Arthur Streeton
Arthur Ernest Streeton | |
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Victoria, Australia | |
Died | 1 September 1943 Olinda, Victoria, Australia | (aged 76)
Known for | Painting |
Movement | Heidelberg School |
Spouse | Nora Clench |
Sir Arthur Ernest Streeton (8 April 1867 – 1 September 1943) was an Australian
Early life
Streeton was born in
In 1885, Streeton exhibited works for the first time with the Victorian Academy of Art. He found employment as an apprentice lithographer under Charles Troedel.[4]
Career
During the summer of 1886–87, Streeton, aged nineteen, first befriended Tom Roberts and Frederick McCubbin while painting en plein air at Mentone Beach. The pair greatly admired Streeton's work and invited him to join them at artists' camps they had established in both Mentone and Box Hill. They were later joined by Charles Conder, beginning a two-year period of close creative companionship, and forming the core group of what became known as the Heidelberg School movement, later also called Australian impressionism. Streeton's work rapidly improved during this period, and by 1888 he was widely considered one of Victoria's most gifted young painters.
Streeton was exhibiting and perhaps painting in the studio of his friend Roberts at Grosvenor Chambers, Collins Street by May 1888.[5]
Eaglemont camp, Heidelberg
In the
Streeton spent the first few nights at Eaglemont alone with the estate's tenant farmer Jack Whelan (who appears in Streeton's "pioneer" painting The selector's hut (Whelan on the log), 1890
About the same time, Streeton met the artist
Two of Streeton's best-known works were painted during this period—
Sydney and travels inland
On 2 June 1890, in the wake of an economic depression in Melbourne, Strreeton sailed to Sydney, and initially stayed there with his sister in the suburb of Summer Hill.[12] He soon relocated to Curlew Camp, a plein air artists' camp on Sydney Harbour, where he painted many views of his natural surroundings and was visited by a number of artists, including Julian Ashton and Albert Henry Fullwood, who stayed at the camp for extended periods. Tom Roberts later joined him also, continuing their artistic friendship. From 1891, Streeton began travelling widely in rural New South Wales. As well as painting scenes of Sydney Harbour and Coogee, and urban scenes of Sydney, it was during the early to mid-1890s that he painted some of his major rural landscapes, including the Hawkesbury River series and 'Fire's on'.[2]
Sydney Harbour inspired many of Streeton's most poetic Symbolist paintings, a number of which infuse the Australian landscape with mythological subjects. The city also spurred his interest in the decorative arts as he painted on fans, furniture, musical instruments and other objects. The influence of Japanese art, such as kakemono (hung scrolls), is evidenced in the extreme vertical formats and compositional elements he favoured around this time.
In 1893, Streeton wrote in Sydney's Daily Telegraph criticising a proposal by a mining company to develop a colliery on the shores of Sydney Harbor, which would necessitate the cutting down of a great many gum trees. His letter, which came to be known as "Streeton's shriek", read in part:
It seems likely that charming Cremorne is to pass away and leave a dismal eyesore ... Where once was youth with their sweethearts in white muslin gathered joyfully for merriment and sport, making Cremorne a happy pastoral, we would have instead a numerous fleet of grimy coal ships, hulks, smoke and darkness.
The letter helped raise public alarm over the proposal, and in 1895, Streeton painted Cremorne pastoral, his largest harbour composition, as "an elegiac image of what [he] believed would be lost" if the project went head. When it went on exhibition later that year, the Art Gallery of New South Wales acquired the work and publicly endorsed Streeton's protests. The government, in the face of mounting backlash, was forced to abandon the mining project.[13][14] Cremorne pastoral's status as an environmental protest painting is considered groundbreaking in Australian art history.[15]
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McMahon's Point Ferry, 1890, private collection
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Fire's on, 1891, Art Gallery of New South Wales
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Oblivion, 1892, private collection
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Cremorne pastoral, 1895, Art Gallery of New South Wales
Overseas and life in England
In 1897 Streeton sailed for London on the Polynesian, stopping at
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. In 1906, Streeton returned to Australia and completed some paintings at Mount Macedon in February 1907 while staying with his patrons the Pinschofs at Hohe Warte.[16] These included the notable five feet by three feet Australia Felix (a view from Mt. Toorong) and a number of other smaller paintings. He returned to London in October. Paintings done in Venice in September 1908, including The Grand Canal, were exhibited in Australia in July 1909 as "Arthur Streeton's Venice". In Australia again in April 1914 he held exhibitions in Sydney and Melbourne and went back to England in early 1915.
War artist
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.
Streeton was made an Australian Official War Artist with the Australian Imperial Force,[17] holding the rank of Honorary Lieutenant, and he travelled to France on 14 May 1918 and was attached to the 2nd Division, receiving his movement order on 8 May 1918. He worked in France, with a break in August, until October 1918.[18][19] Expected by the Commonwealth to produce sketches and drawings that were "descriptive", Streeton concentrated on the landscape of the scenes of war and did not attempt to convey the human suffering. Unlike the more famous military 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.
Two paintings from this period, Villers Bretonneux (1918)[20] and Boulogne (1918),[21] are in the collection of the Art Gallery of New South Wales.
