Melbourne, VIC, Australia - The term Australian Impressionism covers the practice in Australia during the late nineteenth century of painting directly from the subject, particularly the landscape.  Plein-air or open air painting was practiced internationally from the late eighteenth century, but was still novel enough to be notable in Australia when Tom Roberts championed it upon his return to Melbourne in 1885.  Australian Impressionism is also used as a term to cover the studio work, including portraiture and ‘national’ and allegorical subjects, of the Australian Impressionists.  On exhibition until 8 July, 2007.

Australian Impressionism

focuses on the work of the five principal players – Charles Conder, Frederick McCubbin, Tom Roberts, Arthur Streeton and Jane Sutherland – and looks at the first phase of the movement, 1883-1897.

When Tom Roberts returned to Melbourne in 1885, he and Louis Abrahams and Frederick McCubbin established the first plein-air camp at Box Hill, where they painted landscapes that captured the distinctive light and mystery of the Australian bush.  Box Hill was followed in the summer of 1886-87 by the Mentone camp, Port Phillip Bay, where the young Arthur Streeton joined the group.  The next summer, 1888-89 the spotlight moved to Heidelberg, where Streeton was joined by Conder and Roberts, and together they painted, socialised and planned the now-famous 9 by 5 Impression Exhibition which was held at Buxton’s Rooms in the city in August 1889.

The discovery of gold in Victoria in the 1850s triggered unprecedented population growth and a boom that would last until the ‘bust’ of 1890.

The specially constructed Exhibition Buildings in Melbourne’s Carlton Gardens housed the Centennial International Exhibition of 1880 and again in 1888, and stood as a significant example of this decade’s optimism and prosperity.  During this period Melbourne was characterized by a construction boom that doubled the national rate and there was also rapid growth in the transport and communication networks as the city quickly expanded.

By 1885 the city had been christened ‘Marvellous Melbourne’ by London journalist George Augustus Sala.  The legacy of this period still stands in the form of the General Post Office, the Princess Theatre, the old Stock Exchange, and Rialto Building.

Australian Impressionist artists used the new train network to explore the country beyond the city's limits.  As well as visions of the Australian landscape, Roberts, Arthur Streeton and Frederick McCubbin were amongst the first generation of Melbourne city painters to capture the varied moods of urban life.

Grosvenor Chambers, a purpose-built ‘arts centre’ on Collins Street became a symbol of the optimism of cosmopolitan Melbourne.  It opened with great fanfare on Friday 20 April 1888 and housed the studios of Roberts, Louis Abrahams and others as well as hosting open studio days, and artistic ‘salons’. Jane Sutherland kept a studio there until the end of the 19th century and Charles Conder and Streeton had brief residencies.

Much of the activity of the Australian Impressionists took place in New South Wales.  The exhibition looks at Tom Roberts’s trip to Sydney in Easter 1888, his meeting with Conder and their painting trip to Coogee.  The following Spring, Conder visited Richmond in NSW and painted his famous blossom pictures, which are brought together in this show.

By 1890 the boom that underpinned the world of ‘Marvellous Melbourne’ had broken and it was becoming very difficult for artists to sell pictures.  Early that year the household of the ‘happy trio’ at Heidelberg disintegrated.  Conder returned to Europe in April and Roberts and Streeton spent increasing amounts of time in Sydney and rural NSW. Roberts eventually abandoned his stylish Grosvenor Chambers studio in Collins Street for a borrowed studio in Sydney and a tent on Sydney Harbour.  Streeton’s Sydney Harbour and Hawkesbury River landscapes are the subjects of separate installations in the exhibition, as are the landscapes of Jane Sutherland, the portraits of Roberts and Streeton, and Symbolism, as it emerges in the work of Conder and Streeton.

The exhibition culminates in a survey of the ‘iconic’ pictures that gave expression to the emerging nationalism of the period: Roberts’s Shearing the rams, A break away!, The Golden Fleece, In a corner on the Macintyre, A mountain muster and Bailed up; Streeton’s Fire’s on; and McCubbin’s Down on his luck, A bush burial and On the wallaby track. 

About NGV :

Since 1861, the National Gallery of Victoria has been displaying art works for the enjoyment of the community.  In the mid-1990s, the gallery acknowledged that its St Kilda Road building could no longer successfully meet the demands of its growing collection and extensive exhibitions schedule.

The Victorian State Government agreed to an extensive redevelopment of the site, and also agreed to fund a second NGV building at Federation Square.

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