EDUCATION KIT EUGENE VON GUÉRARD: ARTIST–TRAVELLER ART GALLERY OF BALLARAT EUGENE VON GUÉRARD Education Kit 2018 1 ART GALLERY OF BALLARAT CONTENTS Eugene von Guérard: Artist–Traveller 3 Learning Activities 4 Artist–traveller–Documenter 5 Sketchbook to Studio: von Guérard’s process and working methods 6 Eugene von Guérard letter to James Smith 10 on the painting of Old Ballarat Learning Activities 11 Rush for Gold 12 Learning Activities 16 Shifting landscape 17 Shifting landscape: Von Guérard’s impact 19 on land management Learning Activities 20 Indigenous people in victoria: Indigenous life pre-colonisation 21 Early depictions after colonisation 22 The Wadawurrung people 23 Wadawurrung and the Gold Rush 24 Learning Activities 25 Perceptions of place 26 Inspired by von Guérard 27 Learning Activities 28 Beyond the classroom 29 EUGENE VON GUÉRARD Education Kit 2018 2 ART GALLERY OF BALLARAT EUGENE VON GUÉRARD: ARTIST–TRAVELLER One of Australia’s foremost landscape practice of observing and translating visons of the natural painters, Eugene von Guérard (1811– world was also inspired by the geographic and scientic 1901) captured the rugged subtleties philosophies of Alexander von Humboldt, who actively encouraged artists to travel to the ‘new world’, places like of the nineteenth-century Australian Australia, to document and record the landscape with a landscape. His romantic interpretations scientic eye. of the landscape are important in both Australian art and Australia’s colonial Von Guérard spent twelve years in Düsseldorf honing his skills and developing his personal and professional life, but history, documenting the country’s growth in 1852 he found himself destined for Australian shores. and change through a key part of the nineteenth century. The artist’s nomadic 1851 marked an era of great change and growth for the practice led to the creation of numerous Australian colonies. The discovery of gold in Ballarat in late August 1851 led to a frenzied inux of migrants, important works illustrating idyllic vistas of all intent on nding their fortune. Von Guérard was no the Australian bush, as well as the erosion dierent. Sparked by gold fever and driven by curiosity of land and vegetation caused by both about the ‘New World’, it was with an inquiring eye and man-made and natural forces. mind and an adventurous spirit that he boarded the ship Windermere in London on 17 August 1852, destined for Von Guérard’s process from sketchbook to studio gives the Victorian gold elds. an extraordinary insight into the artist practice, through the gure of the artist–traveller. On 28 December 1852, at the age of forty-one, von Guérard arrived in Melbourne, and by mid-January 1853 The notion of artist–traveller was not new for von he had made his way to the Ballarat goldelds, where Guérard — it was a practice he had developed from a he spent thirteen months experiencing the harsh and young age. In 1826, at the age of fteen, he left his birth- tough realities of a gold miner. During this time, he kept place Vienna for Italy with his father Bernard von Guérard, extensive eld sketches, notes and diary entries detailing a court painter of miniature portraits for Emperor Francis the sights, sounds and experiences of the goldelds, 1, forging a love of travel and adventure. The two of documenting both the working life on the goldelds them travelled extensively throughout Italy, sketching as well as the natural environment of the region. Von and painting the landscape, so that, working alongside Guérard returned to Geelong in February 1854. In July of his father, von Guérard began to develop his technical the same year he settled in Melbourne and was reunited knowledge and skills. A desire for seeking the honesty with his newly arrived ancée Louise Arnz. The pair of the landscape was further developed in Rome, where married on 15 July 1854, two days after her arrival. he studied under Italian landscape painter Giambattista Bassi. During this time, he associated with a group known For the next twenty-eight years, von Guérard lived in as the Nazarenes, a group who sought to revive honesty Melbourne. During this time, he travelled extensively and spirituality in art. throughout south-eastern Australia, sketching and documenting the landscape. The studies that he made In 1838, eighteen months after the death of his father, on these expeditions were to become the extensive von Guérard went to Germany to study at the Düsseldorf catalogue of drawings and paintings he is renowned Academy of Art, a leading art school of the era. In for today. Düsseldorf he studied progressive landscape painting under the guidance of German landscape painter Johann In 1870, von Guérard was appointed the rst Master Wilhem Schirmer. During this time von Guérard built of the School of Painting as well as the rst curator at upon and rened his technical and aesthetic approach to the National Gallery of Victoria. In 1882 he returned to landscape