Dame Nellie Melba GBE (1861–1931), world-renowned soprano, studied under Pietro Cecchi in Melbourne and Mathilde Marchesi in Paris. On Marchesi's advice, she adopted the name Melba, which she derived from her native city Melbourne. After making her début in Brussels at the age of 26, she appeared regularly at Covent Garden, where she maintained a private dressing room and gave her final performance in 1926. Over the same period, mobbed everywhere by fans and enjoying the attention of many lovers, she made sensational tours of the USA and Europe. She was partly resident in Australia from 1909 onwards, and sang the National Anthem at the opening of Parliament House, Canberra in May 1927.
Artist Hugh Ramsay sailed to Europe in 1900. For fifteen months he painted and partied in a cold, grimy Paris studio, achieving critical success at the Salon. In London, he enjoyed the patronage of Nellie Melba. When he fell ill, she funded his return to Melbourne, where he was to produce more than 20 full-length portraits before dying of consumption at the age of 28. Ramsay completed this sketch of Melba in half an hour on their first meeting in his Paris studio. He said he was 'a bit flabbergasted and too nervous to do a chef d'oeuvre'.
Gift of the Mitchell Family and the Fullerton Family 2000
Jennifer Sutherland (1 portrait)
On one level The Companion talks about the most famous and frontline Australians, but on another it tells us about ourselves.
Inga Walton on the brief but brilliant life of Hugh Ramsay.
1 August 2014
A question lately cropped up in connection with Madame Melba as to whether fame and celebrity are not essentially the same thing. My feeling is that they are different.