Later years
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.[22] 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 Ferntree Gully cemetery.
Legacy
Streeton Drive, a main thoroughfare in
There is also a memorial for Streeton just outside Geelong, Victoria.
In 2008, three expatriate Australian classical musicians living in Geneva, Switzerland founded a piano trio they named the Streeton Trio after the painter.[23]
Streeton's works appear in many major Australian galleries and museums, including the National Gallery of Australia and state galleries, and the Australian War Memorial. In September 2015, Streeton's Coogee clifftop landscape Blue Pacific (1890) became the first painting by an Australian artist, and only the second painting by a Western artist outside Europe, to hang in the permanent collection of the National Gallery, London. It sits alongside major impressionist works by Claude Monet and Édouard Manet.[24][25]
Prices
Streeton's paintings are amongst the most collectible of Australian artists and attracted high prices during his lifetime. Golden Summer, Eaglemont sold for around 1000
Gallery
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At Templestowe, 1889, Art Gallery of South Australia
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Sunlight Sweet, Coogee, 1890, private collection
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The Point Wharf, Mosman Bay, 1893, National Gallery of Australia
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The Railway Station, Redfern, 1893, Art Gallery of New South Wales
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Ariadne, 1895, National Gallery of Australia
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Manly Beach, 1895, Bendigo Art Gallery
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The Spirit of the Drought, 1895, National Gallery of Australia
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‘The purple noon's transparent might’, 1896, National Gallery of Victoria
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The Path to Podge Newton's, 1895, private collection
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From My Camp, 1896, Art Gallery of New South Wales
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House builders, Cairo, 1897, National Gallery of Australia
References
- ^ "Sir Arthur Streeton | Monument Australia".
- ^ a b "Streeton, Sir Arthur Ernest (1867–1943)," Australian Dictionary of Biography Online
- ^ Reid, John B. (1977). Australian Artists at War: Compiled from the Australian War Memorial Collection. Volume 1, p. 16.
- Australian Dictionary of Biography Online
- ^ "Melbourne Gossip". The Western Australian: 3. 16 May 1888. Retrieved 12 February 2021.
- ^ NGV Collection > Summer afternoon, Templstowe, ngv.vic.gov.au. Retrieved 23 October 2011.
- ^ a b c Streeton, Arthur (16 October 1934). "Eaglemont in the Eighties: Beginnings of Art in Australia". The Argus.
- ISBN 978-0724102815.
- ^ STREETON, Arthur | The selector's hut (Whelan on the log), nga.gov.au. Retrieved 23 October 2011.
- ISBN 020714284X, p. 76
- ^ STREETON, Arthur | 'Above us the great grave sky', nga.gov.au. Retrieved 8 November 2011.
- ^ "The Artists | Arthur Streeton - Biography". www.artistsfootsteps.com.
- ^ ""Streeton's shriek" by Tim Bonyhady, The Monthly' 'December 2020-January 2021". December 2020. Retrieved 28 March 2021.
- ^ "PICTURESQUE SYDNEY AND THE COAL BORE". Daily Telegraph. 9 December 1893. Retrieved 6 November 2021.
- ^ "Arthur Streeton’s green protest", The Australian.
- ^ Smith & Singer. View from Mt Toorong (Study for Australia Felix) https://auctions.smithandsinger.com.au/lots/view/1-2DWAYU/view-from-mt-toorong-study-for-australia-felix-1907
- ^ 'Camofleur', "Musketeers of Brush and Pencil with the A.I.F.: Art Under Fire: The Battlefield as Studio", The (Melbourne) Herald, (1 February 1919), p. 4.
- ^ Galbally (1979) p.67.
- ^ Australian War Memorial (AWM), First World War, Arthur Streeton.
- ^ Streeton, Arthur (1918). "Villers Bretonneux". AGNSW collection record. Art Gallery of New South Wales. Retrieved 10 May 2016.
- ^ Streeton, Arthur (1918). "Boulogne". AGNSW collection record. Art Gallery of New South Wales. Retrieved 10 May 2016.
- ^ "Wynne Prize". AGNSW prize record. Art Gallery of New South Wales. 1928. Retrieved 10 May 2016.
- ^ Streeton Trio. Retrieved 18 April 2014
- ^ Boland, Michaela (18 September 2015). "Arthur Streeton hanging out with art toffs in UK’s National Gallery", The Australian. Retrieved 1 March 2016.
- ^ Schwartzkoff, Louise (18 September 2015). "Arthur Streeton's Blue Pacific at the National Gallery in London: mystery owner revealed as Jeff d'Albora". The Sydney Morning Herald. Retrieved 4 November 2015.
- ^ O'Brien, Kerrie (1 April 2021). "Arthur Streeton's Grand Canal sells for record $3 million at auction". Sydney Morning Herald. Retrieved 21 April 2021.
External links
- Artist's footsteps – Arthur Streeton
- Arthur Streeton at the Art Gallery of New South Wales
- Arthur Streeton at Australian Art
- Arthur Streeton on Picture Australia
- Dictionary of Australian Art, Arthur Streeton
- Images
- The domes of St. Mark's (1908) Archived 25 September 2009 at the Wayback Machine