Our Flag at Algeciras

Conder spent his early childhood in India before moving to Australia at the age of seventeen. There he gained a job producing landscape drawings for the Illustrated Sydney News and was soon regularly exhibiting his paintings. In 1890 he studied in Paris where he was influenced by the French mural painter Puvis de Chavannes (1824-98). He also became friends with Toulouse-Lautrec (1864-1901). In 1893 Conder was elected a member of the New English Art Club and four years later settled in London. Our Flag at Algeciras was probably painted on Conder's last trip abroad in 1905 when he stayed at this small town near Gibraltar. The conspicuous flag possibly relates to the international conference held there in the winter of 1905-6, at which Britain sided with France against Germany in a dispute over rights in Morocco. At this time Conder was painting landscapes and portraits in an impressionistic manner. His attention was directed towards the study of colour and light using the much broader brush strokes seen in this example.