Elioth Gruner
(New Zealand, Australia 16 Dec 1882–17 Oct 1939)
On the Murrumbidgee
- Location
- 20th & 21st c Australian art
- Further information
The sweeping mountainscapes of Gruner and Heysen of the 1920s were symbolic expressions of a pastoral utopia in which a purism of form - 'the simplification and reduction to essentials' - which evolved from the modernism of Europe, was adopted to suggest the spirit and essence of the landscape.
Gruner's work became more severe in form and outline during this period, emphasising subtle harmonies of tone and colour and creating a feeling of stability and permanence, in contrast to his previous explorations into the evanescence of light and colour.
"Form becomes of equal consideration with light, and his work is now more carefully organised, extremely simple, less immediate in direct emotional appeal, but infinitely more pictorial. Gruner has substituted the science of picture making for the science of painting light, preserving, however, that sense of light which made his earlier pictures remarkable ...".
Basil Burdett, 1929Australian Art Department, AGNSW, 2001
- Year
- 1929
- Media
- Painting
- Medium
- oil on canvas
- Dimensions
- 101.6 x 123.2cm stretcher; 131.5 x 152.5 x 12.0cm frame
:
0 - Whole; 100.5 x 121.8cm - Signature & date
- Signed and dated l.r. corner, grey oil "GRUNER/ 1929".
- Credit
- Purchased 1930
- Accession number
- 840
