Reference: see Deutscher & Hackett auction 4.5.22, lot 17 and 19:
ARTHUR STREETON
(1867 - 1943)
NORTHERN VIEW, OLINDA, 1933
oil on canvas
31.0 x 91.5 cm
signed lower left: A STREETON.
inscribed on frame verso: Streeton
framer's label attached verso: John Thallon, Melbourne
PROVENANCE
The Athenaeum Gallery, Melbourne
Mrs A. E. Ramsay, Victoria, acquired from the above in 1933
Thence by descent
Private collection, Victoria
EXHIBITED
A Retrospective Exhibition of Paintings by Arthur Streeton, The Athenaeum Gallery, Melbourne, 15 – 26 August 1933, cat. 40
LITERATURE
Streeton, A., The Arthur Streeton Catalogue, Melbourne, 1935, cat. 1076
ESSAY
After living in London for more than a decade, Arthur Streeton returned to Australia with his wife and young son in 1920. The following year, he purchased five acres of land at Olinda in the Dandenong Ranges east of Melbourne, fulfilling a long-held ambition to establish what he once described as his own ‘pastoral treasury’. Following the sale of Golden Summer, Eaglemont, 1889 (National Gallery of Australia) for the extraordinary sum of 1000 guineas, he built a house there several years later and enthusiastically began to develop a garden against the backdrop of mature native blackwoods and gum trees. Writing to Tom Roberts in 1924, he enthused, ‘And the garden and the trees, what a delight it is. All through the winter I’ve put in my week-ends up there… working at the bramble and bracken… and planting no end of trees… blackwoods… Lambertiana Cypress… Acacia Elata’.1
Typically spending summers at Olinda, as well as making regular visits throughout the year, Streeton came to know the area well, and both his garden and the surrounding landscape feature in paintings produced during the 1920s and 30s. Continuing the practice established in his youth, of painting outdoors and working directly from the subject – as well as in the studio – Streeton captured the essence and the actuality of the landscape, skilfully combining fleeting atmospheric effects with recognisable geographical features. At the time, his paintings were recognised as symbols of Australian life and land, and today, Streeton is still widely acknowledged as the creator of quintessentially national images. Writing in 1931, Harold Herbert noted that, ‘His unfailing sureness is a source of wonder. His unerring vision and sense of colour and atmosphere in Australian landscape are unique. His work vibrates with realism’2. While many works of this time reflect Streeton’s familiarity with the region and his celebrated ability to capture the beauty of the landscape in paint, his strong belief in the importance of protecting the natural environment also emerged as a significant theme during these years, motivated in part by the transformation he witnessed as a result of active logging and clearing. Addressing the Forest League in 1925, he said, ‘It seems an amazing thing to me that a community which spends thousands of pounds on hospitals and homes… and which is progressive and businesslike in so many ways, should suffer hundreds and hundreds of acres of valuable timber to be destroyed to facilitate some work of the moment when so little is gained from it.’3
Presenting an expansive panoramic vista, Northern view, Olinda, 1933 looks from a high vantage point across to a nearby hill-top – densely treed, apart from a large central clearing – and the distant landscape beyond. Streeton places us in the landscape in this picture, and close to the sky, which is pale blue and scattered with clouds. Delicate vertical brushstrokes of purple on the right-hand side describe a rain shower in the distance, suggesting direct observation of the subject. The key to this image however, is the large felled tree in the right-hand corner. It is a subtle, yet powerful inclusion, the girth of the tree trunk signalling its age and symbolising the scale of the loss it represents. The strong environmental stance Streeton adopted in these works did not discourage serious collectors, indeed, it may