is also pleased about it. its not very much after so long–but still something I hope she’ll think4–and is Tonks still alive5–and did he see and approve of anything–I hope he did–I’m glad you met my neice–and liked her though I’m ashamed to say I dont know which neice Mrs Macnamara is6
I had a rather curious letter from someone I dont know at all–about the show–giving an address at St Magnus 2 Fernshaw Rd Earls Court I am rather curious because I had a friend once with whom I lost touch–who was a Roman Catholic and a friend is mentioned in this letter–and St Magnus sounds Roman Catholic–If it is a school or a convent or something they might put it in the directory7–It doesn’t matter at all–I shall be none the wiser but still if you have a directory will you tell me–I noticed one thing in the catalogue was labelled–Ceremonial Procession Pekin–The Pekin is wrong it was Bali8–and the one called Harbour Scene–I cant place at all–I think it must have been a wood yard near my door here–there are piles of bamboos sticking up on end they might be taken for masts9–Someone from Australia wrote that he had seen a reproduction of the two boys and duck–but he called it two women and a baby10–this is all very mystifying–So long
Yrs I Fairweather
1 Fairweather had left a box containing his ‘linen clothes’ in Shanghai.
2 The Port of Tanggu (Tianjin) in Northern China, referred to as the Taku Bar because of the sandbar at the mouth of the Haihe River.
3 Likely an allusion to Giacomo Puccini’s opera Madama Butterfly (1904) and its famous aria ‘Un bel di, vedremo’ (Act II).
4 Gertrude Harris, widow of Fairweather’s one-time patron Frederick Leverton Harris, who retained an ongoing interest in Fairweather as a painter.
5 Henry Tonks died the following year.
6 Olive Helga Macnamara, the second daughter of Fairweather’s eldest sister, Winifred McCormick.
7 The address was a block of residential flats, two of which were occupied at that time by artists: Gerald Brockhurst, a portrait painter, and Reginald Brill, a social-realist painter. Brill had trained at the Slade School under Tonks in 1921–23 and might have been the correspondent.
8 Procession in Bali (1933).
9 Houseyard, Peking (1935).
10 Mãra (1934).
30. To Rowland Alston
Dear Alston. I am writing this on board for something to do–There is a notice up ‘no pictures’ ‘no sketching’–I have heard so much of people getting gaoled for it and I’m so scared of anything going wrong–I’m not going to take any risks also I have no books to read–but even this simple diversion of writing to you arouses suspicion–they look over my shoulder–All right–I’m going to say what I think of them–
China was in characteristic mood when we left Tanku [Tanggu]–the last glimpse was of a row of mud coloured junks moored along a mud bank and all fading into clouds of yellow dust–the water even far out at sea was thick yellow with mud–it was two days before we were in clean air and clear water again. I’m travelling 3rd Class and having Japanese food. I think what I like best is the soup it is served in black papier machér bowls to keep it warm–Somehow they always contrive to make it look like artificially arranged pools or little water gardens–it is very attractive and the other food too is always pleasant to look at. When one considers that this is 3rd class and a standard of living supposedly lower than ours it is all a little surprising–After Peking one is struck by the westernization of many things even the expression on faces seems more familiar–less evasively celestial but it is interesting to note again how clearly the Philippine ancestry comes out in the features despite the Chinese admixture
I think I told you that in my humble opinion, there is hardly a Philipino who would be able to walk–down the Strand–without attracting the attention of Scotland Yard–there is quite naturally a criminal bias to the best of their features–they are also–accomplished thieves–some call it borrowing–they have the Spanish guitar and manner to the life–but the meaning escapes them–of course–and what they put in its place is something born in the dark forest recesses–Something that never should have seen the light–our gift to them of musical expression has tapped a subterranean cloaca–
Of the Japanese one must admit that if they have borrowed much–they have added to it much of their own–they have raised a fishwife economy to a style as elegant in its way as, say Louis XIV but it still remains a style of fishwifery–and I cant see that it can have much to give to the rest of us–we are due in to Moji [Kyūshū, Japan] early tomorrow and now I am filling in endless forms my fathers name–my mothers maiden name–and what the hell–but I am meekly doing it all–for fear of something going wrong–my margin in case of accidents is so terribly slim I’ll not breathe freely again till out of Moji–
May 4. We got into Moji about 7 am and things began to happen at once–The steward came and said here!! come! I didn’t like his tone so went on tying my bundle–another steward came to his assistance and both said ‘here! come!’–finally a ships officer arrived as red as a turkey and tried to seize me without saying anything at all–when I did arrive on parade I was feeling a little flustered myself–it was a medical inspection and the doctor took my hand and felt my pulse–but evidently didn’t feel anything wrong with it though I am sure at that moment it was distinctly out of order–
Now thank goodness the tumult of the morning landing is over–the ticket is obtained–the police satisfied and I am stretched at length in a padded kimono the landlady has lent me–on a padded mat and that on a padded floor–it is all very comfortable except that lying on one’s back and writing up in the air isnt the best way of writing but there is no furniture to sit or write on–I wont describe the room–it is exactly what one has read about and seen in Japanese prints–there was even the bath episode as retailed in all the travel books–the maid came in in the middle to ask if the water suited me–in this case there was not even a door–it was more or less part of a passage–but I enjoyed the bath–after being without one since last October there was no amount of modesty could come between my skin and that warm water
I’m afraid I’ve got to revise my estimate of the Japanese–I ve seen some really pretty girls today–I didnt believe there were any–and I think it is almost the ideal country for walks–the hills are so steep it is hard to believe they are so small–one covers what seem immense distances in no time at all–also the fields have a familiar look, after China fields–they have adopted many of our farm crops, I saw, for instance, fields of clover–and broad beans–and the American horses are familiar though it is odd to see them hauling around a dredge knee-deep in the mud of the ricefields–and they are ill-suited to it the peasants are made to keep them–I imagine to supply the army–I notice there are no rickshaws here now and that every worker wears gloves–even the horny-handed farmers. I wonder what kind of persuasion they must have needed to forgo their natural hornery–
