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Resch's Pilsener When the accent is on pleasure!

Date1938

Object number00045715

NamePub painting

MediumGlass, oil

DimensionsOverall: 2000 x 2000 x 18 mm

ClassificationsVisual communication

Credit LineANMM Collection Gift from Patrick Corrigan Donated through the Australian Government's Cultural Gifts Program

Terms

DescriptionA framed pub painting advertising the Australian beer brand Resch's. The image depicts a bridge deck cruiser with a sea gull flying above and another yacht and dinghy in background. At the top proper right the name of the beer is recorded as: "Resch's PILSENER", at the bottom proper right is the slogan: "When the accent is on pleasure!".HistoryPub paintings were made by applying oil paint on paper and coated with varnish. When the varnish was tacky it was stuck to the reverse of the glass and rolled with a roller to remove air bubbles. The paper was then removed with water. When the back was dry it was covered with an overcoat. Lettering, borders and gilding was applied directly onto the reverse of the glass before the painting was applied. The concept of the pub as a picture gallery originated from the Sydney portrait painter Jules Henry Roy Rousel. In the 1920s Rousel approached Tooth's advertising manager Tom McClelland with the concept of hanging paintings outside pubs on a permanent basis behind glass. Rousel envisaged pub pictorials that gave districts and communities a sense of personal association with particular pubs i.e. a rowing painting for the Riverview Hotel, eighteen footers painting for the Dry Dock, the Sir William Wallace and the Shipwrights' Arms Tooheys hotels. Over 6000 glass advertising paintings were commissioned by Tooth & Co between 1930 and 1969 and represent a unique combination of medium, content and use. Tooth and Co operated the Kent Brewery on Sydney's Broadway for almost 150 years from 1835. For most of this time Tooth's dominated the brewing and hotels industries of NSW tying over 600 pubs to sell only its products. During the early 1930s, Tooth's was under pressure from the temperance movement and declining beer sales. Tom Watson, the company's new manager in a bid to improve the public image if beer and pubs created a 'corporate image' for Tooths by launching a consistent style of hotel architecture, interior décor and advertising. These glass advertising paintings became a feature of hotel exteriors from the early 1930s. Sign writing, painting transfer and framing were carried out by RB Coleman signs of Canterbury in Sydney. To distance pub paintings from mainstream graphic design, Tooths used artists with a fine art reputation and style. They included Tom Woodman (1901-1959), Henry Hanke and Alan Baker, Walter Jardine and Stan Denford. SignificanceThis pub painting with its motor cruising scene is significant as an example of this unusual genre of commercial art that was generally produced as one-off creations rather than as mass produced works. Part of the pub painting appeal is the absence of the advertised product from all but a few paintings. Instead of drinking scenes pub paintings featured idealised depictions of popular sports, pastimes and locales, chosen to reflect the clientele of particular hotels. Pub paintings were part of a campaign to improve the image of pubs and beer. Aquatic subjects depicted on pub paintings include sailing, rowing and surfing. While beer was commonly advertised as a man's drink, this scene shows a woman drinking with a man at the stern of a motor cruiser and reflects Tooth's agenda to market their products to women.