This is one of von Guérard's first Australian paintings, completed after he abandoned his largely futile search for gold near Ballarat.

It was preceded, like most of his paintings, by drawings done on the spot.

oil on canvas

(44.0 x 73.6 cm)

Purchased, 1977

A32-1977

von Guérard made sketching expeditions to rural Victoria, visiting relatively unexplored regions of the Dandenong Ranges.

He also accompanied the scientific expeditions led by A.W. Howitt in 1860, and the expedition led by Professor G.B. von Neumayer in 1862 to Cape Otway and the Australian Alps.

oil on canvas

108.2 x 153.3 cm

Purchased, 1870

p.302.13-1

von Guérard was an intrepid traveller who covered vast distances in his search for new subjects.

In 1862 he accompanied Professor von Neumayer on his magnetic survey of Victoria. They travelled to Cape Otway and the Australian Alps, where von Guérard found these sublime views.

colour lithograph

31.4 x 49.5 cm (image) 44.0 x 59.6 cm (sheet)

Purchased, 1952

2972.4-4

When the Argus newspaper reviewed this picture, it wrote: "M. Von Guérard's strength lies in his airy distances, and in his masterly treatment of mountain scenery. It may sound like a paradox to say so, but he is at once the most literal and most poetic translator of mountain scenery. He studies it with the eye of a poet, and he depicts it with the hand of a conscientious artist".

This was the first work by von Guérard to enter an Australian public collection.

oil on canvas

(67.6 x 104.6 cm)

Gift of the Hon. Sir Archibald Michie, 1866

p.300.14-1

In 1870 von Guérard was appointed first Master of Painting at the National Gallery School, Melbourne, and Curator of the National Gallery of Victoria.

In 1870, von Guérard was appointed Master of Painting at the National Gallery School and Curator of the National Gallery of Victoria.

His artistic productivity was diminished by his bureaucratic duties. He returned to Europe in 1882.

oil on canvas

(34.0 x 51.8 cm)

Purchased, 1963

1302-5

Two of the views depicted in the National Gallery of Victoria's drawings by von Guérard are also included in Eugene von Guérard's Australian Landscapes.

The popular subject of the fern tree gully, which von Guérard also painted in oil, was described as "one of the most characteristic and beautiful features of the mountain scenery of Australia ... it combines the vivid verdure, the cool freshness, and the shadowy softness of an English woodland stream, with the luxuriant richness and graceful forms of tropical vegetation."

colour lithograph

49.6 x 66.7 x 3.0 cm (album, closed)

Purchased, 1959

134.1-24-5

Drawing was an important part of Eugene von Guérard's art practice.

During journeys through the landscape, he made field sketches, annotating them with descriptive notes about the subject. Composition sudies for paintings were developed later in the studio. On occasion, von Guérard was commissioned to produce highly finished presentation drawings as souvenirs for people leaving Australia.

pen and ink and wash

37.9 x 54.8 cm (image and sheet)

Felton Bequest, 1960

647-5

"The bold and romantic headland which bears this title forms one of the most picturesque 'bits' of scenery on the Victorian coast. The rocks have been worn into the most grotesque and fantastic shapes by the action of the waves, which rush in, with a majestic sweep, from the Southern Ocean ... the artist has indicated the entrance of Port Phillip by the position of the steamer faintly visible in the offing."

Eugene von Guérard's Australian Landscapes, 1866-68.

colour lithograph

49.6 x 66.7 x 3.0 cm (album, closed)

Purchased, 1959

134.1-24-5

"The situation of the southern capital of Tasmania, is almost, if not altogether peerless... Placed at the head of a noble estuary, and at the foot of a magnificent mountain, surrounded by foliage of English verdure... and overarched by a sky of Australian brilliancy, Hobart Town fascinates the eye of the artist."

Eugene von Guérard's Australian Landscapes, 1866-68.

colour lithograph

49.6 x 66.7 x 3.0 cm (album, closed)

Purchased, 1959

134.1-24-5

Although this scene was on Mount William Station, von Guérard chose to paint it as a primeval landscape, as though he was the first European to come across it.

von Guérard's pictures are often underpinned by geometric compositions that enhance their beauty, dignity and sense of timelessness. In this case, the motif is the diamond formed by the clouds and the illuminated area of the foreground. A subsidiary diamond shape is made up of Mount William and its shadow.

oil on cardboard

(29.0 x 39.2 cm)

Collier Bequest, 1955

1562-5

von Guérard also made trips to other colonies, Tasmania in 1856 and 1875, South Australia in 1855 and New South Wales in 1859. He visited New Zealand in 1876.

pen and ink and wash over pencil

31.0 x 48.8 cm irreg. (image) 33.8 x 50.2 cm (sheet)

Felton Bequest, 1960

636-5

von Guérard usually got his frames from the Melbourne framer, Isaac Whitehead.

View of the snowy bluff was reframed in 2001 with a replica of a typical Whitehead frame of the 1860s. At the same time, the painting was restored by the National Gallery of Victoria's Conservation Department.

oil on canvas

(93.8 x 151.0 cm)

Purchased, 1965

1524-5

Before restoration and reframing

Views of country properties are a discrete category in Eugene von Guérard's work and were profitable commissions.

Walter Clark bought land near Keilor in about 1853 and began building his homestead a few years later on a dramatic site overlooking Deep Creek.

oil on canvas

68.4 x 121.8 cm

Purchased with assistance of the National Gallery Society of Victoria and Mr and Mrs Solomon Lew, 1986

A2-1986