Charles Conder. Authentication, certificates of authenticity and expert appraisals.

A book recently published on the artist Charles Conder is entitled 'The Last Bohemian' and this is an apt and fitting title for this artist because he was indeed a bohemian whose life story spans several continents.

He was born to British parents who moved to India with him when he was two years old, where his father took a job as a railway engineer. It was the age of the British Empire and he was raised there, as was tradition by an Indian 'ayah.' At the age of five his mother sadly died and he was sent back to England by his father to be raised by a friend of his Mothers. Although he left India at a young age to some extent his memories of the country never left him, as they were to influence some of his art later on. At the age of sixteen he expressed to his father, who was still living in India his wish to study art. His father dismissed this idea and promptly made arrangements to send him to New South Wales in Australia to take up an apprenticeship with his uncle as a Surveyor.

He started work with his uncle but constantly carried a notebook with him which he filled with drawings and sketches. Although his father forbade him to be an artist he quickly went against his wishes and in 1886 applied for a job at a firm of Lithographic painters in Sydney, and thereafter he worked as an illustrator at the Illustrated Sydney News. He then moved to Melbourne where he became part as what is known as the Heidelberg school of painters. The Heidelberg school of painters was a group of painters who formed one of the first significant art movements in Australia. He became friends and painted with artists such as Arthur Streeton and Tom Roberts. The paintings that Conder produced in Melbourne were of Romantic Expressionism and landscapes.

However, Conder was not happy to rest in Australia, he had a wandering spirit. When Conder was twenty two his uncle offered to pay for him to go to Paris and study art. He jumped at the opportunity.

After arriving in France he took a studio in the artist's quarter of Monmartre. The decadent lifestyle at the time in Paris suited him well. He was a charmer and liked to drink and chase women. He quickly made friends with characters such as Henri Toulouse-Lautrec. He loved to frequent the dance halls of the time such as the Moulin Rouge and the colors and life there had a strong influence on much of his work.