well have encouraged buyers who both appreciated his artistic skill and shared his progressive opinions. The first owner of A mountain side, 1935 (Westpac Banking Corporation), for example, was Sir George Coles, founder of G. J. Coles & Co. retail stores. Similarly, Alfred Nicholas, who famously produced aspirin in Australia under the name Aspro, purchased The vanishing forest, 1934 (private collection) from its first exhibition. Northern view, Olinda was purchased from Streeton’s 1933 exhibition at the Athenaeum Gallery, Melbourne by Mrs Annie Ramsay (1871 -1953) and has remained in the family ever since. While her name is comparatively little known in the context of early twentieth century business figures, from 1923 – 33, she was the chairwoman of the Kiwi Polish Company, which had been founded by her husband, William (1868 – 1914). Indeed, it was her New Zealand heritage and nickname, ‘Kiwi Annie’, which inspired the name of this iconic Australian brand.4
1. Streeton to Tom Roberts, 13 August 1924, quoted in Croll, R. H., Smike to Bulldog: Letters from Sir Arthur Streeton to Tom Roberts, Ure Smith Pty Ltd, Sydney, 1946, p. 119
2. Herbert, H., ‘Art of Arthur Streeton, Sunlit Landscapes, Beautiful Flower Pieces’, Argus, 17 March 1931, p. 8 quoted in Eagle, M., The Oil Paintings of Arthur Streeton in the National Gallery of Australia, National Gallery of Australia, Canberra, 1994, p. 154
3. Reported in the Argus, 27 November 1925, p. 23, quoted in Smith, G., Arthur Streeton 1867-1943, National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne, 1995, p. 163
4. For more information about Annie Ramsay and the history of the Kiwi company, see Dunstan, K., Kiwi: the Australian Brand that Brought a Shine to the World, Allen and Unwin, Crows Nest, 2017. It is significant to note that the family was also directly associated with the art world through William’s brother, the distinguished painter, Hugh Ramsay (1877 – 1906).
KIRSTY GRANT
and
ARTHUR STREETON
(1867 - 1943)
OUT OF THE PURPLE MOUNTAINS IT GETS ITS WATERS, 1928
oil on canvas on composition board
50.0 x 76.0 cm
signed lower left: A STREETON.
bears inscription on label attached verso: ‘Out of the Purple Mountains / it gets its Waters’ / Arthur Streeton / The Property of …
PROVENANCE
Macquarie Galleries, Sydney
Mr Charles David Murray, Sydney
Thence by descent
Private collection
Lawsons, Sydney, 19 June 1984, lot 104 (as 'Out of the Purple Mountains It Gets Its Waters (Creek from Purple Hill)')
Earl Gallery, Victoria
Private collection, Victoria, acquired from the above in July 1984
EXHIBITED
Exhibition of Recent Paintings: Arthur Streeton, Macquarie Galleries, Sydney, 4 – 15 April 1929 (as ‘Drawing its Water from the Purple Hill’)
LITERATURE
‘Art Exhibitions: Mr. Streeton’s Paintings’, The Sydney Morning Herald, Sydney, 4 April 1929, p. 8 (as ‘Drawing its Water from the Purple Hill’)
Tildesley, B., ‘Oil Paintings by Arthur Streeton’, Sydney Mail, Sydney, 10 April 1929, p. 29 (as ‘Drawing its Water from the Purple Hill’)
Streeton, A., The Arthur Streeton Catalogue, Melbourne, 1935, cat. 980 (as 'Creek, from Purple Hill')
ESSAY
‘Arthur Streeton has done for Australia what… Constable did for England, Claude for Italy, Daubigny and Corot for France. He has fixed the character of our landscape for all time... I attribute this to his mastery of the painting of light and a perfect colour sense, always faithful to the mood of the hour.’1
So proclaimed Lionel Lindsay, well-known artist and arts commentator, in the special issue of Art in Australia that was published in 1931 to celebrate the art of Arthur Streeton. That same year, Streeton – then in his sixties and widely celebrated as one of Australia’s finest painters – was honoured with a retrospective exhibition at the National Art Gallery of New South Wales, the first Australian artist to be acknowledged in this way during his lifetime. He would receive the highest honour of the day some years later when, in 1937, he was knighted for his services to art.