The schoolchildren wear their hair in two plaits behind their ears and look quite German–The neatness cleanliness order of everything–the quaintness and the seriousness all remind one of Germany
Well well–I want to go quickly–I dont want to like this place–
2 am–The estimate is inadequate even for a day–I had put away this letter–and was hoping the day was done when about 20 youths entered the next room, opened my shoji and looked in upon me and proceeded to sit down to a meal with women and wine–the shoji are of paper–the night is far spent–all hope of sleep is gone–and at this moment my walls are shaking with lobster supper laughter–
The dawn has come but no sleep–the riot has subsided–but in place of it the wind has risen and the outside shutters which are of glass fit so badly that the whole house rattles like an old time bus on a rough road–The lads now snore on the floor–and I’m still lying awake listening to them and the rattling shoji
By the way lying on the floor is the best place from which to see a Japanese room–the design jumps out at one then–it is a room built for a child perhaps that accounts for their exceeding homeliness–they have all been spoilt children–but that is beside the point–the point is that the estimate must be revised and the Philipino proclivities put right on the top–I was so peeved in the morning that when the cheerful maid–servant clapped me on the back and pointed to her mouth meaning breakfast, I couldnt raise a smile–but went miserably down the stairs and sat among the cast off shoes and sandals at the foot–found mine put them dumbly on–and went out breakfastless–I got breakfast in the end by going to an eating shop and drawing a picture of a fish–it was cold fish–they seem to like everything cold except soup–the Chinese will eat nothing cold even bread I think they are right–cold fish is awful–The day has been overcast and it has rained–and I have only made one deduction–This carrying about of babies bound spread–eagle on the back–perhaps may cause the bandy legs–may institute the crab like carriage–
May 6. It was a dreary dawn–the lady on my right kept her lamp burning all night–it shone through my shoji so I had no sleep again–and every shoot and runnel was gushing rain water swishing & dripping–I lay and looked at the room and tried to take it in–the coverlet was silk in bands of brown and gold–in itself it was quite exquisite–but they were not content to leave it at that–someone had taken some wisps of bright green silk and knotted them in here and there–like a pinch of salt to heighten the flavour–and the texture–and there was not a thing in the room that hadn’t received a like degree of attention–nothing was left to chance it all had the precision of an apiary–with again the carefully arranged contrast the rough hewn log of the hibachi in the centre of the floor and the calculated abandon of the writing on the scroll–I was glad to be out of that room–
May 6. The rain has gone and the wind thank goodness and there is a fine sunset and I’m on board the Panama Maru1–bound I hope at last for Borneo–The 3rd class is a large open space between decks–with mats on the floor–there is one other white on board–an American–as yet we haven’t found anything to say I suspect him of being a missionary and there is unfortunately a fiend with a gramophone–he plays one piece over a dozen times–the latest from Tokio and sings with it as loud as he can This is the Philippine strain coming out on top again–what can it profit them that they live in sophisticated mousetraps–and then squeak away their souls–The Poop is loaded with flagons of acetic acid–for the rubber estate at Tawau [Saba, Malaysia]–and all day we have been loading cement for Hong Kong–There was a good British factory there–but I heard that dumping was killing it–judging by this ship load it must be quite dead now–
May 7. The Panama Maru has sailed at last–the American missionary turned out to be a Dutch chemist–we had a last few hectic moments on shore visiting Shinto temples and saké pubs and nearly missed the boat–however now in a perfect sunset we are sailing out among enchanted islands–to the strains of the Nth performance of Tokio’s latest,
May 8. Today we are about 200 miles–south from Japan, and past some kind of rubicon–because overnight all has changed–the sky–the air–the sea the cold north has gone out of them all–I’m into shorts and trying to get my legs decently brown again we have some passengers would interest you–4 swallows–going south in Spring? a blue heron–and a red robin–at least he is like a robin but a cool grey colour–with a very large head and a stripe over his eye, his red cravat is a smaller but a very bright crimson–also of course with the crew there is a monkey & parrot and also in the cooks galley a basket of squi[d]s–You would think they were not appetising–but these ones are ravishingly beautiful–they are a transparent jelly with spots of brilliant peacock and cobalt and drifting strands of opalescence, there are also vermillion ones and I believe they change their colour at will–Last there are two 1st class passengers–confined to a small upper boat deck without room to swing a cat. We the proletariat have the run of the ship from end to end
There are two children on board–both about 6–one is Chinese–the other Japanese–The Japanese child is in the 1st class–he rides a tricycle–and practices bayonet fighting I dont think he has any other occupation and he gets no joy from either–those he chases with a stick laugh and encourage him–but he doesn’t think it funny at all–one can see that really he hates it his mother stands behind him–however willing him–she is a college miss in glasses–The other day he invaded the 3rd class on his tricycle–he passed our deck quoits and pointed at them–she took them all and hung them on his handlebars–what he wants he must learn to take–The Dutch chemist who is a friendly soul spoke to him but was not answered–the mother smiled–
I first met the Chinese child playing chess with the chemist he is the king of our underworld the 3rd Class–his mother does not wear glasses–in short he is not an experiment in genetics–just a child
May 14. We have called at Keelung in Formosa–and are now in Hong Kong–the Dutch chemist has packed up and gone to try his luck ashore–we went around last night and Hong Kong was looking its best he was enthusiastic–he was also afraid of going to Sourabaya [Surabaya, Indonesisa] as the police are waiting for him there–He turns out to be quite a lad–he has a large scar over the back of his hand which he got in a duel with cigars–The police want him because he broke into a house in Sourabaya–saw a lady inside he took a fancy to–Yes quite a lad–and I took him for a missionary–I’m feeling very lonely now he’s gone. and these Japanese consume vast quantities of beer and I cant afford any–I’m not liking the trip just now
May 15–It ought to be rough here–the Yellow Sea but its calm–another change has come over everything–there is a sparkle in the water and in the air a feeling as of freshness after rain–this is the tropics at last and such a sunset there has been–yes this is home again.
