The Cargo Wharf

In 1916 Roland Wakelin's important post-impressionist painting, Down The Hill to Berry's Bay, was exhibited at the Royal Art Society. Rubbo, Wakelin's teacher, is said to have challenged Charles Tindall, one of the Society's more hostile committee members, to a duel if the painting was not hung. An Italian by birth and from 1889 to 1940 an influential art teacher in Sydney, Rubbo championed the modern movement in Australia. Two of his students, Wakelin and de Maistre, held the first exhibition of work in a modernist style in Australia in 1919.