“Any effect of nature which moves us strongly by its beauty, whether strong or vague in its drawing, defined or indefinite in its light, rare or ordinary in colour, is worthy of our best efforts and of the love of those who love our art. Through and over all this we say we will do our best to put only the truth down, and only as much as we feel sure of seeing.”

– Tom Roberts, Arthur Streeton and Charles Conder, Manifesto, 1889

Australian Impressionism, or the Heidelberg School as it came to be known, was an art movement inspired by the works of a group of artists who began painting outside, in and around the Dandenong Ranges. Inspired by the French Impressionists, artists of the Heidelberg School took advantage of the newly extended railway system in the 1880s to travel to artist camps and sketching grounds where they focused on painting naturalistic landscapes with an emphasis on light and shadow with lots of blue and gold hues. Artists associated with this school include Tom Roberts, Arthur Streeton and Frederick McCubbin, as well as Jane Sutherland, Clara Southern and Jane Price.

Works produced during this time include evocative landscapes and large-scale paintings of rural figures in the bush. These works appealed to the growing nationalistic sentiment and became recognised as distinctly Australian, despite omitting any reference to First Nations people.

IMAGE:

Arthur Streeton

Observatory Road, Kalorama Park, Looking Towards Silvan, 1937

oil on canvas

62.5 x 75.5 cm

Image courtesy of Deutscher and Hackett