As a young man in the 1880s and 90s, Streeton, along with his friends, Tom Roberts, Charles Conder and Frederick McCubbin, had transformed the depiction of the Australian landscape. Discarding traditional academic techniques and rules of representation, these so-called Australian Impressionists instead emphasised the naturalistic effects of light and colour, often painting outdoors, and producing atmospheric and painterly ‘impressions’ of their subjects.2 Streeton, in particular, became associated with images which cast the rural Australian landscape in shades of blue and gold, sun-bleached paddocks and golden plains glowing beneath vast blue skies. Exhibited at the Royal Academy, London in 1891 and awarded a Mention Honorable at the Paris Salon the following year, Golden summer, Eaglemont, 1899 (National Gallery of Australia) exemplifies this aspect of his oeuvre. Long recognised as a masterpiece of Australian art, this light-filled pastoral scene is at once romantic and yet, even to contemporary eyes, somehow also entirely realistic.
The poetically titled Out of the purple mountains it gets its waters, 1928, continues this theme but brings into view a majestic mountain that separates the blue sky, a puff of white cloud on the horizon, from the grassy golden foreground. Streeton’s mastery of his medium and facility with the brush is on full display in this painting, from the lively daubs of paint that make up the purple mountains to the reedy growth in the lower right, which is convincingly described in just a few fine brushstrokes. The composition leads the viewer through the landscape in a gentle zig-zag motion, following the contours of the mountains through the band of trees that makes up the middle ground, joining up with the stream which flows to the front of the picture plane. Displayed in Streeton’s solo exhibition at Macquarie Galleries, Sydney in 1929, this painting prompted the Sydney Mail critic to declare that ‘There is no Australian painter as yet who can surpass him in the representation of spacious landscapes… [ Out of the purple mountains it gets its waters] is joyously characteristic of Streeton in the rendering of the stream winding along the sandy flats.’3
This painting shares much in common with another major work of the time, Land of the Golden Fleece (Art Gallery of New South Wales), 1926, which depicts the dramatic landscape around the Grampians in Western Victoria, an area Streeton visited in November of that year.4 While this view is more expansive and takes in a broad vista, the palette is similar, as is the overall composition, which uses the flat-topped mountain as a backdrop for its pastoral scene, complete with dense stands of trees, the ubiquitous windmill and dam, and flock of grazing sheep. Such images served another significant purpose during these years, reinforcing a proud sense of national identity and a path towards recovery for a country that had suffered many losses in the First World War. As Ian Burn wrote, ‘In the postwar period, artists returned to the theme of the Australian landscape with a changed idea of its value and meaning… the war had imbued the landscape with a new power and authority… The masculine ideals of war were used to promote and validate a particular landscape of peace, an ideal of pastoral wealth and national potential’.5
1. Lindsay, L., ‘Arthur Streeton, Art in Australia, third series, no. 40, October 1931, p. 11
2. For an analysis of these artists’ work in relation to French Impressionism, see Vaughan, G., ‘Some Reflections on Defining Australian Impressionism’ in Lane, T., Australian Impressionism, National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne, 2007, pp. 16 – 19
3. Tildesley, B., ‘Oil Paintings by Arthur Streeton’, Sydney Mail, Sydney, 10 April 1929, p. 29
4. Streeton painted three versions of this subject. The Art Gallery of New South Wales version is illustrated here. For the other two, see Eagle, M., The Oil Paintings of Arthur Streeton in the National Gallery of Australia, National Gallery of Australia, Canberra, 1994, pp. 184 – 87, and Smith, G., Arthur Streeton 1867-1943, National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne, 1995, pp. 170 – 171
5. Burn, I., National Life and Landscapes: Australian Painting 1900 – 1940, Bay Books, Sydney, 1991, pp.79 – 80, quoted in Eagle, ibid., pp. 186 – 87
KIRSTY GRANT
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