May 17. Sight the first island–Talawan [Palawan, Philippines]–A turtle asleep on the sea near the ship all day passing islands and bright beaches–In the evening come to a gap and pass through from the Yellow Sea into the island world
May 20
We came into Tawau in N. Borneo yesterday evening–where I was due to land–from the first it looked bad dark clouds hung over the land and as we went up the bay, closed in on us–the bright beaches and islands were left behind–the sea was muddy–I felt terribly depressed–Arrived in port I tried to go ashore but was refused–unless I could produce £60 deposit I have spent the whole of today being shuttled back & forth between the Japanese on the ship and the British on land–wanted by neither–The British––consisting of one (public) school boy–won out in the end–by calling in the brown police and sending me under escort back to the ship–I had a perfectly lovely time between the two of them–the British referred to me as ‘that man’ and ‘who the hell’ the Japanese tried to find holes in my passport–said I should have a Jap visa–for visiting the islands–when I replied that N Borneo was part of the British Empire–they laughed and pointed to the ship the wharves the jetty the 500 Japanese residents on shore–and the one British schoolboy–I had to listen to jibes about English gentlemen etc–it was very bad and I was very helpless–having just £7 in my pocket The upshot is that I must stay on the ship–She is due to call round at several Java ports–and I’m going to do my darndest to get off there–I found a friendly Malay at the last moment to send a telegram for me so am hoping–it is a slender hope–to get the deposit for Java which is £30–in time–The schoolboy–as a punishment for my troubling him refused to let me send a telegram–Thank God we are out under a clear sky and in clean water again and Borneo is just a dirty smudge along the horizon–
May 21. Today we cross the line–and are in a stagnant sea–no more flying fish or laughing water but an oily calm with logs and rubbish floating–we have just passed another cape of this prodigious island–low hills coming down to no shore–unbroken jungle changing to mangrove swamps and bushes in the sea What is underneath it all–what rich earth must be there beneath the trees–boundless and uninhabited what a wealth–Looking at it all I cant help thinking the Japanese are right–it is only population and not a skeleton government that can take it and make it its own–against such a background what is a British schoolboy–with a brown sergeant and a file of lads in cock hats–not a row of beans
Tonight for some perverse and oriental reason–they have distinguished me from the other passengers by giving me a special dish for my supper–I find this so embarrassing. I have taken my bed on deck and am now camping beside the donkey engine–after weeks of sleeping on the floor with several Chinese families–babies and odd bachelors for bed fellows–it is quite a beatitude to lie beside the donkey engine and contemplate–its harsh and blackened lineaments–
The day is not over–a religious patriotic ceremony is to mark the crossing of the line–an altar with a cloth and cabalistic signs is set up in the 3rd Class–the captain & crew are in attendance–a priest? (the cook I believe) sits behind the altar–he intones a chant–he plays on a samisen2–for an hour and a half–sometimes with a guttural and sibilant enthusiasm but never with any humour–it is intensely solemn–this is what they have made of our genial neptune–a national socialist swastika–oh hell–
June 5 Since crossing the line two weary weeks have gone–I have been a prisoner either on the ship or onshore–at each port we have called a policeman has been sent aboard–to watch me or take me in custody–In Sourabaya–a telegram arrived to say money was in the bank for me–but they would not let me ashore to get it–I telephoned the Consul but he would do nothing to help–from there wearily along the Java coast to Semarang–to Cheribon [Cirebon]–and at last to Batavia [Jakarta, Indonesia]
There I was at first refused a landing–but the immigrant official happened to be interested in painting and on second thoughts let me land–For a moment hope revived and it seemed good to be alive again–I would take the train back to Sourabaya and from there to Bali again–friends–perhaps even my old house again But the hope was shortlived I had got my money and paid the landing fee–but I had still to get a permit to stay. For this I had to go to an office–in the office was a letter about me–my record–Turned out by the British from Borneo–sent on by the police as unwanted in Surabaya–in Semarang etc etc–No they would give me no permit, they would send me to Singapore they said–After that it all became a nightmare–a kaleidescope of officials in ducks [uniforms]–of consuls and trains–of sore feet and sweltering heat–of no clean linen–and of nights in a mosquito net in a windowless room–In the end I was allowed to buy a ticket back by the same boat to Hong Kong, I had to go back to Sourabaya by train it went at 6 am. and I was so afraid of missing it–I sat up all night–Till midnight in the cafés enormous Dutchmen sat swelled and motionless over beer–at 2 am–a single bar still shone on the wharf and throbbed a weary melody into the night–and a belated sailor man–clasping a small brown thing gyrated uncertainly and sleepily among the empty chairs then in the darkened streets–there was ‘kepie’ and ‘bami’3 to be had from an occasional street vendor–and from then till dawn–on the steps of a monument in the park I was delivered over to the ants and mosquitos–I have still some large lumps for souvenirs but I caught the train–There was much to see in Batavia–but I felt I was looking at it through bars–and the best thing I saw was actually in the jail–it was an Arab child–she might have strayed from a canvas by Leonardo–her face was as perfect as that and she was naked and as fair as a lily–her hair was curling gold–after these pussycat faces–I cant tell you what a revelation she was I dont know that she hasn’t sickened me of the whole East–well–well–I’m back on the Panama Maru–and Sourabaya left behind–Goodness Knows now to what or to where–
June 6–Just left Macassar [South Sulawesi], there wasn’t a policeman to stop me–but we were only in port 2 hours and I couldn’t make up my mind to jump for it it would have meant leaving all the painting gear behind and without that it would have been no Good–Still it was a sore temptation–Macassar is the real thing–the air is sparkling there are island schooners in the harbour–there are shells–and the people are the best I have seen yet–I bought a pair of shoes and they were cheap–everybody else seems to have bought parrots–we have at least 50 swinging in the rigging not to mention sundry monkeys tied to ropes ends–
Damn, I’m leaving the best thing I have seen yet–It is full moon–the line of coconuts and schooner sails go down on the horizon and the mountains rise higher & clearer as we go to sea–I just know Ive got to find some such place–If it’s the last thing I do.
June 10–We came into Tawau under the inevitable cloud–and I had no expectations whatever–I had telegraphed to someone to guarantee the landing fee for me–it had cost me nearly £2 but how can one ask a comparative stranger for £60 in telegraphic language4–I was sure he would not understand–When the D[istrict]. O[fficer]. came on bo[a]rd–I asked him with little hope if a telegram had come–And as I expected he said no–then as he was going down the gangplank–I said quite desperately I have $35 in cash–(it was a gross exageration) If I gave him that would he not let me land and catch the next boat to the Philippines–Surprisingly he said yes and not only that–but I might stay if I wished–150$ was all he required–Last time the poor mut had been so worried by the Japanese he had said 500$ by a mistake or something–Well I’m ashore in Tawau–after a month weary wandering and £20 the poorer–Thats something–
June 12–I have been exploring Tawau–the sun has been out at last and Tawau has almost smiled–even this crazy rabbit hutch on stilts in which I’m residing–this Chinese hotel–has taken on a blither aspect–like all the houses here its back premises are the most interesting they run out on piles far into the sea each owner building according to his pocket and his fancy–one goes out carrying a can of water over swaying bridges, copr platforms–boats fishing nets, washing, etc–and so one gets to the bathroom–You stand over a hole in the boarding and pour the can of water over yourself The inside of the hotel is pitch dark even in daytime–the noise of waves comes through the floor and one catches an occasional gleam of water through the boarding–Unfortunately my bed is of boarding like the rest–and that is a hard fact there’s no getting away with–
June 15–I have shocked my innkeeper today by going to the beach and bathing–To get there I had to cross a labyrinth of mangrove swamps–where I made the acquaintance of two crocodiles–one quite a large one–but I had no idea there were crocodiles in the sea and bathed in happy ignorance–and I have since made a rather shocking discovery–the eggs they sell in the shops here are not chicken eggs but crocodile eggs–so I shant be bathing again light heartedly–There are curiously very few mosquitos here but there are some large red ants that bite badly–they live in the trees and make hanging nests like wasp nests only they are of leaves stuck together with silk–this is so un ant-like it may be a mistake they may have been eating the wasp nests–I dont know–
