Pioneer Landscape Paintings in Australia and the United States

University of Nebraska - Lincoln DigitalCommons@University of Nebraska - Lincoln Great Plains Quarterly Great Plains Studies, Center for Summer 1983 Pioneer Landscape Paintings In Australia And The United States R. Leslie Heathcote Flinders University of South Australia Follow this and additional works at: https://digitalcommons.unl.edu/greatplainsquarterly Part of the Other International and Area Studies Commons Heathcote, R. Leslie, "Pioneer Landscape Paintings In Australia And The United States" (1983). Great Plains Quarterly. 1718. https://digitalcommons.unl.edu/greatplainsquarterly/1718 This Article is brought to you for free and open access by the Great Plains Studies, Center for at DigitalCommons@University of Nebraska - Lincoln. It has been accepted for inclusion in Great Plains Quarterly by an authorized administrator of DigitalCommons@University of Nebraska - Lincoln. PIONEER LANDSCAPE PAINTINGS IN AUSTRALIA AND THE UNITED STATES R. LESLIE HEATHCOTE he European invasion of Australia and the and photography have recognized the concern American West in the nineteenth century for landscape in the nineteenth century; geog brought a massive transformation of landscapes raphers have seen the artists' efforts as sources in the two continents through conflict with the for study of the process of land settlement, indigenous populations and by the introduction providing two types of data, typographical and of new and more intensive systems of resource perceptual. Pioneer paintings contain informa use. As historians and historical geographers tion on land cover and land use for specific have acknowledged, the invasion was generally locations or areas and instances or periods of well documented, not only by the more literate time, as well as information on contemporary pioneers and contemporaries but also, more knowledge of and attitudes to the landscapes importantly for any statistical analysis, by the depicted and, by inference, to the environment emerging bureaucracies that administered the from which they were abstracted. Most of the transfers of lands and collected the facts of studies have also pointed out the limitations of land settlement, which the new societies saw the sources, particularly those of the medium as evidence of the success of the invasion. itself-the conventions and styles associated Along with the scratch of pens and, later, with landscape painting, the problem of the the clatter of typewriters came the scrape of biases inherent in the system of artistic patron the artist's brush, pen, and palette knife, and age, and the question of the extent to which the click of camera shutters. Historians of art the artist is representative of wider contemporary VIews.. 1 Although much information on pioneer A native of England, Dr. R. Leslie Heathcote landscape paintings is available in the art his is reader in geography at the Flinders Univer tories of Australia and the United States, as sity of South Australia. He is the author of Back of Bourke (1965) and Australia (1975) yet no comparative study has appeared. The and editor of Perceptions of Desertification aim of this article is to provide a preliminary (1980). His interest in the Great Plains dates comparative analysis of landscape paintings as from his graduate student days at the Univer sources of information about the pioneer land sity of Nebraska. scapes of Australia and the western United 131 132 GREAT PLAINS QUARTERLY, SUMMER 1983 States in the nineteenth century. The focus is keep in mind the differences also. By 1800 on the landscapes not only at the time of the and even more so by 1900, there were vast European invasion but also as transformed differences in population size between the two by that invasion. nations. In Australia in 1900 the European population was 3.8 million; in the United PIONEERING IN AUSTRALIA AND THE States, 76 million. By 1900 approximately UNITED STATES, 1800-1900 54 percent of Australia was still unoccupied by European settlers compared with about 16 A comprehensive study would need to estab percent of the United States. Australian devel lish in considerable detail both what we now opment had been dominated by British tradi know of the landscapes of 1800 and the process tion, the American by a much more complex of their transformation so that this infomation cultural mix. Australia had been the "quiet might be compared with the knowledge gained Continent"; the conflicts with the indigenes from landscape paintings. The present analysis, were short (but bloody) skirmishes-no Custer's however, is limited to a brief indication of some Last Stand here, and no Civil War, only the relevant points. Eureka Stockade fracas. In terms of terrain, natural vegetation, and What did the artists make of it all? climate, there are obvious parallels and major contrasts between the interiors of the two con THE PRISTINE LANDSCAPE tinents. The relative aridity and relatively flat surfaces of Australia-the "wide brown land" A review of the vast array of paintings of the of the poets-contrast sharply with the more landscapes of interior Australia and the United varied terrains, climates, and ecosystems of the States, before they were significantly modified United States. Generally speaking, the indigen by invading Europeans, offers evidence of two ous groups showed similar contrasts, between contrasting themes. On the one hand was a the relatively uniform cultures of the Australian concern for landscape as a phenomenon, as a aborigines and the more varied and "resilient" subject for study in its own right, and there cultures of the American Indians. fore, a concern for detailed, systematic, and There were some interesting parallels, how often scientific description of the landscape ever. In both areas, the Europeans moved out as a whole and of its component parts. On the from the woodlands onto the drier grassland other hand was the concern for landscape as plains of the interior, where they had to modify a symbol-an image representing a philosophy institutions and resource management systems or theory about the relationships between man that had evolved in more humid environments. and nature. The one approach offers valuable In both areas, occupation by Europeans resulted topographic evidence, while the other provides in more intensive uses of pastoral, agricultural, insights into the contemporary perceptions of and mining resources, which required a signifi the environment. cant transformation of the environment. By 1900 the transformation process was already THE PRISTINE LANDSCAPE well developed and the products established. AS PHENOMENON The result was a new mix of people on the land, greatly increased population densities, new The European concern for rationalism and geometries of human artifacts, new patterns of scientific inquiry in the eighteenth century had land use, new systems of communication, and been stimulated by the "discovery" of the new flows of goods, people, and services. South Pacific and the rediscovery of the fasci The two countries showed many similarities nation of the older "New World" interiors of in this transformation, particularly in the latter the Americas. Both led to Alexander von Hum half of the nineteenth century, but we need to boldt's call to arms to the landscape painters to PIONEER LANDSCAPE PAINTINGS 133 portray these new wonders.3 It is not surpris Australia, was published in thirty-six parts ing, therefore, to find evidence of a detached, from 1840 to 1848, including 681 colored external, descriptive view of the exotic phe plates (many by his wife). In both cases the nomena in these unconquered interiors. Four publications were the result of extensive private themes might be recognized: first, the role of explorations, and even their method of finan landscape paintings in the actual process of cial support-by advance private subscriptions exploration; second, their depiction of the was similar. indigenous inhabitants; third, their role in the Since landscape paintings were likely to be documentation of time in the landscape; and the "end of the line" of the creative process in fourth, their role in illustrating the spaciousness the depiction of topography by the explorers, of the new scenes. and since the time needed for their full colora Exploration in the continental interiors in tion and composition was usually available only the nineteenth century relied upon graphic in the studio, we need to know how the process illustrations almost as much as literary descrip of transformation from field sketches to final tions. With increasing frequency in the first lithographs or engravings was achieved and half of the century, the land explorers followed what the cost was in terms of accuracy. Occa the example of the marine explorers of late sionally the art historians have provided clues, eighteenth century by including artists among as with the engraver's transformation of the their parties or contributing their own sketches Kern brothers' field studies, but we need a geo to their reports. Several of the military explor graphical study to try to establish, for example, ers were themselves trained as topographic the role of landscape paintings in the models surveyors or draftsmen. In the United States of the acquisition of regional knowledge pro the first official exploring party to take along posed by John L. Allen and John D. Overton.6 artists seems to have been the Long Expedition Along with the contact with the indigenous in 1819, but thereafter (until the photographers populations

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