“Representations of the land have changed in Australia over time.”
...rard to see the landscape in no other way then in all its beauty, power, and astonishment. Many of his works were commissioned by the wealthy of Europe, with the work acting as a window into the mysterious land, making them no more then post cards at the time for armchair travellers. Yet with the strong use of symbols in his work, von Guerard is able to communicate so much more to a contemporary audience. Through them he brings visual text into the work. His work “Mt William from Mt Dryden, Victoria” is a notable depiction of the Australian landscape. A highly detailed foreground of trees, boulders and animals of the bush lead the viewers eyes into the painting then down into the vast valley bellow where all is lost in a canopy of trees. From here rises Mt William in the background brining with it a sense of power over the miniscule land below. The blues and yellows of the sky above, along with the puffy clouds and soaring bird give the work an elevation in this sense of wonder that it already beholds. A Monochromatic colour scheme is used throughout the image, with a large use of the greens and browns of the Australian landscape. The unfolding story in the foreground of the native kangaroos being “stalked” by the fox is an example of the use of symbols in his work. Not only do the use of the kangaroos and foxes add to the iconic nature of the image, making it truly an Australian landscape, they also bring to mind issues such as that of the colonisation and the hunting of the Aboriginals by the European settlers. The audience is also asked to admire the beauty of the land that von Guerard has created. It is the more obvious symbol of the soaring bird that leads to this conclusion. The power created by the imagery of a single bird soaring over such vastness brings the work to a very superficial level, making the landscape seem surreal, however, with the intention of the artist being to romanticise the landscape, it does not spoil the entire painting. Another work of von Guerard’s that explores the use of symbols is “Stony Rises, Lake Corangamite.” This work once again shows a detailed foreground where a clearing of a shadow-cast tribe presents itself. The “noble savages” are living off the land and appear content. Large boulders and native trees encase the clearing yet a gap in the boulders, where a silhouette of an Aboriginal man stands, leads down into a valley below, where mountains rise up once again off in the back ground, and red skies begin to set. On a closer look, this imagery presented allows for an interpretation that all is not content with the aboriginals of the tribe. The red, setting sky; forming storm clouds, dying native trees, and encasing boulders all tell of the trouble that is to come for these people and the colonisation of the land. Von Guerard’s works were there to represent Australia at the time that he was producing them, but were no more then a memory like most landscapes are, for the trouble that is brewing in “Stony Rises, Lake Corangamite” had already come when the works were done. With his use of symbols, von Guerard has been able to present us with a visual text and a memory of the Australian land. Fredrick McCubbin (1855 – 1917), was an artist whose work showed a “realistic approach to nature as he sees it, rather then the academic ideal” (Senior Artwise: page 11) and unlike von Guerard, he used plein-air, painting that is executed outside from the direct observation of nature. His paintings are intimate experiences that aim to capture a moment and the feelings within that moment. What was captured was very real compared to the work of von Guerard. There is no romantic influence present, just the emotion that the audience is conflicted with. They represent a pioneering Australia and the struggles of the European settler, “yet they avoid being purely sentimental by their sense of humanity and emotional truth.” (Senior Artwise: page 11) McCubbin’s work “Lost” shows the Australian bush in a very personal way. The painting is of a small area of the bush were a girl stands lost in the middle ground. As von Guerard did, McCubbin has used the monochromatic browns and greens of the Australian bush in the painting, and along with the grey sky and a subtle blue dress, the presence of depression comes in. Fine detail used in the shrubby and twigs of the foreground lead the audience into the painting and even with the blue of the dress being bland, it still stands out amongst the bush, and draws the eye to the lost girl. The shrubbery however also acts as current between the audience and the girl, not allowing for us to know the whole story and her true fate. The blurred bush behind the girl adds to this confusion and true feeling of being lost and also shows the influence of impressionism upon McCubbin. The girl appears to weep with one hand wiping her face, and this acts with the audience on the subjective level. “Our sympathy goes to the lost child, yet creeping into McCubbin’s work is the suggestion of the nostalgic beauty of the bush...” (Senior Artwise: page 12). The work “Down on his luck” is of similar nature to that of “Lost”. Once again the work uses the very real browns and greens of the bush communicating the harshness and empty nature of the bush and these peoples lives. In the foreground is an isolated man, sitting on a log, with his bag down beside him, most likely being all that he has. His head bows down to rest against his hand as he stares into the fire at his feet, aimlessly playing with a small twig. It is his obvious body language that asks the audience to feel for him. Through such strong actions, the figure is allowing the audience to feel his struggles and hardship, and is asking for the sympathy that he needs. Seeing he is in the foreground, unlike the girl in “Lost”, the image of the man is sharper and stands out more, with the rest of the bush fading away behind him, reflecting to the audience his state of mind. McCubbin’s work reflects the stories of the European settlers for the European audience that he was painting for. And as the search for national identity occurred at the time, the change in the depiction of the land could be seen. No longer were the paintings annotations of the land in a large scale, but personal stories of the Europeans, showing that all recognition of the Aboriginals was lost c...