June 17–The road here is 7 miles long–through coconut plantations along the shore–then it comes to a wall of jungle–and one can go about 4 miles further by a grass track–till one comes to where they are felling the trees–and there it ends–just where it enters the jungle there is a house–an empty house–and after many days negotiations I have been offered it for 5$ a month–Tawau has no shells the water is all mud and the sky lead–still 5$ a month and a house by itself and after these weary journeyings–its a great opportunity–I went to the D.O. and told him about it–he had a wretched Chinese clerk with him who whispered in his ear and he asked me to bring my passport–he’d never looked at it before–So I showed it him and it appears I have no visa for Borneo–though it is a British place–a visa is required because it is a chartered company and not a colony–So nothing can be done–the D.O. will get in hot water if I remain–the timber boat which goes to the Philippines is due in tomorrow and I must go willy nilly–I’m sorry–I was getting to like things here–mud and clouds notwithstanding–The people grow on one–they smile and say Tabé tuan5 when they meet one–I can speak a little of the language too–Its easy to learn–and its a British place–and so empty–so much room–I had plans of getting an axe and chopping down some of that jungle near the house–leaving the fine trees–carving out a landscape garden there–it would have been fun–I love an axe–Well hang it all–they must have it their own way I suppose–but they are crazy they let Japanese come and buy the place up and then are surprised to find that they have sold it to the Japanese Government–The Tawau rubber estate is one of the largest in the east I believe–it was sold originally to a Mr Somebody or other but turns out now that the real owner is the Mitsui Bank which is to say the Japanese Government–and so it goes–and we put up a flagpole–make a foo[t]ball field and an office for the D.O. and leave it at that–Its not surprising that the D.O. should feel worried–that he should feel himself and his pole somewhat inadequate–We bring a high standard of living but we dont share it–that is the trouble we are too darned exclusive–the Japanese come and open shops that are little oases of the comforts and amenities of life which the native can afford to buy–he can get a mattress and sleep as he has never slept before–the Chinese never think of that–and we–ignore it–and we are crazy–and they can give him a passage on their boats–not on deck or in some filthy steerage–but in a decently clean 3rd class cabin with good food and at a fifth of the price–If it hadn’t been for the Jap boats I could never have got anywhere–they’ve been a blessing to me–how much more so to the native–oh heck–the old timber boat is due to morrow and if they dont want me I dont want to stay either–hang em–
June 21–I am on board the timber boat the Baynain6–that doesn’t sound much–but it feels something like heaven–It didn’t call as expected at Tawau–but went to an island in Dutch Borneo to get cutch bark–I had to go to meet it in a native prahu–Some fool told me it would take 6 hours–so I brought no food It has taken 2 days and 2 prahus A prahu is a canoe–with a thatch roof over it of nepa leaves7–the thatch is too low to sit upright under–one must crawl in and lie on the bottom with some chickens–babies and ones luggage mostly on top of one–In the first prahu there was a man and his wife & family–They were not very alarming but I had been warned off the whole business of travelling in native boats–and especially at night and last night was very eerie–We had to anchor in a pass because of the tide–beside a desolate mangrove island–the night was dead still and the water–gleamed with phosphorus if one so much as touched it with a finger–one could see fishes like comets shooting about and one large jellyfish came beneath us like a moon–there were strange birds calling in the mangroves–and other prahus came by unseen but calling to each other with conch shells the boat was rocking easily in the tide–it was hard not to sleep but I lay wide-eyed.
This morning the elusive Baynain was again not where we had counted on and I had to get into another prahu and go in pursuit–She was far off on the horizon down a vista of flat mangrove islands–there was no wind and my prahu was manned by 3 husky blacks with red teeth and lips smeared as though with blood from betel chewing–they made only a pretence of paddling and we just stood still–the Baynain I was told was leaving at midday–it was soon past that–and I felt that my blacks were planning to get me in some lonely place for the night however towards evening a wind got up–and the tide was with us we had to go–but I didn’t dare watch the speck on the horizon for fear a wisp of smoke should go up and then–what then?–The wind held however and we made it–
It was with no ordinary joy that I stepped at last on to the gangway I found the Captain sitting in blue pyjamas having a shave–he not only said he could take me–he said I would have nothing to pay–as no passengers were allowed–on top of that I have had a bath–a meal with oysters–a cocktail and am now stretched on a spring mattress–the transition has been too much–this must be heaven and the Captain an angel–bless him–and after all we dont sail until tomorrow–
June 23–Borneo with its cloud has sunk beneath the horizon–the sea is clear again and the sky blue–The Captain is still in blue pyjamas his name is Del Pau–he is Spanish–become Philipino–or so I take it at any rate he has gone far to content me to the Philipinos–a more likeable person it would be hard to meet–he collects coral fishes–which he embalms in some way and hangs by threads in his cabin–and he is an epicure–we fare royally–but I find alas that I have grown so inured to meagre Chinese fare that I have to forego many tempting things–We have been passing islands ever since leaving Borneo–today we passed very close to Jolo [Island, Philippines]8–a place I had rather set my heart on but the Captain says it is quite true that the natives are very bad there and Europeans seldom venture outside the small town–unless with an escort or well-armed–that would be no use–but I am sorry to leave it behind it is a beautiful island–There is rather a nice book about called ‘Trade Winds’9–
Well tomorrow we are due into Zamboanga [Mindanao]–the place ‘where the monkeys have no tails–they were bitten off by whales’10–I shall be sorry to say goodbye to Captain Del Pau–
June 24–I am ashore in Zamboanga and not in prison–thanks again to Captain Del Pau–The Philipino Custom official when he heard that I was a painter and had no money was for turning me out again–and would have done so but for the Captain–I had hoped to find the usual Chinese hotel–but here for some reason there are none–and I have had to go to a place which is at present occupied by an American movie troop and pay 10/- a day–This has made me desperate–I have walked house-hunting–for 20 miles along the coast road–in a new pair of shoes–and have found nothing and blistered my feet badly–also my hopes of liking the Philipinos a little better have been badly damped–I was in my one and only suit of white–just washed and ironed–some women & children at the road side threw a whole lot of water over me–their idea of a jest–so much for my last vestige of respectability–When I got to the end of the 20 miles I had hoped to find a village–but there was none–only a prison–a model tropical prison–they call it–it has no walls but only bars like a birdcage–and can be seen through from end to end–The birds greeted me with shouts of Hello Jo–and Hey You fella you–So much for 20 miles–The 10/- room deserves mention–it is Philipino–there is no door but a chintz curtain–there are bric a brac cabinets with chintz curtains–a piano with plush curtain–palms and pot plants stand about on the polished floor and crowd the window–there are mirrors and statues and an acquarium–there is a homely wash stand in the centre with tin basin & iron pail there is a bed with boards for a mattress–so much for 10/-
June 27–Perhaps this long journey is finished at last–I’ve got a house–It is 25 miles out of Zamboanga–It is just a little box on legs with a tin roof and an earthen jar to catch the rain–But it stands by itself–It is some distance inland and stands on a small hill thick amongst young coconuts and banana plants–it has no view and is quite hidden by the leaves–I wasn’t at all impressed when I first saw it–but now after two days I am afraid of getting to like it too much–it seems too good to last–a policeman has been in today to see my paintings–apparently the movie Americans have been photographing naked girls in the park and he came in sniffing for immorality he would not believe I lived here alone and went away dissatisfied for I refused to show him my painting So goodness knows if I am to be left in peace to enjoy my bananas and this is such peace as I have never known–When night comes on and the crickets sing–a white cockerel comes to roost on the window ledge–and a little black dog sleeps on the doorstep then the fireflies come out among the palm leaves–andone is alone–It is all I came to look for–and there are shells–already I have some fine ones–So I’ll end this letter–and write at last an address hoping that I may hear from you–So long–Yrs I Fairweather
C/–British Consul
Zamboanga–
P.I.
