Christian Waller

Portrait of Christian Waller by Jack Cato

Christian Marjory Emily Carlyle (Yandell) Waller (2 August 1894 - 25 May 1954) was an Australian painter, writer, printmaker, illustrator, book designer, woodcutter, and stained-glass artist.

Waller signed and exhibited her work under her maiden name (Yandell) until 1930, but thereafter used her married name (Waller).

Early career

In 1905 Yandell studied painting at Castlemaine School of Mines. In 1909, her painting, A Petition (a Greek scene in the manner of Alma-Tadema featuring her sister Florence), hung in the Bendigo Art Gallery and was shown at the local Masonic Hall.

In 1910 Yandell moved to Melbourne where she studied at Melbourne National Gallery Schools (now: National Gallery of Victoria Art School). While there she won several student prizes and exhibited with the Victorian Artists Society (1913–22). Yandell illustrated publications, such as Melba's Gift Book of Australian Art and Literature (1915).

During the 1920s, Yandell became a leading book illustrator, winning acclaim as the first Australian artist to illustrate Alice in Wonderland (1924). "Yandell’s drawings are an eclectic mix, ranging from depictions of the iconic Mad Hatter’s Tea Party through to densely drawn processional scenes and simple sketches of Wonderland’s inhabitants. These reveal her to be strong in landscape, design, and the depiction of animals, but less so the human form, though we know from extant pencil sketches that her life drawing was sound."

Artistic works

Christian Waller, with a hand-printed book, 1932

Amongst interwar Australian printmakers Waller is regarded for her strong Symbolist compositions relating to the Vienna Seccession to which she was exposed through her teacher Bernard Hall at the National Gallery School. A major influence and theme across all the media in which she worked was Theosophy, which had adherents amongst a number of other Australian artists, though not a member of the Society.

Although her work was mostly in linocut, with black and white linework, the complexity of her designs often exceeded that of her contemporaries in works like The Great Breath. She worked closely with Geelong based Henry Tatlock Miller and his Golden Arrow Press, to produce limited edition books, although Hendrik Kohlenberg suggests that Waller undertook most of the physical production of the book in her Fairy Hills studio and only a fraction of the planned 150 book edition for The Great Breath was ever completed.

Another similar production of equal rarity is The Gates of Dawn. "Her print work is characterised by a complex symbolism, combining ancient classical and literary subjects alongside occult motifs in a dynamic style owing much to the bold geometry of Art Deco and the handmade ethos of the Arts and Crafts movement."

Stained Glass

Beside her graphic works, Waller was a leading stained-glass maker in Australia of the twentieth century. Travelling to London in 1929 she investigated the manufacture of stained glass at the studio of Veronica and Christopher Whall. From 1927 to 1953 she produced more than one hundred individual stained-glass panels. In this medium she was innovative, employing radical techniques unknown in Australia at the time.  Doing almost all the work herself, while at the same time assisting her husband Napier Waller with his mosaics, she competed with the commercial stained glass companies Brooks, Robinson and E. L. Yencken & Co for whom artists Jock Frater, Arnold Shore and Alan Sumner worked.

Art historian Caroline Miley notes:

"Her windows, mainly ecclesiastical commissions, are notable for the originality of their concepts, the beauty of their colouration and delicacy of painting. They combine subtle and varied symbolism with a strong personal element which gives them a drawing power beyond the usual."

Works

1927

• St Jude's Anglican Church, Alphington (deconsecrated; window in storage): The Light of the World; Suffer Little Children

1928

• University of Melbourne: Stevens window (collabooation with Stevens window in collaboration with Napier Waller (destroyed)

1929

• Chapel Of The Holy Innocents, Anglican Children's Home, Middle Brighton: Angel faces (destroyed)

1930

• St John's Anglican Church, Camberwell (destroyed): The Apotheosis of David; David as Shepherd, as King and as Builder
• St Matthew's Anglican Church, East Geelong: The Presentation in the Temple; Suffer Little Children; Christ with Angels
• Canterbury Uniting Church, Canterbury: The Miracle of the Loaves and Fishes; Suffer Little Children
• Autonomous Panel: Angus Og & Caer Ormaith

1931

• All Saints Anglican Church, Canowindra, NSW: St Mary Magdalene
• Shelford Presbyterian Church, Shelford: St Andrew and St Nicholas
• Chapel Of All Saints, Geelong Grammar School, Corio: Thomas Arnold and William of Wykeham (collaboration with Napier Waller)
• St Paul's Anglican Church, Canterbury: Christ the King of All Nations

1934

• Queen's College Chapel, University of Melbourne, Parkville: The Song of St Francis
• St Giles' Uniting Church, Murrumbeena: St Giles
• St Paul's Anglican Church, Frankston: Richard de Wiche; Richard Bishop of Chichester; Saint Richard; Christ the King
• St Ambrose's Anglican Church, Gilgandra, NSW: I am the Resurrection; I am the Good Shepherd

1935

• St Peter's Anglican Church, Brighton Beach: St Cecelia; St Peter
• Wilson Hall, University Of Melbourne: Leckie window (collaboration with Napier Waller)
• St James' Old Cathedral, West Melbourne: St Hilda
• St Matthew's Anglican Church, Prahran: Penitence; Pardon; Peace
• St Matthew's Anglican Church, East Geelong, Victoria: St Joseph of Arimathea and Entombment of Christ

1936

• Canterbury Uniting Church, Canterbury (formerly Canterbury Methodist Church): The Incarnation
• Toorak Uniting Church, Toorak: If I Take the Wings of the Morning
• Littlejohn Memorial Chapel, Scotch College, Hawthorn: St Peter's Sermon on the Morning of Pentecost
• Chapel Of All Saints, Geelong Grammar School, Corio: The Light Shineth in Darkness
• All Saints Anglican Church, Bendigo (deconsecrated): Isaiah; St Peter; Sundar Singh (collaboration with Napier Waller)

1937

• St Barnabas' Anglican Church, West Wyalong: Angels; The Nativity; The Presentation in the Temple; The Temptation of Jesus; Jesus Heals the Sick
• St James' Old Cathedral, West Melbourne: Bishop Broughton

Personal life

In 1915 Christian Yandell married a fellow artist, the muralist Napier Waller. She went to New York in 1939 and joined a commune where she completed several murals and became a follower of the African American philosopher and mystic Father Divine highlighting her longstanding interest in mysticism and the occult. "In 1940 she returned to the home she shared with her husband at Ivanhoe, Melbourne. She immersed herself in her work and became increasingly reclusive. In 1942 she painted a large mural for Christ Church, Geelong; by 1948 she had completed more than fifty stained-glass windows." These windows also show the strongly decorative modernist stylisation seen in her printmaking.

Waller took care of her niece Klytie Pate from about 1925, when Pate's father remarried and sent his daughter to live with her aunt. Both Christian and Napier Waller encouraged Pate's talents and she became a significant Australian potter, who shared the strong decorative, art deco approach of her aunt and mentor. In 2018 the Bendigo Art Gallery held a joint retrospective for both Waller and Pate in an exhibition Daughters of the Sun.

Collections

• The Bendigo Art Gallery holds her self-portrait (1915).
• Napier Waller's portrait (1932) of his wife is held by the National Gallery of Australia, Canberra.
• Castlemaine Art Museum holds 11 works