Arthur Streeton

Arthur Streeton
Tom Roberts' portrait of Smike Streeton, age 24 (1891), held at the Art Gallery of New South Wales
Birth name	Arthur Ernest Streeton
Born	8 April 1867(1867-04-08) Mount Duneed, Victoria, Australia
Died	1 September 1943(1943-09-01) (aged 76) Olinda, Victoria, Australia
Nationality	Australian
Field	Painting
Movement	Heidelberg School

Sir Arthur Ernest Streeton (8 April 1867 – 1 September 1943) was an Australian landscape painter.

Early life

Streeton was born in Mount Duneed, near Geelong, and his family moved to Richmond in 1874. In 1882, Streeton commenced art studies with G. F. Folingsby at the National Gallery School.

Streeton was influenced by French Impressionism and the works of Turner. During this time he began his association with fellow artists Frederick McCubbin and Tom Roberts — at Melbourne including at Box Hill and Heidelberg. In 1885 Streeton presented his first exhibition at the Victorian Academy of Art. He found employment as an apprentice lithographer under Charles Troedel.

Career

Eaglemont camp, Heidelberg

See also: Eaglemont, Victoria and Heidelberg, Victoria

Golden Summer, Eaglemont, 1889, National Gallery of Australia

′Still glides the stream, and shall for ever glide′, 1890, Art Gallery of New South Wales

In the summer drought of 1888, Streeton travelled by train to the attractive agricultural and grazing suburb of Heidelberg, 11 km north-east of Melbourne's city center. His intention was to walk the remaining distance to the site where Louis Buvelot painted his 1866 work Summer afternoon near Templestowe, which was, according to Streeton, "the first fine landscape painted in Victoria". On the return journey to Heidelberg, wet canvas in hand, Streeton met Charles Davies, brother-in-law of friend and fellow plein air painter David Davies. Charles gave him "artistic possession" of an abandoned homestead atop the summit of Mount Eagle estate, offering spectacular views across the Yarra Valley to the Dandenongs. For Streeton, Eaglemont (as it became known) was the ideal working environment—a reasonably isolated rural location that was still close to the city. The house itself could be seen by visitors as they arrived at Heidelberg railway station.

Streeton spent the first few nights at Eaglemont alone with the estate's tenant farmer Jack Whelan (who posed for Streeton's "pioneer" painting The selector's hut (Whelan on the log), 1890), and slept upon the floor, the rooms being bare of furniture. The house was "creaking and ghostly. A long dark corridor seemed full of past visions, and out of doors a blurred rich blackness against the sharp brilliance of the Southern Cross .... But tobacco and wine weighed healthily against the darkness". He descended the hill daily to Heidelberg village for meals before jaunting into the bush with a billycan of milk and swag of paints and canvases. The first artists to paint with Streeton at Eaglemont were the National Gallery students Aby Altson and John Llewelyn Jones, followed by John Mather and Walter Withers. Like Streeton, Withers painted from nature amidst suburban bush around Melbourne, employing earthy colours with loose, impressionistic brushstrokes. By the end of 1888 he became a weekend visitor to the camp.

About the same time, Streeton met the artist Charles Conder, who travelled down from Sydney in October 1888 at the invitation of Tom Roberts. One year Streeton's junior, Conder was already a committed plein airist, and was heavily influenced by the painterly techniques of expatriate impressionist Girolamo Nerli. Conder and Roberts joined Streeton at Eaglemont in January 1889 and helped make some modest improvements to the house. Despite austere living conditions, Streeton was content: "Surrounded by the loveliness of the new landscape, with heat, drought, and flies, and hard pressed for the necessaries of life, we worked hard, and were a happy trio." Streeton and Conder immediately took to each other, and Conder considered Streeton "a genius". Their shared love of South Australian poet Adam Lindsay Gordon's lyrical verse is revealed in the titles of some of their Eaglemont paintings, including Streeton's romantic gloaming work ′Above us the great grave sky′ (1890, taken from Gordon's poem Doubtful Dreams). Later, critics would mistake some of the pair's Eaglemont paintings as companion pieces, as both artists often painted the same views and subjects using a high-keyed "gold and blue" palette, which Streeton considered "nature's scheme of colour in Australia".

Two of Streeton's best-known works were painted during this period—Golden Summer, Eaglemont (1889) and ′Still glides the stream, and shall for ever glide′ (1890)—each a sunlit pastoral scene of golden-paddocked plains stretching to the distant blue Corhanwarrabul. In 1891, Golden Summer, Eaglemont became the first painting by an Australian-born artist to be exhibited at the Royal Academy, London, and was awarded a mention honorable at the 1892 Paris Salon.