Rowland Wright Alston (1897–1958). English-born curator, artist, drawing master and picture dealer. Wounded at the Somme, he was captured and held as a POW at the Ströhen camp in Germany, where he first met Ian Fairweather and where each contributed to the Morning Walk, a magazine produced by officer prisoners. After the war, Alston, like Fairweather, studied at the Slade School. For a short time they shared a studio at Swiss Cottage, near London. Alston was later Curator of the Watts Gallery in Surrey, dedicated to the memory of the Victorian painter George Frederic Watts.
_____________
1 Japanese merchant ship built 1910–11.
2 The samisen or shamisen is a three-stringed Japanese lute.
3 Possibly the sweet street snack kue ape, and bakmi goring, fried noodles.
4 Fairweather had sent a telegraph to Justin Hooper seeking funds, which were provided.
5 Malay for ‘Hello, sir’ or ‘Hello, mister’.
6 The SS Baynain linked Tawau with Sandakan, Lahad Datu, Semporna and Tungku.
7 Nipa palm.
8 A volcanic island on the southwest tip of the Zamboanga peninsula on Mindanao Island, now part of the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao.
9 Louis Kornitzer, Trade Winds (1933) includes an ‘Introduction to Jolo’.
10 From the song ‘The Monkeys Have no Tails in Zamboanga’, written c. 1898 and later adopted as the official regimental march of the 27th United States Infantry Regiment.
31. To Jim Ede
C of. British Consul Zamboanga [late Sept 1936]
Dear Ede– I’ve got seven things done at last and will be sending them off with this letter–Please if you have any doubts of any of them–dont show them–I leave that to you with pleasure–I should be much relieved if some of them weren’t shown–
I wrote to you soon after landing here and told you I had borrowed £40 from Hooper1–but I gave the letter to a Pino2 to post for me so as like as not it never went–so I repeat it here–as I forgot to mention it in my hurried scribble in the post office which I sent you last time I was in Z–If you can repay him I shall be much relieved–Will you let me know how things stand now–I have the £20 you sent to Sandakan–or rather that came through from there–That and what remains of the £40–should carry me with luck to about Christmas. Is there any thing beyond that remaining
I’ve got a bit mixed up–About this place I should like to say a lot it has been a great disappointment in some ways–no beaches to go walking on–literally not one single attraction outside of the house–I have come to never going out at all–but occasionally get some exercise–hewing a way through the jungle grass–which threatens to engulf the small goat track–my only means of egress to the highway–but the house thank heaven is a gem–it is real place I can hear their wretched guitars and trumpets of an evening–but a mile off–and I can smile–In Davao they were right under the house–Since I have come here it has never ceased to rain–for it is the rainy season and will last till January–Why this place should be afflicted with seasons and Davao only a few miles away, have none–is a mystery–also I cant understand why the sun at midday is due north–since this is north of the line it should be south–or so I thought–The rain which makes all going out a misery is however a blessing for without it my tin roof gets as hot as an oven–and worse my small earthenware pot for water–runs dry in three days The only other supply is the river over a mile off–where the Pinos do all their washing and the cattle bathe–The Pinos drink it–but I dont think I can face it–I have troubles enough just now–a leg has been in bandages for nearly two months–all from a few gnat bites I scratched too hard–nothing ever heals here–it is like Davao in that–If you hear of a good treatment for tropical sores you might let me know–they are a misery–when the dry season comes and the rain lets up–and one might get a little pleasure out of life–I am afraid I will have to move on again. I have heard there are no mosquitos in Jolo–and it is a grand place for shell–but if all accounts are true–I couldn’t live outside the town as I do here–and wandering about would be difficult–The Moros are many shades worse than the Pinos–and go in for running amok and just plain murder–I dont know if it would be really worth the candle–As a matter of fact I think all this part is too near that cauldron the China Sea–there is a storm here nearly every day–However if I do move I should like to keep Z as a headquarters–the Consul there is for once really a nice one–he is the Manager of the Chartered Bank and has opened an account for me though I really haven’t enough for a banking account, its the first time I’ve had an account since 1922–makes me feel almost respectable–must stop now–frightfully busy–
I forgot to tell you I have five pigs thrust upon me–have to feed them–boil 2 meals a day on a small oil stove also a dog–a lot of work–So long–
Yrs I Fairweather
1 Fairweather had cabled Justin Hooper from North Borneo: ‘In fix cable £40 Panama Maru Sourabaya’. Hooper had complied and in May wrote to Ede: ‘Personally I would do everything in my power, including cutting off supplies to induce him (Fairweather) to come home to England. He cannot possibly spend $50 a week in Peking and live in the squalor which we say. He must have other and less reputable forms of amusement’. While this may have been the case, it is well documented that when Fairweather had money he spent it on art supplies, which were expensive, and presumably also the freight of his paintings to London.
2 Pino or Pinoy, a term for a Filipino.
32. To William Frater
C of British Consul. Zamboanga [early October 1936]
Dear Frater– I was delighted to get your two letters waiting in Z for me today–otherwise I fear it has been a ghastly depressing day I went in with a bundle of pictures to send off–two of them I started a year ago–and cant tell you what misery they have cost me–they have been redone half a dozen times–and should have been scrapped of course–but I hadn’t the heart to part with some little bits in them–so the war has gone on–I’ve gone to bed a hundred times believing they were finished only to wake next day to find I was deceived–the fact is there is nothing in them but colour–and that is all a matter of mood and of the moment–I cant help it–I’ve just got to go that way–It costs me so much to get a little bit of colour. I value it more than anything else when I have got it and let the rest go by me but the rest it seems is what puts things over–There was a letter today to say the last lot–well–to say they were just duds–I know it–but I also know they are more me than anything I have done–and this lot I took in today are still more me1–I was just getting a little confidence that I was right–and now I just feel its all hooey again–and of course there will be no money–It is rather sad for things have been growing here marvelously–since I came there have been two litters of pigs–the poor beasts were bags of bones they have grown fat and multiplied I have bought corn and cooked and entirely taken over the feeding of them–the dog too has–had puppies–4 which all now have to be fed–there is a garden–where once was all jungle–I have made it myself with a bolo–the long slashing knife they use here and grub hoeing and weeding–hard work–but now I can see down from the windows–a park like slope–large trees and palms to a fringe of bamboo and the nepa swamp beyond–it is a lovely setting for a garden–last I have begun building a studio–the first I have ever had–I am making it of arched bamboo, some what like the Forth Bridge 2 or two bridges leaning together and the arches inter lacing–It is to be thatched with nepa leaves–But this letter has knocked all the stuff out of me–I’ve come back with a bottle of gin which I will share with the owner who has thrown up his job to come and live on me–I feed his darn animals and he thinks I’m so soft there is nothing I wont do for him–The son is a thief and a liar–the mother probably a whore–and with it all they are not bad people–they simply have no moral sense or rather they play a game with different rules from ours–but one cant be remembering that all the time–and it gets on ones nerves–for that alone I’ve been on the point of packing & making for Melbourne again–a hundred times–now with this bad news I’m good and ready–though Im as bitter as hell to give up all this–the peace–the studio–the moon light nights that have been so hard to get–also I’ve been working up a trade in shells–insects–small animals–few days go by without some one comes to the door with a specimen to sell–I’m getting known–Have written home hoping maybe to get a job–collecting things for the Museum–Have to give up hope of that too if I leave–but it looks all that way just now–So dont be surprised if I drop in on you one day–looking and feeling–done in–and please keep an eye open for some old loft I could use as a home & a studio or what about VarniKoro3–is there any hope of that–or anywhere–
Gosh I should enjoy some mutton for a change–and the dear old Cinema–all the old friends–I should enjoy it all–but Sundays in Collins St–Sunday is cruel–if you’re alone–
So long Good luck Yrs I Fairweather
P.S. The man who spoke about putting up a shack–tell him if he will supply the lumber–I’ll build the shack and make a good job of it too–This studio which I’ll never paint in is a really good bit of work though I says it & shouldn’t
1 Many of these works were exhibited in Fairweather’s solo exhibition at the Redfern Gallery, 7–30 January 1937, and are reproduced in Bail, Fairweather, pp. 19, 46–52.
