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Arthur Ernest Streeton ( 1867 – 1943) was an Australian landscape painter. He was born in Mount Duneed, near Geelong, and his family moved to Richmond in 1874 where is is a suburb in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia, 2 km south-east from Melbourne's central business district. Its Local Government Area is the City of Yarra. He died on the 1st September 1943, and is buried in Ferntree Gully Cemetery, Victoria.
He studied at National Gallery of Victoria Art School in Melbourne between 1882 and 1888 where associated with the National Gallery of Victoria, was founded in 1867. It was the leading centre for academic art training in Australia until about 1910 Among its luminaries, the school was headed by John Brack from 1962-68 and Sir William Dargie was dean in 1968-1972. From 1973 it became part of the Victorian College of the Arts.
He was the fourth of seven children of Charles Henry Streeton and Mary Blundell. His family moved to Queenscliff in 1869, when his father, who was a School Teacher, was appointed Headmaster of the local School. In 1874, his father accepted a clerical position with the Education Department in Melbourne, and the family moved to Richmond.
Streeton was heavily influenced by the teachings and works of his close friend, Louis Buvelot, and was interested by the French Impressionist movement. In 1885, he held his first exhibition at the Victorian Academy of Art in Melbourne. From 1886 to 1888, he was apprenticed as a lithographer to George Troedel and Co., 43 Collins Street East, Melbourne, and in December 1886 painted with Frederick McCubbin and Tom Roberts at Mentone.
Around Christmas time in 1888, he moved into the farmhouse on the Eaglemont estate, owned by Charles Davies. Here he lived rent free, and shared the house at various times with Tom Roberts, Charles Conder and Walter Withers. Also, living in the house was the caretaker of the estate, Jack Whelan. Streeton depicted Whelan sitting on a log on the estate, in his work:
While living at Eaglemont, Streeton produced many landscape masterpieces, including:
'Golden Summer, Eaglemont', 1889;
'Eaglemont', 1889;
'The Road To Templestowe', 1889;
'Near Heidelberg', 1890;
'Spring', 1890,
'Above Us The Great Grave Sky', 1890 Streeton remained at the Eaglemont estate until mid-1890, when he decided on a trip to Sydney. He sailed to Sydney, arriving on the 2nd June, and stayed with his sister at Summer Hill. While in Sydney, he painted at Coogee and also at McMahon's Point, where he produced major works such as 'Sunlight Sweet', Coogee, 1890 and 'From McMahon's Point - fare one penny', 1890, before returning to Melbourne on the 11th October.
In 1891, he resided once again in Eaglemont and worked and exhibited in Tom Roberts' studio in Grosvenor Chambers in Collins Street, Melbourne. Later that year he sailed with Tom Roberts to Sydney, where he arrived on the 10th September. For the next three months he lived in the Blue Mountains and here produced the work
'Fire's On', c. 1891. In 1892, he returned to Melbourne and worked in the Grosvenor Chambers studio until September. He returned to Sydney in October, and in December 1892 lived and painted with Tom Roberts at 'Curlew Camp' on Little Sirius Cove, Mosman.
He arrived in London, and on the 11th January 1908, married Esther Leonora (Nora) Clench. Their address was Abbey Road, St. John's Wood. From the end of April, the couple honeymooned for a month in Venice, and Streeton returned to Venice again in September. The many works that he produced while on these visits to Venice were sent to Melbourne for the exhibition 'Arthur Streeton's Venice', which was held in the Guildhall in July 1909.
In May 1909, he cycled through Dorset with Tom Roberts and painted Corfe Castle. He was elected a member of the Royal Society of British Artists, London and the following year was elected a member of the Royal Institute of Oil Painters, London. On the 20th March 1911, his only son, Charles Ludwig Oliver was born in London, and during this year Streeton was elected a member of the Royal British Colonial Society of Artists, London.
His works at this time show his love of nature, his delight in the English garden and his letters to Walter Withers and other colleagues are filled with references to the flowers in his garden and greenhouse. Such was his later passion for his garden that in 1934 he wrote that 'Painting interfered with his gardening'.
Streeton returned to Australia in April 1914 and held exhibitions in Melbourne and Sydney. He was in Sydney on the 4th August 1914 when England declared war on Germany, and after a short trip to paint at Mount Buffalo, he returned to England, arriving in February 1915. On the 24th April 1915, he joined the Royal Army Medical Corps at the
3rd London General Hospital, Wandsworth and worked alongside fellow artists Tom Roberts, George Coates and A.Henry Fullwood. At the hospital, Streeton worked for ten to fourteen hours a day, and the distress of the patients, suffering from severe facial injuries and shell shock, affected him greatly. He was discharged in February 1917 as medically unfit, and recuperated in the English countryside.
In 1924, he visited Queensland, and in August 1926 visited Sydney. Early in November 1927, he painted at Trawool near Seymour in the Goulburn Valley. His work 'Afternoon Light, Goulburn Valley', c. 1927 painted at this time, was awarded the
1928 Wynne Prize. In 1930, he again travelled, this time to Corryong to paint the vistas towards Mount Kosciusko.
Over the years that Streeton visited and lived in Olinda, he painted many panoramic landscapes, including works such as
'Golden Afternoon, Olinda', c. 1924;
'View From Farmer's, Olinda', c. 1928;
'Silvan Dam', c. 1930-31, painted from Kalorama, and
'The Cloud', 1936, a view towards Mount Macedon.
While living at Olinda he also produced works of local domestic scenes, and many still life works, especially of roses. He loved the roses in his garden, and wrote an article on roses for The Argus in 1929. He also wrote for The Argus as art critic, from 1929 to 1935. He enjoyed his writing and contributed occassional articles to the papers between 1925 and 1936.
In 1935, he wrote and published 'The Arthur Streeton Catalogue' and in 1937 was knighted for his services to Art. His wife Nora died on the 17th May 1938, and Streeton spent his final years quietly painting and enjoying his gardening at 'Longacres'. He also enjoyed listening to classical music and reading.
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