Discovering Australia’s Impressionists

Interesting course over two afternoons at the National Gallery exploring the themes behind their current exhibition on the Australian Impressionists.

In the first week we looked at the lives and output of three of the artists in the show, Tom Roberts, Arthur Streeton and Charles Condor. We discussed why the show was laid out as it is and what the two main themes of cities and countryside showed about Australia at the time. We discussed how only became a country in this period and how art reflected and helped shape its national identity. We also discussed what the Australia artists would have known about art trends in Europe.

In the second week we focused on the fourth artist in the show John Russell who moved to Europe and became friends with many of the European artist of the time. He studied with Toulouse Lautrec and Van Gogh and continued to write to Van Gogh until the latter’s death. He also met Monet and later Matisse while painting. We talked about the house he built on an island off the west coast of France and the life he built there with his wife and eleven children.

The two afternoons really illuminated the show and brought out themes and ideas which I’d missed as I went round.

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