2 A railway bridge, opened in 1890, spanning the Firth of Forth near Edinburgh in Scotland.
3 An island in the Santa Cruz group, Solomon Islands.
33. To Jim Ede
C of Army & Navy YMCA Manila1 May 3 [1937]
Dear Ede– I’m sorry I had to pester you today with a telegram about money–but I’m frightfully worried–the small reserve I was able to keep from the £40 from Hooper has slowly dwindled–in fact I’m living here beyond my income–I’m too darn miserable to economise–Just one more straw would make it unbearable–I cant say why it all is–I’m living as usual in a rookery of natives–and from dawn to dusk it is one unending babel of screeching infants–dogs–pigs–hens–and at night there is no sleep–I have to sit with my windows closed to keep out their eyes at least–and sweat–I’ve been sick–one thing after another–the finger has cost money and its a beastly mess–they took the bone out of it and it has never closed up properly 2 I can get no exercise–never go out at all I hate the place so much–and the people cant bear to sit in a bus with them–and what is really the bottom of it all I’m getting no work done–can simply do nothing right–four months since I came and not a thing done–so I’m getting panicky I cant help it
I think the only thing to do is to go back to Canada–I could at least have peace there–but it costs about £30–If I could only accumulate–about that as a reserve–I think I might not even want to go there–but this having nothing to fall back on makes for panic–The £10 a month sometimes doesn’t come till 3 weeks late–and now I cant tide over even that time–Till a month ago I still had enough to reach Thursday Is3–They require a £40 deposit there and I should have been arrested and shipped to Brisbane or somewhere but still there is always some hope in a white place–and I was actually packing to go when your letter from Tangier arrived I’m grateful to you for breaking into your holiday to send that–I know it would have done no good going there–but anything is better than staying here and getting no work done–and now I feel I just must go–I’ve been meaning to write to you for months but with no work done it seems hopeless to do anything–I feel this is a futile letter I can say nothing I want to–and dont know what I want anyway–I’m all gummed up–So long Yrs
I Fairweather
1 The Army and Navy YMCA was in the Sitio Grande Building on Calle Aduana, now Andrés Soriano Jr Avenue in Intramuros.
2 While Fairweather was building a studio in Zamboanga, the little finger on his right hand became septic. He was treated in hospital in Manila where the end bone was removed, leaving a stump. As a result of lead poisoning he became allergic to oil paints and so turned to gouache and experimented with other media.
3 A small island in the Torres Strait near the tip of Cape York Peninsula, Queensland, and an Australian territory.
34. To Jim Ede
C of Army & Navy YMCA Manila [September 1937]
Dear Ede– I telegraphed again to you to day–with much reluctance because it is expensive but more because I know it must be very annoying–and I want to apologise–but I’m in a hole–3 months to get an answer by letter is too long to wait–I didnt leave as I intended when the £30 turned up1–I began doing such very much better work that I couldn’t walk out in the middle of it–I was so rejoiced I am afraid I bought all the paints I wanted–regardless and they are terribly expensive here–So the £30 is now eaten up all but £10 and no money has turned up this month–I dont know if there is any money left or not or if it is that you think I have left and so are not sending any more here I’m hoping to heaven its the latter and am somewhat heartened by some of stuff I have here–so hence the telegram–it means there is some hope so want to go on if possible–but I cant afford to say it–so have said just plain ‘wolf ’ which now I come to think of it is very inadequate and misleading–but its gone–I’m sorry–and now I’m going out on the mole 2–to get a sun baking–I’m nursing pink back and sides to nutty brown–inspite of the rainy season I try to think the stony mole is not a mole–and that one of the boats that lie at anchor is mine–thats about all–there’s not much of a life except certain aspects which I wish but I find I am unable to talk about–Remember me to Alston if he has tea with you again–it will not please him to be reminded of me–but remind him just the same–
So long, Yrs I Fairweather
1 On 16 July Fairweather had acknowledged the arrival of the £30 and said he would stay in Manila as he was ‘beginning to see daylight slowly’. He would write again on 12 October to say he hadn’t economised and had only £1 left to live on.
2 The jetty and breakwater built to protect the harbour at the mouth of the Pasig River.
35. William Frater
C of Army & Navy YMCA Manila [postmarked 23 September 1937?]
Dear Frater– Your letter was very welcome–I haven’t had a letter from anyone for months–Its my own fault in part as I haven’t written–I’m finding it harder and harder to write letters–for some reason–also been rather discouraged–I used to write to an old acquaintance from Slade days–but his life as curator of the Watts Collection is so much embittered by the widow Watts1–and in such contrast to mine that my letters only irritate him–a description I sent him of the journey from Peking to Zamboanga–exasperated him so much our correspondence had to cease–other correspondents have dropped off too–and now I think you are the only one left–I’ve been meaning to write to you ever since coming here in Dec. last–but thrown it away unfinished Ive also been on the point of taking the boat to Australia–at least a dozen times–but just haven’t–The last time was a month ago–I really felt that everything was up and wired for some money–In the nine months I had been here I hadn’t done one picture and was feeling I never would–However as usual when things were past hope–I began some good work–the best I think I have done yet I have it here–and it is some relief but the wire finished all the money I had–and now it has stopped coming–and I dont know if there is any more to come–so now my chance of getting to Australia has gone and I just have to sit down and wait for the wolf–or whatever it is that is coming–I’m finding it very trying Before as you know I used to go blindly on and think about it afterwards–now I sit whole days and cant put a touch on anything–waiting to see how to do it first Its often more of a trial of patience than I can bear–and my nerves are mostly on edge most of the time–Fortunately life here is a little more bearable recently I had to give up Zamboanga and the studio because I got a poisoned finger–I had to go into hospital here with it and have the end bone taken out–its the little finger of the right hand–and whats left of the little finger is an ugly stump–after that my health went all wrong and only in the last month has improved I live over a Chinamans shop–and it has taken 9 months of war to get him used to my being there2–There is nothing here to see–but the backyards–but that is a lot–there are good movies which keep me sane–and I have a boy who is quite useless as a servant but he brings a breath of youth even of romance into my otherwise empty life–and I say this without shame for I think it better to love even pervertedly than emptyness–and I fear these years of China have made Europeans physically a little repulsive to me–these people are so healthy and so natural–hey ho3–I shall never be happy away from them–
About the picture–I would send one if there was a chance of selling it–but I haven’t one to spare unless there is a good chance of that–maybe I will have one–but till now I’ve had to send everything possible home and its not enough then–The last show you speak of–I was very ashamed about–some things sold it is true but they were very bad4–Thank heaven there are some better things now–but here they are as useless as white elephants–I’m hoping to somehow survive until they are home If not perhaps the Consul will ship me and them to Melbourne–I’m thanking you for being able to have that one last hope–So long–
Yrs Ian
1 Mary Fraser Tytler, symbolist craftswoman, designer and social reformer, the second wife of George Frederic Watts. She had commissioned and maintained the Watts Gallery to celebrate her husband’s work.