painting. Inuenced by Schirmer’s interest in Germany. In 1891 he moved to London to be with his the Dutch tradition of landscape painting, von Guérard daughter, son-in-law and, later, grandson. He spent his rened his working process further, with a focus on last decade in London, where he died in 1901 aged 89. working and seeking inspiration directly from nature. The EUGENE VON GUÉRARD Education Kit 2018 3 ART GALLERY OF BALLARAT LEARNING ACTIVITIES EUGENE VON GUÉRARD: ARTIST–TRAVELLER Activity 1, VCE Studio Art: Historical and Activity 2, Geography 3–10 Cultural Context Using a map of the world, illustrate von Guérard’s Using images sourced from the internet, create a visual, movements from his birth in Vienna in 1811 to his death annotated timeline of von Guérard’s life. Using the in London in 1901. Label the map using key facts, and information on page 3 as a guide include any other illustrate it using images of von Guérard’s artworks. signicant global events which were happening at the same time. EUGENE VON GUÉRARD Education Kit 2018 4 ART GALLERY OF BALLARAT ARTIST–TRAVELLER–DOCUMENTER Western Victoria The following map of von Guérard’s journeys in Western Victoria indicate the routes followed on his sketching expeditions, based on the information in his sketchbooks. Lake Hindmarsh Tullyvea Goulburn River 1852, 53, 54, 55, 56, 57, 59, (62) 1853, 54, 56, 64, 66 Dimboola 1855, 56, 82 March 1857, December 1857, 1859, 1862 Longe renong July–August 1855 Vectis Horsham BENDIGO Mt Arapiles February–March 1856 May–June 1856 Mt Zero Glenorchy St Mary’s Lake March–April 1857 Woodlands Maryborough December 1857 Roseb rook Castlemaine Stawell Goulburn River October 1859 The Black Range Avoca Elmhurst Hanging Mokepilly Rock April 1862 The Kyneton Grampians HHepburnepburn Carlsruhe March 1864 Ararat Glenlyon Mt Buangor Mt William Daylessford April–June 1864 Buangor Mt Macedon Creswick Beaufort May 1866 Yarram Yalla-y-Poora December 1866 Wannon River Yarram Glenara Stoneleigh BALLARAATT Nigretta MooraboolMoo Falls Sunbury September–October 1868 Casterton Coleraine Falls Mt Emu Buninyong Lal LalLa Falls Skipton Clarendonlarendon Hamilton 1852, 53, 54, 55, 56, 57, 59, (62) Wannon MELBOURNE Mount Falls Blackwood Hopkins River Mt Gambier Penshurst Elephant MooraboolMoo River Lethbridge You Yangs Mt Napier Mt Shadwell 1853,Derrinallum 54, 56, 64, 66 Lake (Muddy Water Holes)oles) Mt Rouse Wooriwyrite Corangamite Larra Glenelg River Merri River Mening oort Koort Koort Nong Kangatong Mortlake Barwon River Nelson 1855, 56, 82 Mt Eccles Mt Noorat Lake Bookaar To South Australia, July 1855 Dunmore GEELONG Lake Keilambete Winchelsea Koroit Camperdown March 1857, December 1857, 1859,Lake ConnewarreC 1862 Tower Hill Terang From England, arr. (Portland) December 1852 Port Lake Colac Portland Fairy W ARRNAMBOOL Purrumbete Deans Marsh Anglesea TandaJuly–Augustrook Lake Gnotuk 1855 Lake Journey home, Lake Bullen Merri AireysAirey Inlet January 1882 Elingamite Loorne February–March 1856 Apollo Bay Cape Otway 310 311 1852, 53, 54, 55, 56, 57, 59, (62) December 1857 1853, 54, 56, 64, 66 October 1859 1855, 56, 82 April 1862 March 1857, December 1857, 1859, 1862 March 1864 July–August 1855 April–June 1864 February–March 1856 May 1866 May–June 1856 December 1866 March–April 1857 September–October 1868 EUGENE VON GUÉRARD Education Kit 2018 5 ART GALLERY OF BALLARAT SKETCHBOOK TO STUDIO: VON GUÉRARD’S PROCESS AND WORKING METHODS First and foremost, von Guérard was an artist–traveller; He was not restrained by the scale of his sketchbooks: he documented his journeys and expeditions in his when completing large vistas or panoramas, he would sketchbooks. There are forty-seven known sketchbooks use multiple pages. Once a page was lled, he would that record his impressions of Italy, Germany, Australia, label the image with the German word ‘Fortsetzung’, New Zealand and England. He used these sketchbooks meaning continuation, and using a numbering system, to document the landscape and personal experiences would continue his drawing over one or more other as he travelled to new and sometime very hard-to-reach pages. If completing a study on a single piece of paper, places. The small pocket-sized sketchbooks became he would simply attach another piece where he wished documentations of his journeys; lled with quick sketches the composition to continue. and more detailed studies. Working within in the Von Guérard did not often work in colour; instead he constraints of the small format sketchbook, von Guérard devised a system for documenting colour using symbols was able to capture the sublime beauty and expanse of related to a key. He would use dierent-shaped symbols the natural world. pertaining to dierent colours to record the colours for Whilst studying at the Düsseldorf Academy, von Guérard, the composition. This system was then translated into experimented with oil sketches, painting outdoors to actual colours within the studio.