I wrote about this rich issue of Treasures of Malta on 3 September meaning to follow it up with another Diary about other articles the following week. The devil got into the workings, but here it is weeks later.
Apart from two articles, at the beginning of this 100-page issue, one on Gabriel Caruana and the other on Amadeo Preziosi, there is another article on another artist 'The Man Who' Painted Gozo: Henry Majo Bateman (1887-1970). It is researched and written by Nicoline Sagona, Senior Curator for Gozo Museums and Sites within Heritage Malta, "who looks at the life, practice, and works of this British cartoonist-turned-landscapist whose legacy and connection to Malta has only recently been brought to light.
This article was of special significance to me as I had met Bateman's granddaughter Lucy Willis, a water-colourist, in May 2011 in Malta, thanks to my old, kind friend, David Elyan who was a friend of her mother's, Diana, HM.'s daughter. Diana had asked David to track down her father's grave, which he did, at Ta'Braxia. This he wrote about in an unpublished piece A Maltese Goose Chase. Following this discovery, Lucy had come out to try to trace her grandfather's final years in Gozo where he lived between 1966 and February 1970. He was one of the original six-penny settlers.
Diana had told David that when her father died his coffin was brought to Malta by a boat belonging to Fr Hili as the Malta-Gozo ferry refused to transport his remains to Malta for burial.
Bateman was one of the foremost British cartoonists of the early 20th century. The Cartoon Arts Trust (of UK), set up by his daughter Diana, holds a unique set of 66 of the famous 'The Man Who' cartoons. They appeared as colour double page spreads in The Tatler in the 1920s and 30s.
According to the late Auberon Waugh, in an introduction to a catalogue of two H.M. Bateman Centenary Exhibitions in 1987, kindly given to me by Lucy, Bateman was "the best paid and most successful cartoonist throughout the 1930s". In the same catalogue Ralph Steadman, another famous British cartoonist and caricaturist writes: ... "He possessed an unerring skill that enabled him to freeze a moment of frantic embarrassment for the perpetrator of some act of social misconduct."
Lucy Willis had come armed with photocopies of her grandfather's watercolours executed in Gozo. My brother Joe, then Chairman of Heritage Malta, had gone to meet her in Gozo and helped her identify the places her grandfather had painted during his years on the island. None of the paintings had a caption. He was also instrumental in getting Malta Post to produce a set of stamps portraying Bateman's landcapes.
In her article Nicoline Sagona reminds us that Heritage Malta has 16 of Bateman's landscape views of Gozo in its national collection. In fact, I was to learn later, that it was my brother who had donated them. (Not that he would mention it to me, his eldest sister. I found out quite by chance.)
Bateman's landscape works of Gozo, came out of the closet with two exhibitions, one in Malta and the other in Gozo. And eventually there was even a talk by Lucy's husband, Anthony Anderson, who is also Bateman's biographer. We are indebted to David Elyan's following up on a casual request from Diana, for all this. David has now sold his flat in Malta and I doubt whether he will ever visit again.
The writer tells us that because he was a well paid cartoonist and enjoyed a highly successful career, Bateman was able to retire in his mid-forties. "His days as a landscape artist were yet to come," the author writes. In his autobiography H.M. Bateman by Himself he writes "And yet I confess, like most people, I am not entirely satisfied. There is still something missing in which I could wish for fulfilment - and I will tell you what it is. I would like to have painted a quite serious picture; one that did not depend upon any comic situation to make it appeal...The picture I have in mind is quite a simple one. A landscape perhaps, with just the way light falls on a house or a tree, almost anything would do for a subject so long as it expresses the beauty of earth and sky and water, so that it would charm you..." And that is exactly what he did in Gozo.
Bateman arrived in Malta in 1965, settled in Marsascala and soon moved to Gozo "taking up residence in the Royal Lady Hotel in Ghajnsielem ... In Gozo, he found the perfect circumstances to realise his dream to become a landscape painter. Gozo in the 1960s was a quiet and delightful haven with most of the locals leading a rural and uncomplicated way of life... As an artist he embarked on a fresh journey when he settled here."
Ms Sagona mentions Cikku Camilleri who, with his wife Salvina, ran the hotel. They were very kind to Bateman and Lucy Willis had told me that her grandfather had given Cikku his gold watch out of gratitude for the way they looked after him at The Royal Lady.
I was later to learn that Bateman's doctor was the late Dr Karist Attard, who had a cartoon of himself done by Bateman, quickly sketched on a notebook sheet, on his first visit to Bateman at The Royal Lady, who then adopted him as his doctor.
The article carries a visual of a letter sent to his daughter Diana, Lucy's mother, dated 4th February '67, mentioning the kindness he was shown.
This article is full of interest and very well illustrated. I felt nostalgic just looking at the paintings of a Gozo I remember well but long since gone. As children we passed many a summer at the Royal Lady with Cikku an Salvina treating us like family. Thanks to HM Bateman we have a record of the Gozo many of us long for, a Gozo which will never return.
There are so many interesting articles in this issue. I enjoyed in particular the one in the series My Favourite Object written by Anna Balzan and Giovanni Bonello about The double-faced Maltese vases in Anna's collection. Absolutely intriguing. Also Kim Dalli's article about Henrietta Chevalier, the brave widow who, stranded in Italy helped so many escape during World War too.
There are other very interesting articles. If you don't have a subscription to Treasures of Malta do however go and buy this particular issue which is so full of interest.
There are a bewildering amount of art exhibitions going on this month. Do go and support the artists. One of them is Madeleine Vella Satariano's exhibition Natural Beauty at the Voluntary Centre in Rabat, Malta which will remain open until 22nd October. This is a chance to meet the artist. Follow her Facebook page which will indicate at what time she is going to be present. It's a lovely exhibition.
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