2 Likely in or near Binondo, a historic settlement created for Chinese immigrants not far from the port.
3 Possibly a reference to Feste’s song ‘When that I was and a little tiny boy (With hey, ho, the wind and the rain)’ in Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night. Variations on ‘hey, ho’ recur throughout Fairweather’s letters.
4 ‘Recent Paintings by Ian Fairweather’ at the Redfern Gallery, 7–30 January 1937, attracted numerous but generally reserved reviews.
36. To William Frater
C of Army & Navy YMCA. Manila [postmarked January 1938]
Dear Frater– I dont–know where to begin to thank you for this £301–It has arrived at such a moment–that I am still with my mouth a little open I can hardly believe it–There just wasn’t another thing It began about 5 months ago–I got a letter from the man who looks after the London end–that another picture had sold and there was £30–coming but it has never come–I’ve waited and waited–money getting less and less–till a few weeks ago I had to go to the Consul–He couldn’t advance it–and spoke of shipping me back to England–he telegraphed the London man for me–but he’s gone to America–so no answer–I was just about finished for money–I hadn’t eaten for two days–and then of course it had got to happen–I heard sirens blowing as I came miserably homeward–and sure enough–it was my house that was burnt–I’d left a cigarette on the bed–actually it hadn’t done much damage–nothing else was burnt and the mattress was soon put out–but when I got there the place looked as though a tornado had struck it–door torn off and smashed to matchwood–not a thing left standing inside–pictures torn off the walls and stamped on–never seen such a mess it was the neighbours–they dont like me I guess and this was a grand opportunity to wreck the joint–and they’d all gone to town–well I’ve picked up what remains of a years work off the floor–it looks pretty silly–I put it in the Y[MCA] for safety–and I’ve stayed on here without a bed and without a door–The neighbours didn’t want me to do that–they think I’m dangerous–I had an oil stove fall over about 6 months ago–think I’m a fire bug but couldn’t go anywhere–anyway. So well then I thought I’d telegraph you–and the Consul lent me enough from the benevolent fund–and I saved something and got a meal–but Monday came and went and Tuesday and still no reply–so I gave up hope and tried the very last thing a wire to my brother in Canada–and of course all this time I’d been haunting the waterside–shipping offices–Salvation armies–there wasn’t a thing–This morning was the deadline–I’m away below sixpence–and so empty–well just about a week of emptyness–and my brother replied–no can do–So there wasn’t another thing–I just called at the Y. on the way back–and out–for I just intended going on walking and there was the notice from the bank–I could hardly believe my eyes2–Oh Jimminy by Gosh3–Well I’ve been having a meal–and the door is getting fixed up now–and I’ve made another beginning with something on the wall–Theres a boat at the end of the month–but whether to take it and go to Australia–or whether to start all over and try to paint something–I guess that is what I’ll try to do anyway I’d only arrive with nothing as things are But somehow–I must try and get–just some kind of economic security–You used to laugh at that–but these last years have been a nightmare–and these last weeks–What I still am sure would be a solution for me is to get a small place on Thursday Is. or on the coast near–have a boat–the sea is marvellously rich there one can keep body and soul together in hard times–its something to know one can fall back on. But oh well–just now got to start painting like hell–when this friend of mine returns–he is away lecturing in America–I’ll get that £30 out of him4–but I owe you more than that–I owe you my life–Just that
So long Yrs I Fairweather
1 On 29 December 1937 Fairweather sent Frater a telegram: ‘Please wire thirty pounds can repay. Fairweather’.
2 On 4 January 1938 Frater and Lina Bryans had sent £30 by telegraphic transfer to Fairweather at the Army and Navy YMCA.
3 From the song ‘Oh By Jingo!’ (1919) by Albert Von Tilzer and Lew Brown, and featuring in the Broadway hit Linger Longer Letty.
4 Fairweather wrote to Ede on 3 January to say no money had come since the £30 he had wired for, ‘excepting £7 and some odd shillings which arrived Nov 8’.
37. To Jim Ede
C of British Consul Manila–April 10 [1938]
Dear Ede–Got your letter–of March 6. This is what has come through here to date–
July 13. £30–by wire–also a letter in which you say my balance is £50 odd–
Nov 8 £8–some odd shillings
Feb 5 £9–19–0
Mar 22 £8–15–0
You advise me to send direct to Redfern–only time I saw Nan Kivell1 he told me he didn’t want my stuff and was only taking it–to please you and Mrs Harris–I never knew you were–going to send my stuff to him in the first place–one can shut ones eyes–but there are some things one cant do with them open–and one can hold ones nose–but it cramps one’s style–My mother heard from my brother that I was broke and sent me £30–and a letter in which she says–I should go live with my brother–(who lives on his wife) and she says–‘My dear what is a Cinema compared to a healthy honest life’–well I’ve had to take that £30 but its given me such a belly ache–I feel I cant take any more of this stuff–Isn’t there some way out. I know no one I’ve lived like a hermit–I cant help myself–I can only go to Australia and get a job as a labourer–if I’m lucky–Cant I send my things to New York can you give me the name of just one gallery–If I sold nothing I could take it better than this stink. So long
