Eugene von Guérard : Nature Revealed

Venue: Queensland Art Gallery, Brisbane
Dates: to 4 March 2012
Cost: Free
Click on the images for a larger view

Brisbane’s A major retrospective of the work of Eugene von Guérard (1811–1901), one of Australia’s most renowned colonial landscape painters, is currently showing at the Queensland Art Gallery  (running till 4 March 2012).

Queensland Art Gallery Director Tony Ellwood said Eugene von Guérard: Nature Revealed featured over 65 works from throughout the Austrian-born artist’s 50 year career, including many of his iconic landscapes and several sketches.

‘Eugene von Guérard is arguably Australia's most important colonial landscape painter. His works are remarkable in their detail and greatly valued for their depiction of Australian landscapes of the mid1800s,’ Mr Ellwood said.

The National Gallery of Victoria touring exhibition, curated by Dr Ruth Pullin, illustrates how von Guérard’s artistic endeavours were informed by his interest in the geography, geology and vegetation of the Australian ‘New World’. ‘Included among works from the National Gallery of Australia and many state, regional, and private collections are some of von Guérard’s most important landscape paintings including Northeast view from the northern top of Mt Kosciuszko 1865, Tower Hill 1855 and Weatherboard Creek Falls, Jamieson’s Valley, New South Wales 1862.

‘Von Guérard’s representations of the forests of Gippsland and the Otways, the crater lakes of Victoria's volcanic Western District and the peaks of the Kosciuszko plateau are valuable to this day, not only as paintings but as a reference for scientists and geologists observing  environmental change.’

Eugene von Guérard was born in Vienna in 1811 and trained as a painter in the European art centres of Rome, Naples and Düsseldorf, before migrating to Australia in 1852. He was the inaugural Curator and Master of the School of Painting at the National Gallery of Victoria. Mr Ellwood said von Guérard’s meticulous landscapes were remarkable in their detail.

‘Through his detailed brushstrokes and breathtaking compositions, visitors can explore the magnificent Australian, New Zealand and European landscapes he captured on his expeditions around the world,’ he said.

‘The exhibition also includes two sketchbooks documenting the Sicilian expedition made by von Guérard and his father Bernard von Guérard (1771–1836) in 1834, considered to be among his earliest.’

Image: Eugene von Guérard | Mount William and part of the, 1865 | Oil on cardboard 30 x 40 cm National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne Collier Bequest, 1955