Travel

In 1897 Streeton sailed for London on the Polynesien, stopping at Port Said before continuing on via Cairo and Naples. He held an exhibition at the Royal Academy in 1900 and became a member of the Chelsea Arts Club in 1903. While Streeton had developed a considerable reputation in Australia, he failed to achieve the same success in England. His trips to London were financed by the sales of his paintings at home in Australia. His time in England reinforced a strong sense of patriotism towards the British Empire and, like many, anticipated the coming war with Germany with some enthusiasm.

Streeton returned to Australia in 1906 and completed some paintings at Mount Macedon in February 1907 before returning to London in October. Streeton painted in Venice in September 1908 and the resulting works were exhibited in Australia in July 1909 as "Arthur Streeton's Venice".

Streeton returned to Australia in April 1914 to conduct exhibitions in Sydney and Melbourne. He returned to England in early 1915 and, along with other members of the Chelsea Arts Club, including Tom Roberts, he joined the Royal Army Medical Corps (British Army) at the age of 48. He worked at the 3rd London General Hospital in Wandsworth and reached the rank of corporal.

Official War Artist

Arthur Streeton standing at the far right in this group portrait of Australian official war artists, 1916-1918 by George Coates, 1920. Oil on canvas, 124.2 x 104.5 cm. The painting presents, left to right: front — George Bell; standing — John Longstaff, Charles Bryant, George Washington Lambert, A. Henry Fullwood, James Quinn, H. Septimus Power, Streeton; and seated back — Will Dyson, Fred Leist.

Streeton was made an Australian Official War Artist with the Australian Imperial Force, holding the rank of lieutenant, and he travelled to France on 14 May 1918 and was attached to the 2nd Division.

As a war artist, Streeton continued to deal in landscapes. Streeton's wartime artworks have been criticised for failing to concentrate on the fighting soldiers.

Unlike the more famous war art depicting the definitive moments of battle, Streeton produced "military still life", capturing the everyday moments of the war. Streeton explained what was at that time an unconventional point-of-view — a perspective which was based in experience:

“

True pictures of battlefields are very quiet looking things. There's nothing much to be seen, everybody and thing is hidden and camouflaged.

”

Later years

Mount St Quentin, oil-on-canvas, completed in 1918

After the war, Streeton resumed painting in the Grampians and Dandenong Ranges. Streeton built a house on five acres (20,000 m²) at Olinda in the Dandenongs where he continued to paint. He won the Wynne Prize in 1928 with Afternoon Light, Goulburn Valley. He was an art critic for The Argus from 1929 to 1935 and in 1937 was knighted for services to the arts. He married Esther Leonora Clench, a Canadian violinist, in 1908. Streeton died in September 1943. He is buried at Fern Tree Gully cemetery.

Prices

Streeton's paintings are amongst the most collectible of Australian artists and attracted high prices during his lifetime. Golden Summer, Eaglemont was sold for around 1000 guineas in 1924 and in the 1980s it was bought in a private sale by the National Gallery of Australia for US$3.5 million, a price since considered excessive. In 1985, Settler's Camp sold at auction for A$800,000 and this remained the record auction price for Streeton's work until 23 May 2005, when his 1890 painting, Sunlight Sweet, Coogee, was sold for A$2.04 million (A$1.853 million before tax), becoming only the second painting by an Australian artist to exceed the A$2 million mark at auction (after Frederick McCubbin's Bush Idyll which sold for A$2.3 million in 1998).The painting was part of the Foster's Group collection and was sold at auction by Sotheby's.

Streeton's works appear in many major Australian galleries and museums, including the Australian War Memorial, National Gallery of Victoria, the Art Gallery of New South Wales and the National Gallery of Australia.

Love notes

Recently, a secret declaration of love has been discovered within one of Streeton's artworks. The inscriptions in his 1890 painting 'Spring' include the words "Florry Walker, my sweetheart". A female figure has also been discovered within the artwork. The figure was later painted over, but a faint outline can still be seen on close inspection.

The National Gallery of Victoria (NGV) discovered the inscription under a microscope while restoring the painting.

Images

• The domes of St. Mark's. 1908

See also

• Australian art

References

• Galbally, Ann E. Galbally. (1990). "Streeton, Sir Arthur Ernest (1867 - 1943)," Australian Dictionary of Biography, Vol. 12. Carlton, Victoria: Melbourne University Press.
• Reid, John B. (1977). Australian Artists at War: Compiled from the Australian War Memorial Collection. Vol. 1. 1885-1925; Vol. 2 1940-1970. South Melbourne, Victoria: Sun Books. 10-ISBN 0-7251-0254-3/13-ISBN 978-0-7251-0254-8; OCLC 4035199

External links

• Artist's footsteps - Arthur Streeton
• Arthur Streeton at Australian Art
• Arthur Streeton on Picture Australia
• Dictionary of Australian Art, Arthur Streeton