Yrs I Fairweather
1 Rex Nan Kivell, New Zealand-born director of the Redfern Gallery.
38. To William Frater
C of British Consul–Manila May 8 [postmarked 9 May 1938]
Dear Frater– Your letter arrived some time back and I’ve been meaning to answer but just cant make up my mind–Three times I’ve been on the point of jumping on the Japanese boat which goes from here every month–and taking it to Brisbane. The idea being to go north from there to Cairns or as near back to the islands as I can get and just pray that someone will give me a job cutting wood or something till this storm blows over–but after all why should they–and anyhow its a counsel of despair–So I just go on putting it off. Thank heaven I’ve really been making some progress with these things at last. It really has been a trial to live for more than a year in a house full of maybes and almosts–but not one quite–Its got so bad that I now go on painting the damn things in my sleep–probably having no mattress is the reason–I’m so tough now I sleep on the bare boards and like it–and if I do dream of painting–its not such a bad way of dreaming–But I am worried what to do with them when they are done–and what to do with myself–I’ve been thinking I’might send you the pictures and you could keep what you like of them and send the rest on somewhere But the trouble is–there isn’t the time I doubt with the best will in the world I can keep going long enough for something to sell and keep the pot boiling–There is just a chance that the Redfern might give me credit if I could send them a batch of things now–but I once asked them for credit before and got my ears pinned back–I loathe the idea of asking them for anything after that Moreover these things have cost me so much to do–I sort of felt that no amount of money could make up the half of what they’ve cost to paint So what the hell–I’d like to try a new market all together–but more than that I’d like to try and get off this knife edge–somehow–anyhow I know you think that is not in the game–I dare say you are right but the flesh cries out–damn it all–Just to be able to relax–to think two months ahead–any kind of job–you know I just dont believe that the future of art is with the lonely abnormal individual I think its in the direction of Walt Disney–it is something many can work at and many can appreciate This working out on a limb–it doesn’t make sense–anyway I sort of feel I cant go on–Ive been wearied for years–I want to knock at somebodys door–but which and where?–can you give me a hint.
So long, Yrs
P.S. this sounds rather personal but I guess you are Scotch enough to guess I am Scotch enough–not to be that Sasenach1–
1 Sassenach originally referred to non-Gaelic speaking Scottish lowlanders and was later used as derogatory term for the English or Saxons.
39. To William Frater
C of British Consul Manila[postmarked 24 June 1938]
Dear Frater. Herewith are 3 receipts for a roll of pictures–leaving here July 4 by Nankin1–not sure when due in Melbourne but Gibbs Bright & Co are the agents in Melbourne–to whom these receipts are to go–and they will let you know when she arrives–Please ask them to be very careful opening them as some are very fragile–they will be all right when stuck on a support but just now tear very easily–This is in the nature of an experiment Let’s hope it comes off–There are 6 paintings (4 small–2 large) they are all landscapes so I fear you wont like them very much but they are all I have here at the moment and I just had to send them willy nilly because I have just got in another jam I have been counting on some money coming from a brother but he now writes he cant send it–so something had to be done quickly–Your letter came at about the same time so I’m doing as you say–I dont think you had better count these in payment of the £30 loan–I will try to send more for that–these are just to raise some cash if possible–in a hurry to keep the ball rolling–so if you can collect anything on them–no matter what–please wire it to the Consul the margin is so small that every day counts–So long Yrs
I Fairweather
P.S.
I was in such a hurry to get these things off that I quite forgot to mention the names of them–The largest is Nantao Shanghai–the next large is The tea gardens at Hangchow–The blue small one, is the moat at Peking–The one that is patched all over the back and has paint about an inch thick is Lin Ying Village–The one with the trees and a pagoda is Pa ta chu–(near Peking) The remaining one is a corner of the wall Peking 2–
1 Parcel receipt for goods received from ‘Smith, Bell & Co., Ltd’, dated Manila 25 June 1938, for ‘1 Bundle of Paintings’, addressed to ‘W. Frater’ care of Yencken & Co. Melbourne, to be forwarded per ‘S.S Nankin’.
2 Ling Yin Village and Pa Ta Ch’u (both 1938) were bought by Lina Bryans, but Nantao Shanghai, Tea Gardens at Hangchow, Moat at Peking and Corner Wall, Peking were later returned to Fairweather in Sandgate and subsequently destroyed.
40. To William Frater
C of British Consul Manila[2 July 1938]
Dear Frater–Thank heaven–there are four more things to send you I nearly had a fit trying to get them off this morning–it is Saturday but–it just couldn’t be done–However I’ll pack them up tomorrow and Monday the boat comes and goes–Unfortunately Monday is the 4th July–so the office will be closed probably–however will try–The landscape with hills is somewhere around Hangchow–The boats are in the Soochow creek at Shanghai–(so were the others I sent called Nantao but these are more like the view from my window on Soochow creek.) The beach is at Manicaan–The remaining one is the Lotus Pond1 I hope you will like some of them anyway–if it is possibly possible–try to send some money before beginning August I dont think I can make it longer than that–and though I have written home for money I have little hope of getting any these things are the one hope–Just to get a breathing spell–after that one can try to plan something–obviously must get out of here somehow–but that later–So long, Yrs
I Fairweather
P.S. Have just had such a nice letter from London have more or less forgiven them If you dont see a bright prospect of selling these at once in Australia–dont frame them up–they can be shipped on home–they tell me some people are waiting there
1 Near Hangchow, Boats at Soochow Creek and Beach at Manicahan (all 1938) were later bought by Lina Bryans; Lotus Pond was among the paintings returned to Fairweather in Sandgate and subsequently destroyed.
41. To Jim Ede
Dear Ede– The ticket is bought–and I’m all packed up to go–to Australia–if they will let me land–It is pretty awful to think that the chances are they wont–that they will say I’m a bum and likely to become a charge on the public and shut the door on me–but the chances are they will–Ive grown used to expecting it–and this time my clothes are going to look like that–I could buy some better ones–the people in Australia have wired me £50 for some things I sent there–bless them–that is cooperation1–so I could get a shirt or two but some how when I get in front of a shop window–with clothes in it–I feel be damned to them–this frightful waste of money on appearances–In America millions are spent on silk stockings annually–and the more we spend the worse we really look–the contrast with the simplicity and the real taste of these people–is terrible–I want to get out of here–or I will lose faith in the white man–I’ve already begun to think he is ugly–and that’s bad, I think it comes a bit hard–if one believes that art is something–to consider that nearly every artistic nation is lined up against the democracies–But none the less–I’m feeling the first twinge of homesickness since I left–I want to hear English again and to smoke an English cigarette–as a matter of fact–I suppose–I belong to pre-war days–I still rather value prestige–and the white man hasn’t got any left in these parts–especially the Englishman–It is one thing to be poor and get pushed around by one’s own folk but its something else to get pushed around by Japanese–No–I’m glad to get out of here. And I like to think they need white people in Australia–though they dont seem to think so–If your letter had arrived a few days sooner I might have stayed–I had some things done–but I sent them to Australia–they sent a wire for £50 by return–Whereas–I air mailed the Redfern please to send an account–I’ve no idea what has happened these last two years–Well–they just haven’t troubled to answer which–for all you say and nevertheless is just what I expected–I dont know what to do–I dont think Australia has the money to keep me alive–but at least I do know they wish me well–(that is excepting the emigration clerks)
In these last things I have done–or nearly–for they are not yet done–I’ve rather put my heart on my sleeve–and well I’m just not going to hand them over–to foreign hands–to dealers–Sometimes in this life a fellow needs a pal–and here is where I have to pay for being a hermit Well one is as one is–I think you have far too many labels in your gallery–For heavens sake dont stick any more on me–but please write to me if I send you another address–If If–
Yrs I.F.
1 On 27 July 1938 Frater had sent Fairweather £50 by telegraphic transfer to the Army and Navy YMCA, Manila, indicating the funds had been provided by Frater and Bryans.
