While he knew that a painter’s ‘best spokesman’ was their work, Henri Matisse (1869-1954) still went to great lengths to explain his creative process. In 1908, he recorded his thoughts about order and clarity, the way a work of art should be ‘harmonious in its entirety’ and its entire arrang
Tom Roberts’ paintings of the 1920s reveal his renewed delight in the Australian landscape, having spent the last two decades abroad in England and continental Europe. In March 1923, the artist and his wife Lillie purchased land at South Sassafras (now Kallista) in the Dandenong Ranges
A reader of the art reviews in Australian newspapers before World War II would note a familiar theme common to many – the reviewer would wax lyrical on the charm and beauty of the subjects chosen by the artist and then opine as to how faithfully they had been rendered in the painting. The su
Eugène Boudin’s free brushwork, contemporary subject matter and attention to atmospheric effects are evident in this delightful work. He was one of the first French artists to extol the virtues of plein air painting, and he encouraged the eighteen-year-old Claude Monet (
By 1896, Frederick and Annie McCubbin and their growing family had moved to New Street, Brighton, a place popular with many artists at that time. Their neighbours included John Mather (1848-1916), John Longstaff (1862-1941), Tudor St George Tucker (1862-1906) and Alexander Colquhoun (1862-19
On 14 May 1918, Arthur Streeton arrived in France as an official war artist of the Commonwealth, having previously aided the Allied war effort from London as a member of the Royal Army Medical Corps. After preliminary training in Boulogne, Streeton was assigned to the 2nd Division of t
Before the construction of the Sydney Harbour Bridge, travellers wishing to make their way across the harbour were obliged to make a lengthy journey inland or else use a ferry. At Milson’s Point, directly across the water from Circular Quay, the ferry provided a regular service which could t
Gum Trees in Landscape III is a fine example of Fred Williams’ mature work and the diversity of his practice. This gem of a picture forms part of a celebrated group of paintings, prints and drawings that begin with his You Yang pictures in 1963 and continue in the Upwey and Lysterfi
Ian Fairweather’s 1957 Women and Children, a modernist rendering of one of his most familiar subjects, is a fine example of balance between the figurative and the abstract.
It was painted at a moment of relative calm in the artist’s fractured and far-from-calm life, f
William Robinson’s paintings of central and south east Queensland are unique in the history of Australian art, revealing an approach to the landscape that is at once intimate and all-embracing.
First emerging in the mid-1980s, Robinson’s imagery of sub-tropical rainfore