John Hennings (6 July 1835 – 13 October 1898) was a German-born theatrical scene painter and theatre manager active in Melbourne, Australia, from the mid-1850s to the early 1890s.
During a career of over thirty-five years Hennings worked as a scenic artist in a variety of theatres, mainly in Melbourne, but also in Sydney. He worked for a number of theatre managers in productions ranging across opera, drama and pantomime. For much of his career Hennings was closely associated with the Theatre Royal in Melbourne and in 1867 he joined a consortium of actors to take over the lease of the theatre. He was involved in theatre management with various partners until the early 1880s.
Hennings' theatre scenery was popular with the public and favoured by theatrical managers. He was known for his dramatic visual imagination, attention to detail and skillful representation of perspective in the production of backdrops, panoramas and transformation scenes. Hennings' spectacular scenic designs for the various annual productions of the Christmas pantomime in Melbourne were consistently popular with the public and it become a tradition for the audience to call for the scenic artist's appearance on stage during the performances.
Biography
Early years
Johann Friederich Hennings was born on 6 July 1835 in Bremen, northern Germany, to Danish-born parents, the "prominent merchant" Johann Hennings and his wife Caroline (née Schutze).Mimi Colligan (2005), John Hennings (1835–1898), Australian Dictionary of Biography website, National Centre of Biography, Australian National University; accessed 18 April 2024.Anita Callaway (1992), John Hennings, Design & Art Australia Online website; accessed 19 April 2024.
In about 1850, aged fifteen, Johann was apprenticed to "a decorative artist" in Düsseldorf where he "received the groundwork of the excellent art education".Death of Mr. John Hennings, The Argus (Melbourne), 14 October 1898, page 6. For a brief period he studied architectural drawing and perspective at the Düsseldorf Academy of Art, but discontinued his studies to return to decorative art. While working as a house decorator Hennings worked at localities in the "Rhine country" and later in Dresden, Prague and Vienna.An Artist's Reminiscences, Melbourne Punch, 21 March 1889, page 16. Hennings specialised in the painting of flower and fruit panels. His first experience as a theatrical painter was in 1852 when he was engaged "to paint the necessary scenery for a gorgeous opera flower ballet" staged at the Kärntnertor Theatre in Vienna.
In 1854 Hennings was working in Belgrade, the capital of Serbia, but hostilities in the wider region which led to the Crimean War had caused employment difficulties.Mimi Colligan (2002), page 65. Hennings' brother had previously emigrated to Australia and on several occasions he wrote to Johann urging him to do likewise. In Hennings' words: "Finding my prospects at home to be not very brilliant, and getting no better very fast, I determined to go to Australia".
Melbourne
Encouraged by his brother, Hennings migrated to Australia. He departed from Hamburg on 22 April 1855 aboard the Neumuhlen, carrying 131 passengers, and arrived at Melbourne in the colony of Victoria on 2 August.Neumuhlen Passengers' List (1855), Immigration records, Ancestry.com. Hennings' first job after he arrived in Melbourne was for a wool-washing facility at Richmond. Soon afterwards he found work as a draughtsman in an architect's office, "drawing and preparing land sketches".Mr. John Hennings, The Lorgnette (Melbourne), 23 February 1889, page 6.
In response to an advertisement for a scene-painter in The Argus newspaper, Hennings took his sketches and samples of work to the Theatre Royal, but was told the vacancy had been filled. It was suggested he "go up to the old Queen's Theatre", on the corner of Queen and Little Lonsdale streets, where the stage manager set him to work on a wood panel, painting "the ogre's cavern for the Christmas pantomime". This met with the stage manager's approval and Hennings was then asked to paint "a fairy scene" on canvas. The pantomime, Harlequin King Blear, and His Three Daughters (described as "a rich burlesque on Shakespeare's King Lear), opened on Boxing night, 26 December 1855. The scenery for the production was described as "to say the least, appropriate".The Queen's Theatre, The Age (Melbourne), 27 December 1855, page 4.
Know by the anglicised name of 'John', Hennings was next engaged by the theatrical entrepreneur George Coppin to join a team of scene-painters, under the supervision of William Pitt and Edward Opie, for the production of Azael, the Prodigal. The biblical drama, described as a "grand oriental spectacle", opened at the Olympic Theatre in Lonsdale Street on Easter Monday, 24 March 1856.Coppin's Olympic, The Argus (Melbourne), 22 March 1856, page 10.Joan Maslen (2011), William Pitt b. 1819 and Edward Opie b. 1809, Design & Art Australia Online website; accessed 22 April 2024.
In August 1856 Hennings was listed as one of three scenic artists under William Pitt's supervision, employed by Coppin for a two month "dramatic season" at Melbourne's Theatre Royal in Bourke Street, featuring "the celebrated tragedian", G. V. Brooke, "for a limited number of nights".Theatre Royal, The Argus (Melbourne), 25 August 1856, page 8. In a March 1857 review of Moncrieff's drama The Cataract of the Ganges at the Theatre Royal, the writer praised the "scenic and processional effects" of the production, adding: "It is due to the stage manager, to the costumier, property maker, and Messrs Pitt and Henning, the scenic artists, to state that all these points have been reproduced on the stage of the Royal in a manner which would not disgrace any theatre".The Theatres: The Royal, The Age (Melbourne), 17 March 1857, page 5. In October 1857 Coppin and Brooke's spectacular production of Sardanapalus, a tragedy by Lord Byron, opened at the Theatre Royal. Pitt and Hennings were the scenic artists responsible for the acclaimed scenery. A reviewer in The Argus wrote that the width of the stage had been "indefinitely expanded by the far-stretching architectural perspectives which present themselves at its extreme limits". The writer described how, with "a skilled arrangement" of columns in the foreground, "and the prolongation of the pillared avenue upon canvas, the spectator obtains an impression of vastness and is the victim of a very agreeable pictorial delusion".Theatre Royal, The Argus (Melbourne), 20 October 1857, page 5.
