The Heart Garden: Sunday Reid and Heide

by Janine Burke

A captivating biography of Sunday Reed, the woman behind Australian modernist art.

Born into one of Melbourne's most prominent establishment families, Sunday Baillieu was expected to become a society princess. But this passionate individualist turned her back on upper-class privilege and created a life wholly her own. In 1935, Sunday and her husband John Reed bought Heide, a modest weatherboard house in rural Heidelberg. Heide was not only a home but the focal point for the development of Australian modernism. Until their deaths in the early eighties, the Reeds lived there and cultivated Australia's most significant circle of artists, including Sidney Nolan, Albert Tucker, John Perceval, Joy Hester and Charles Blackman.

In the words of Albert Tucker, Sunday was 'the magnetic force that drew us together, the eye...' While Sunday was a muse to several generations of Australian artists, Sidney Nolan remained her lifelong obsession. Gifted, charismatic and visionary, Nolan was mesmerised by Sunday - and she by him. They were lovers for several tempestuous years. But Sunday was more than Nolan's muse. Award winning biographer Janine Burke argues that she was crucial to his artistic development - preparing his painting materials, inspiring subject matter and perhaps guiding his hand while he painted the Ned Kelly series, executed on Heide's dining room table. Sunday was a demanding and intense woman, known as much for her irascibility as for her generosity. In this compelling biography, The Heart Garden, Burke draws a rich portrait of this complex and brilliant woman who fuelled the fire of Australian modernism, and was at its heart.

Genres: Art, Australia, Nonfiction, Biography

643 pages, Kindle Edition

First published January 1, 2004

About the author

Dr. Janine Burke is an art historian and biographer, and has written eight books of fiction and art history. She has degrees from the University of Melbourne and La Trobe University. She was a lecturer in art history until she resigned from her job to become a full-time writer, which she has been for the last ten years.

Her books include Australian Women Artists, 1840-1940, Second Sight, which won the 1987 Victorian Premier's Award for Fiction, and Company of Images, which was shortlisted for The Age Book of the Year award and the Miles Franklin Award. Her novel for teenagers, Journey to Bright Water, is published by Mammoth. She also contributed to Libby Hawthorn's anthology of short stories, The Blue Dress.

Janine has curated exhibitions of historical and contemporary art, and currently holds a research fellowship at Monash University. She lives in Melbourne, where she regularly reviews, lectures and broadcasts on radio.

Reviews

[Alan Marr · Rating 5 out of 5]

A great Australian story, full of idealism, disappointment, courage and bitterness. It is extremely well researched. I plan to revisit Heide while the story is fresh in my mind.

[Anna · Rating 3 out of 5]

While this book is competently written, insightful, if at times drawing a long bow about Sunday Reed's motivations, all I can say is enough already. Ms Burke has truly mined the Heide gold as much as is humanly possible.

This book cured me permanently of wanting to know anything about the Reeds ever again. They were controlling beyond measure, admitting no artistic merit but their own imprimatur. I've had a gutful of Sunday.

Perhaps I should thank Ms Burke for that.

[Glenys · Rating 2 out of 5]

I expected to enjoy this book and was disappointed.
While there were parts that fascinated me as I knew that the life lead by the artistic community during those years was bohemian, and Sunday did not seem to care who she hurt as long as she got what she wanted in life. She was in a position to promote talented artists, and did so when it suited her, it was an interesting glimpse into life at Heide.
After a while it seemed like too many pages of name-dropping and became tedious.
I confess to returning this book to the library unfinished.

[Margaret Stickland · Rating 5 out of 5]

I first read this bok eight years ago as it was lent to me I now have my own copy and thoroughly enjoyed the story. I lived in Ivanhoe and had visited Heide as a child 1948 remember the cats the piano and a blind lady who could have been Barbara Blackman. Sunday 's life was one of privilege and one of heartache . Having artists as friends and hangers-on is a life I couldn't imagine . The research of Janine Burke was well written and an easy read.

[Lewis Woolston · Rating 4 out of 5]

I had a vague knowledge of Heide and the artists around it before reading this book. The author filled in the gaps in my knowledge and brought the (long dead) people to vivid life.
I learnt about all the important artists in Australia during the period and discovered the impact one person can have on a nation's artistic and cultural life.

[Cornelia C Morselli · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great insight into the Australian art world

A good read about a couple who helped foster artists, creativity and passion. Great insight into the Australian art world and understand the paintings.

[Caroline · Rating 4 out of 5]

loved reading about Sunday Reed and the Heide school just outside of Melbourne in Morning Peninisula. I had no idea about them. Lots of background info about other contemporary artists - Nolan, Boyd, Percival etc.

[Lisa]

I don't rate books I don't finish.

[Ormond College Library · Rating 3 out of 5]

Anne Herbert: Being very interested in gardens, especially food gardens, I enjoyed visiting Heide. That led me to the Reed’s and their friends, their approach to hospitality, art and food. I read The Heart Garden (pub 2004), a biography of Sunday Reed. The book provides details about that Melbourne establishment family and their support of artists and the symbolic surrealism movement in Australian art – recent history about which I was not very familiar.
After having read that, I found Sunday’s Kitchen (pub 2010) very evocative of what it might have been like to visit and stay at Heide when the Reeds were alive. The latter is a bricolage of many photos of people and art, recipes, quotes from many different characters, arranged in themes, not another chronology of a Sunday’s life. Together these books bring a very human dimension to the gardens and galleries at Heide.

[Jennifer Rolfe · Rating 3 out of 5]

I nearly gave up on this book a couple of times as the author went into a lot of detail but I am glad I stuck with it. It is not just about Sunday and John Reed who played a role in the modern art movement in Victoria. There is this divide between Melbourne and Sydney and as a Sydneysider I don't know about the ins and outs of the Melbourne scene. This book bridged that gap. I learned a lot through the social history that Burke explained throughout the book. I also liked the way she explained a couple of artists fascination with fictional/historical figures and painted them, notably Barbara Blackman's fascination with Alice in Wonderland.
She did bring Sydney to life but that life was hard to like.

[Steph · Rating 4 out of 5]

As a recent newcomer to Melbourne unfamiliar with Sunday Bailleau Reed and her circle of friends, this was a fascinating insight into both her life and the modern art movement of Australia. Having recently visited Heide for the first time, I now have a better understanding of the significance of the place and the people who gathered there.

[Marylu · Rating 3 out of 5]

I was really looking forward to this because Heide is such a special place to visit. We love the beautiful grounds leading down to the Yarra River, the romantic kitchen garden and the Gallery. Most interesting of all are the two houses which take you into the lives of the Reeds and another era. However I'm finding the reading hard going.

[Ali W · Rating 2 out of 5]

I was curious to read more about Sunday Reed after visiting Heide in Melbourne. This is a detailed biography and in the end it just didn't hold my attention - another one I didn't finish. I feel mean giving it a rating but it just wasn't compelling enough to continue with.

[Lee Kofman · Rating 3 out of 5]

After finishing this biography I still didn’t really feel I understood much about Sunday Reed's personality, but I loved learning about everything else that was going around her. Burke was really good with placing her subject in a truly broad context.

[Helen · Rating 2 out of 5]

Interesting in parts but there is a veritable maze of detail to the point that I couldn't really see the wood for the trees.

[Mandy · Rating 5 out of 5]

Truly excellent and thoroughly researched study of Sunday Reed and Heide, and the Australian art scene that Sunday was such an integral part of.