Lilium auratum

This magnificent flower painting was rapidly executed with broad strokes of thin, translucent paint. Two plumes of white flowers with orange speckles and stamens, in a brass Middle Eastern jardiniere, stand out from the deep green background. Remnants of blue sky can just be made out near the lilies on the left, hints of an earlier landscape concealed beneath the showy lilies.

An X-ray has revealed a view of the Gloucester Buckets mountain range in New South Wales. It matches a 1894 line engraving of the painting exhibited in Sydney and reviewed as 'amongst the best pictures of the year', which by 1935 Streeton had listed as 'disappeared' from his studio. Streeton painted the lilies directly on top of this canvas which, if rotated to the right, reveals the mountain range more clearly. It is difficult to know why Streeton painted over one of his most notable 1890s landscapes, but many of his still-lifes have earlier paintinqs underneath.