Art Appreciation Lecture Series 2017 Site Specific: The power of place
Georgina Cole
9/10 August 2017
Lecture summary: The landscapes of the Heidelberg School brought progressive European painting techniques to the colonies and are important contributions to the aesthetic exploration of the Australian bush. In their open-ended treatment of form they also fostered a new kind of relationship between the viewer and the Australian landscape that invited him or her to complete the picture in the imagination. In this sense, the paintings of Roberts, Streeton, Conder, Sutherland and McCubbin might be understood as attempts to create a personal and emotional relationship between migrant Europeans and the bush.
Slide list: 1. Tom Roberts, A quiet day on Darebin Creek, 1885, oil on wood panel, National Gallery of Australia 2. James Abbott McNeill Whistler, Nocturne: Blue and Silver: Chelsea, 1871, oil on wood, Tate Britain 3. Jules Bastien-LePage, At harvest time, 1880, oil on canvas, private collection 4. Tom Robert, Moorish Doorway, 1883, National Gallery of Victoria 5. Tom Roberts, A quiet day on Darebin Creek, 1885, oil on wood panel, National Gallery of Australia 6. Tom Roberts, The artist’s camp, 1886, oil on canvas, National Gallery of Victoria 7. Frederick McCubbin, Lost, 1886, oil on canvas, National Gallery of Victoria 8. Jane Sutherland, Obstruction, Box Hill, 1887, oil on canvas, Art Gallery of Ballarat 9. Tom Roberts, Holiday Sketch at Coogee, 1888 10. Charles Conder, Coogee Bay, 1888 11. Charles Conder, A holiday at Mentone, 1888, oil on canvas, Art Gallery of South Australia 12. Arthur Streeton, Golden Summer, Eaglemont, 1889, oil on canvas, National Gallery of Australia 13. Nicholas Chevalier, The Buffalo Ranges, 1864, oil on canvas, National Gallery of Victoria 14. Arthur Streeton, The Selector’s Hut (Whelan on the Log), 1890, oil on canvas, National Gallery of Australia 15. Frederick McCubbin, Down on his luck, 1889, oil on canvas, Art Gallery of Western Australia 16. Jane Sutherland, On the last tramp, 1888, oil on canvas on board, private collection, Western Australia 17. Tom Roberts, Aboriginal head – Charlie Turner, 1892, oil on canvas on paperboard, Art Gallery of New South Wales 18. Arthur Streeton, Fire’s On, 1891, oil on canvas, Art Gallery of New South Wales 19. Tom Roberts, Shearing the rams, 1890, oil on canvas on composition board, National Gallery of Victoria
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Reference:
Astbury, Leigh. 1985. City Bushmen: The Heidelberg School and the Rural Mythology. Melbourne: Oxford University Press.
Clark, Jane and Bridget Whitelaw. 1986. Golden Summers: Heidelberg and Beyond. Melbourne: National Gallery of Victoria.
Croll, R.H. 1946. Smike to Bulldog: Letters from Sir Arthur Streeton to Tom Roberts. Sydney: Ure Smith.
Hammond, Victoria and Juliette Peers. 1992. Completing the Picture: Women Artists and the Heidelberg Era. Hawthorne East: Artmoves.
Smith, Terry. 1980. “The Divided Meaning of Shearing the Rams: Artists and Nationalism, 1888- 1891”. In Australian Art and Architecture: Essays Presented to Bernard Smith, edited by Anthony Bradley and Terry Smith, 99-123. Melbourne: Oxford University Press.
Spate, Virginia. 1978. Tom Roberts. East Melbourne: Lansdowne.
Spate, Virginia. 1990. “The Sunny South: Australian Impressionism”. In World Impressionism: The International Movement, 1860-1920, edited by Norma Broude, 117-135. New York: Harry N. Abrams.
For access to all past lecture notes visit: https://www.artgallery.nsw.gov.au/members/current-members/member-events/site-specific/