Horace Keats (1895–1945), pianist, conductor and composer, came to Australia from England in 1915 as a vaudevillian’s accompanist. Staying in the country to accompany Peter Dawson, amongst others, between 1917 and 1923 he was orchestral pianist and conductor for Count Filippini’s operas and performed in the restaurant of Farmers department store. Soon after, he became involved in the formation of the ABC. During the 1920s he and his wife, soprano Janet le Brun Brown (performing as Barbara Russell) began their long broadcasting careers; except for a short stint with the BBC, Keats was associated with the ABC until he died. From 1933 he composed earnestly, writing more than 120 pieces; his wife was the principal performer of his songs. In the mid–1930s he began setting the work of Australian poets to music, soon commencing an ambitious song cycle of the poems of Christopher Brennan (1870–1932). Janet and Horace are depicted in performance, with the spectral figure of Brennan attending closely. Horace Keats died before the painting was completed. Words from Brennan’s poem ‘I am shut out of mine own heart’ – the last song the couple ever performed together – drift across it.
Gift of Anne and Brennan Keats 2009
© Estate of Dora Toovey
The title of the portrait is: Mr and Mrs Horace Keats in the "Christopher Brennan Cycle". It was painted by Dora Toovey in 1945 in oil on canvas. It measures about 1.5 m tall by 1.2 m wide in its frame. The frame is wide with an antique gold finish, an ornate abstract pattern of leaves or flowers embossed on its surface.
The portrait depicts three figures in a veil of mist. Soft swirling paint strokes surround, and ghostly musical notation drifts across the soprano Janet le Brun Brown, her recently deceased husband, pianist and conductor Horace Keats, and poet, Christopher Brennan, who died over 10 years before the portrait’s creation. The background of the painting is in deep green-browns on the left, blending to misty pinks and browns at the top right. Janet le Brun Brown stands front on, in the left foreground. Her dark hair, parted in the centre, is drawn back behind her neck. She has fair skin and an oval face. Janet has fine curving eyebrows and dark eyes that gaze slightly to her left. She has a long straight nose and a small mouth. Her lips, painted deep red, are closed. She wears a loose, moss-green dress, belted at the waist with a strip of the same fabric. Her sleeves are long, held in place with thumb loops.
Janet raises her left hand lightly to her chest, letting it rest over her heart. A simple band of gold gleams on her ring finger. Her right hand is lowered, holding sheet music.
Horace Keats is half hidden behind Janet, emerging from her left shoulder in the centre of the portrait. His face, painted in profile, is a little lower than hers, at eye level. His eyes and mouth are closed, a faint smile playing over his features.
There is little space between the two faces. However, the light, falling from the top right of the scene, bathes Horace’s hair and skin in ethereal pale silvery golds, contrasting with Janet’s warmer skin tones. Horace’s body is completely obscured by Janet’s. Only his indistinct hands are visible, floating above the keyboard of a piano. The keys are glimpsed through a drift of golden fog upon which float notes and scales of musical composition in deep browns and blacks.
This lower right section of the painting is rendered in rich dark tones, with Horace’s jacket sleeves and the dark wood of the piano blending together. Beneath the musical score, in the lower right corner, the words “Brennan Keats/ I AM SHUT OUT of mine own heart” are written faintly in gold above the artist’s signature and date.
The poet Christopher Brennan is posed close to Horace in the upper right of the composition. He has been painted in warmer tones than the pallid pianist. His face is positioned at the same level as Horace’s, turned towards us, the left side in shadow. Christopher’s dark hair is swept back from his face and his eyes look up, directly out of the painting. The light shines along the bridge of his nose and on his pursed lips. In one corner of his mouth he clenches a black pipe, holding its bowl in his left hand. Its smoke curls up around his head in a silvery halo. Christopher wears a light shirt, dark tie and jacket, also blending with the blacks and browns of the piano. He is hidden below mid torso, behind the instrument and the swirl of music.
Audio description written by Lucinda Shawcross and voiced by Ellie Brotchie
Dora Toovey (age 47 in 1945)
Horace Keats (age 50 in 1945)
Janet Keats (age 45 in 1945)
On one level The Companion talks about the most famous and frontline Australians, but on another it tells us about ourselves.
The portrait of Janet and Horace Keats with the spirit of the poet Christopher Brennan is brought to life by artist Dora Toovey.
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