Hennings formed a relationship with Ellen Targett, an English-born ballet dancer, who had arrived in Melbourne in October 1857. Ellen was associated with the Theatre Royal as a dancer and actress.Mimi Colligan (2002), pages 116-117.
Hennings painted the scenery for the Gougenheim sisters' production of Fortunio at Melbourne's Princess's Theatre, which opened in late December 1857.Princess's Theatre, The Argus (Melbourne), 29 December 1857, page 8.Mr. John Hennings, Table Talk (Melbourne), 15 November 1889, pages 4-5. On the evening of 4 March 1858 a benefit production for Hennings and the machinist John Renno was staged at the Princess's Theatre. Much of the success of the "various burlesques and extravaganzas" recently staged at the theatre was directly attributed to the "respective talents" of Hennings and Renno. The evening's entertainment included the Pride of the Market, featuring the Gougenheim sisters, as well as "a grand pictorial representation of the Indian War, and a tableau vivant painted and arranged" by Hennings.Princess's Theatre, The Age (Melbourne), 3 March 1858, page 1; Princess's Theatre, The Age, 4 March 1858, page 5. In May 1858 Hennings' scene-paintings for The Queen of the Frogs at Princess's Theatre was described in the following terms: "Each picture is a gem, alike effective, artistic, and original".The Theatres: Princess's Theatre, The Argus (melbourne), 18 May 1858, page 5.
In late 1859 G. V. Brooke leased the Theatre Royal in Melbourne, where Verdi's opera Ernani was staged in December with new scenery by Hennings.Theatre Royal, The Age (Melbourne), 3 December 1859, page 1. During 1860 Brooke presented a succession of Shakespearian plays at the Royal with the production of scenery under the supervision of Hennings. In April 1860 his scenery for a production at the Theatre Royal of Shakespeare's Love's Labour's Lost was described by a reviewer in The Age newspaper as "being without exception the very best we have ever seen in a colonial theatre".Easter Holidays: Theatre Royal, The Age (Melbourne), 10 April 1860, page 5. In December 1860 A Comedy of Errors was staged at the Theatre Royal as a benefit night for Hennings, the resident scenic artist at the theatre.The "Comedy of Errors"..., The Age (Melbourne), 12 December 1860, page 5.
Hennings developed and maintained strong links with the German community in Melbourne. In September 1859 he painted a transparency portrait of Alexander von Humboldt, "irradiated with stars", for the German Association in Melbourne to celebrate the birthday of the German scientist and naturalist.Humboldt Festival, The Age (Melbourne), 15 September 1859, page 5. In September 1860 a German gymnasium was opened in Russell Street, with its interior decorated with four "large and beautiful" paintings by Hennings, "illustrative of the principal rivers of Germany".The opening of the new German gymnasium..., The Argus (Melbourne), 18 September 1860, page 5. In late November 1860 a festival commemorating the birth of the German poet and dramatist Friedrich Schiller was held in a large hall in the Criterion Hotel. The room was decorated for the occasion, including "a very beautiful transparency of Schiller, designed and executed by Mr. Hennings".The Schiller Festival, The Age (Melbourne), 1 December 1860, page 6.
Freelance scenic artist
Hennings painted the scenes for the 1861 Christmas pantomime Valentine and Orson at the Theatre Royal. The closing scene of the production featured an heroic painting commemorating the expedition led by Robert O'Hara Burke to cross the Australian continent.The Pantomimes: Theatre Royal, The Argus (Melbourne), 27 December 1861, page 5. The news of the expedition's tragic fate had reached Melbourne only six weeks previously.Victorian Expedition: The Continent Crossed, The Argus (Melbourne), 4 November 1861, page 5. The centrepiece of the painting depicted a statue of Burke on horseback, set amongst a grove of fern-trees. Ballet dancers at the base held shields inscribed with the names of Wills, King and Gray. Above Burke's statue was the personification of Fame, holding wreaths of laurel over "the brave leader".
Within six years of his arrival in the colony of Victoria Hennings was widely recognised and popularly appreciated as an accomplished scenic artist, known for his attention to detail and skillful representation of perspective.Death of Mr. John Hennings, The Age (Melbourne), 14 October 1898, page 5. A reviewer for The Argus, in describing his work for the 1861 pantomime at the Theatre Royal, wrote that "it is seldom that we find a scenic artist applying himself to his fugitive work in so conscientious and intelligent a spirit as Mr. Hennings does, or combining skill with research". Hennings growing prominence within the Melbourne theatre scene was further reinforced by the departure to Sydney in the early 1860s of the talented scenic artists, William J. Wilson and Alexander Habbe.