Bob Ðredersas, photographed in front of his 'favourite painting'
Courtyard at Bertangles, Picardy, by AH Fullwood
Who is this quiet Lithuanian, who has so generously donated 88 pictures of Australian painters, 11 artefacts from New
Guinea, 31 antique china exhibits and 11 miniatures to Wollongong City Gallery in June 1978, a gift which in 1990 was
calculated to be worth $1.5 million and in 2005, much more?
Pro Hart Tree and Ants, 1966 Oil on hardboard
Collection Wollongong City Gallery,
Gift of Bob Ðredersas, 1976
It is worth noting that "In 1977 thieves broke into his house and stole thirteen paintings, including a Norman Lindsay,
two works by Sydney Long and two by Will Ashton, along with his entire collection of carved ivory" (Bob Ðredersas:
Wollongong City Gallery, Kate Halley). The theft was a great blow to Bronius and, with his failing health and the worry
of safeguarding his collection, was instrumental in bequeathing his collection to the City of Wollongong. According to
the Gallery Director, Peter O’Neill: "His gift of over one hundred works of art was a major catalyst in the establishment
of Wollongong City Gallery, now the largest regional gallery in Australia and one of the most dynamic." (Ibid., Foreword,
Peter O’Neill)
In the new, expanded version of his collection’s catalogue of 1989 and in the literature I happened to come across,
Bronius Ðredersas is called a migrant, a Displaced Person, a European refugee. These ‘labels’ are not quite correct.
Why? A migrant is usually a person who migrates for economic reasons. The people from the Baltic countries (Lithuania,
Latvia and Estonia) fled en masse their respective homelands, before the onslaught of the returning Soviet army in 1944.
Frederick Leist Morning Bathers, c. 1928 Oil on
canvas mounted on composition board Collection
Wollongong City Gallery, Gift of Bob Ðredersas, 1976
Fearing for their lives, they were political refugees fleeing from the communist regime. They fled from bitter experience.
Lithuania was a nation of slightly over three million inhabitants in 1939. In one year, from the country’s invasion by
the Soviet army in June 1940 to June 1941, the soviets had killed, incarcerated and deported to Siberia, often to areas
of wilderness beyond the Arctic Circle, 43,890 men, women and children.* They fled westwards, crossing into Germany,
and lived mostly in camps after WWII. Here they were called ‘Displaced Persons’- a devious euphemism for ‘political
refugee’. Was this neologism invented in order not to offend the mighty Soviet Union, a belated ally of the western
powers?
Arthur Streeton Venus and Adonis, 1901 Oil on
canvas Collection Wollongong City Gallery,
Gift of Bob Ðredersas, 1976
Bronius Ðredersas came to Australia on the SS Fairsea in 1950 with other Baltic refugees. He was sent to the Bonegilla
migrant camp, where accommodation was made of rough, corrugated iron Nissen huts, housing 20 or more people each. From
this camp he was sent to Wollongong, in order to carry out his compulsory two-year work contract, as a labourer at
Australian Iron and Steel Port Kembla works. Bronius Ðredersas came from a cultured, even noble, family and was an
educated man. He graduated from high school in 1933. Two years later he joined the Civil Service and worked for the
Department of Security as a grade four officer. In 1938 he attended two courses connected with his employment - in June,
a lecture course on Informative News and in December, a three months Chemical Defence Course.
Arthur Boyd Lying Figure, 1970 Colour lithograph
on paper Collection Wollongong City Gallery,
Gift of Bob Ðredersas, 1976
Why did he work for twenty-five years as a labourer? Why didn’t he seek work more commensurate with his education?
Why didn’t he, like many other Lithuanians, aspire to further his education, after the compulsory two-year contract? We
will never know. The fact is that he lived in Wollongong from his arrival in Australia in 1950 until his death in 1982.
