Sir Arthur Ernest Streeton (8 April 1867 –
1 September 1943) was an Australian landscapes painter. He was born in Mount Duneed, southwest of Geelong, and his family
moved to Richmond in 1874. He commenced study at the
National Gallery Schools in 1882. 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 — a 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.
Eaglemont
Golden Summer, Eaglemont by Arthur Streeton (1889) bought by the
National
Gallery of Australia for $3.5 million
In 1888 Streeton moved to the Eaglemont estate near Heidelberg which he shared with Roberts,
Charles Conder and Walter Withers. He remained at
Eaglemont until 1890 during which time he produced many of his most famous landscapes. One of the
best known, Golden Summer, Eaglemont shows the differences in the light outdoors between sunshine and shade, with the
focus of the picture being the yellow-gold colour of the sunlit field. The figure of the man with some sheep appears subservient
to the colour of the fields, compared to the paintings of Conder where the figure was more important. In the early 1890s Streeton
made a number of trips to Sydney and painted in the Blue
Mountains and along the Hawkesbury River.
In his painting of the Yarra River valley, Still glides the stream and shall forever glide (1890), Streeton shows a
winding river in the middle of the picture and a landscape of bright yellowish colour, very typically Australian. The painting
was the first of his landscapes which was bought by a large art gallery, with the Art Gallery of New South Wales purchasing it in the same year that it was painted.
'Sunlight Sweet', Coogee by Arthur Streeton (1890).
In 1897 Streeton sailed for London. 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. Streeton was deeply affected
by the sights he encountered in the hospital and was discharged in February 1917 as medically
unfit.
Official War Artist
Amiens, the key of the west, oil-on-canvas, completed in 1919.
Having recovered, 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 and his works have been criticised for failing to
concentrate on the fighting soldiers. Unlike the more famous wartime works depicting the definitive moments of battle, such as
George Lambert's Anzac, the landing 1915, Streeton produced "military still life", capturing the everyday
moments of the war. Streeton observed that, "True pictures of battlefields are very quiet looking things. There's nothing much to
be seen, everybody and thing is hidden and camouflaged."
His most famous war painting, Amiens, the key of
the west, a landscape of the Amiens countryside with dirty plumes of battlefield smoke
staining the horizon, remains a powerful image of war. A similar scene is depicted in Streeton's The Somme valley near
Corbie with a peaceful rural setting in the foreground and the smoke of an artillery bombardment in the distance.
Streeton returned to Australia in December 1919 and 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. 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 life time.
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 AU$3.5 million, a price since considered excessive. In 1985,
Settler's Camp sold at auction for AU$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 AU$2.04 million (AU$1.853 million before tax), becoming
only the second painting by an Australian artist to exceed the AU$2 million mark at auction (after Frederick McCubbin's Bush Idyll which sold for AU$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?
Recentally, secret declarations of love have 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. NGV say
that both the text and figure are related to someone called Florence (Florry) Walker. They also said that it seemed that Streeton
had strong affections for Florence and put her name in the painting.
External links
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