We acknowledge the Traditional Owners of the land on which the Queensland Art Gallery | Gallery of Modern Art stands and recognise the creative contribution First Australians make to the art and culture of this country.
Arthur Streeton / Australia 1867–1943 / St Mark’s, Venice 1908 / Oil on canvas / 81.2 x 101.7cm / Purchased 1972 / Collection: Queensland Art Gallery | Gallery of Modern Art
Arthur StreetonSt Mark’s, Venice 1908
Not Currently on Display
Arthur Streeton is best known as one of the group of painters, including Charles Conder, Frederick McCubbin and Tom Roberts, who transformed Australian landscape painting in the 1880s. The success of Streeton’s first solo exhibition in Melbourne in 1896 enabled him to travel to London to further his career.
He spent the majority of the years up to 1923 in Europe, but critical success did not come as easily for him as it did at home. In April and again in September 1908, he worked in Venice, where this depiction of the city’s famous square was painted.
Inspired by the intense sunlight of the Mediterranean, Streeton worked prolifically, producing numerous oils, watercolours and a series of pencil-and-wash sketches. The Venice works show Streeton’s ability to capture the atmosphere and shimmering light of the city.
Arthur Streeton was born in 1867 near Geelong, Victoria. His family moved to Melbourne, and from 1882 to 1888 Streeton attended evening classes at the National Gallery of Victoria School of Design, where he participated in plein-air painting excursions to Heidelberg.
Streeton joined artists’ camps at Box Hill and Eaglemont in the late 1880s, together with Tom Roberts, Frederick McCubbin and Charles Conder. In about 1897, he sailed for Europe, spending time in Cairo and Italy before settling in London in 1899. He returned to Melbourne in the 1920s where he lived until his death in 1943.
Arthur Streeton made a significant contribution to the way Australia imagines itself. The romance and beauty of his landscapes reflect the vision of Australian art at the turn of the twentieth century and highlight the importance of rural life and landscapes in this nation’s experience.
Streeton was seen as the hero of an ambitious beginning for Australian art, one that assumed it could discard conventional European art styles.
I want to be painting every day . . . I picture in my head the Murray and all the wonder and glory at its source up toward Koscuisko [sic] . . . and the great gold plains, and all the beautiful inland Australia and I love the thought of walking into all this and trying to expand and express it in my way.[1]
While this ambition established new pictorial forms, its impetus for a national art never wholly discarded imported methods of responding to the landscape, especially aspects of European Romanticism.
Discussion Questions
1. What do the shadows in Streeton’s painting reveal about the time of day captured in this scene? Think about the quality of light in public spaces — e.g. King George Square in Brisbane, or your local park. What are some of the forms, colours and effects created by light and shadow?
2. Identify the contextual clues which allow viewers to determine the mood and the location of this painting.
Classroom Activities
What is your favourite memory related to a public outdoor space? Using performance or monologue, convey the feelings you experience when you recall this memory.