After about four years in this city, he built himself a small fibro cottage in Cringila. He was a good neighbour, a friend
of the children in his neighbourhood, and remained single all his life. Another puzzling fact is that he only became an
Australian citizen on May 6, 1970, twenty years after his arrival in Australia on May 23, 1950. Why this long delay? Why
did he do it when he turned sixty? We will probably never know.
Anthony Datilo - Rubbo Forlorn,
1902 Oil on canvas Collection
Wollongong City Gallery,
Gift of Bob Ðredersas, 1976
He inherited the love of fine arts from his father, who was a Civil Servant and who, according to Bronius Ðredersas,
was a "Sunday painter". His memory of the parental home, filled with pictures, encouraged him to decorate the bare walls
of his cottage with pictures that he would buy at auctions in Sydney. Buying works of art and artefacts became his
passion in life. From receipts of auctioneers James R. Lawson Pty. Ltd and others, it is interesting to note the prices
he paid for these works in the 1960s and 70s. For Sir Arthur Streeton’s Daphne & Chloe, oil on canvas,
49.7x74.7 cm, he paid $500 in 1968. Today the picture would fetch over $100,000, if not more. Margaret Preston’s
Harbour Foreshores, hand coloured woodcut, 19.0x 25 cm, cost $12 in 1968; Thomas Gleghorn’s Untitled, oil on
cardboard, 37.5x27.0 cm, cost $100 in 1977. How much would they be worth today? No wonder Bronius ðredersas’ bequest is
valued in millions of dollars in 2005.
Margaret Preston Harbour
Foreshore, 1925 Handcoloured
woodcut on paper Collection
Wollongong City Gallery,
Gift of Bob Ðredersas, 1976
Two facts came to my notice while perusing the auctioneers’ receipts. One was the way in which they spelled his name,
which varied from Bob, Mr Bob, B.O.B, Mr Robb, Bobb, R. Robb, M Vebb, Vebl, Bop and Boop. This reminded me of the
Australian reluctance to make an effort to pronounce foreign names and also of the custom of tagging foreigners with an
honest Anglo-Saxon substitute. Thus Bronius was "rechristened" Bob. The second fact was Bronius’ love of fine artefacts.
He had apparently "a fine stamp collection and pieces of glass and crystal" (ibid. page 7), besides the stolen ivory
collection, the antique china, New Guinea art and miniatures, that he donated to the Wollongong City Gallery.
Bronius Ðredersas’ collection is eclectic. He bought pictures that he liked at auctions, always paying in cash.
Nevertheless, his acquisitions show sensitivity in his choices. This is the more astonishing, since he had no formal
training in painting. His very first purchase, Sydney Long’s Herring Fleet at Sea St Ives: (1917), watercolour,
32.7x46.3 cm, shows a great deal of discrimination in taste. So does the very last purchase, James Gleeson’s Prometheus
and the Wanderer: Variation 3 oil on wood panels triptych, side panels 15.0x12.6 cm & central panel 15.0x20.0 cm.
Sydney Long Lakeside, 1943 Oil on canvas
Collection Wollongong City Gallery,
Gift of Bob Ðredersas, 1976
In between these two works are numerous pictures of early Australian painters. A few of the better known are Nicholas
Chevalier, Samuel Elyard, Anthony Dattilo-Rubbo, Will Ashton and one unknown (attributed to Jean-François Millet
1814-1875).
From later periods the collection has works by Frederick Leist, Sydney Long, Arthur Boyd, Grace Cossington
Smith, Tom Gleghorn, Hans Heysen, Michael Kmit, Pro Hart, Rupert Bunny, James Gleeson, Norman Lindsay, Margaret Preston,
Henri Tebbit and Sir Arthur Streeton.
Bronius Ðredersas’ love of pictures was not possessive. He wanted to share them with others. Apparently, he expressed the
following thoughts to the Illawarra Mercury: "A university town without a gallery is unthinkable" and "I have nobody but
the people of Wollongong to leave them to. They are for the young people to learn, for old people to enjoy and for me it
is the realisation of a life’s dedication."(ibid. page 8).
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