Defining moments
Sep 06, 2019
4 minutes
Story by Esther Thorn.
It’s 1889 and an unconventional exhibition is causing a stir in colonial Melbourne’s burgeoning art scene. Plans are underway for a display of paintings by a new wave of talented artists, who would later become known as Australian Impressionists — Tom Roberts, Charles Conder and Arthur Streeton.
Their style is described by newspaper columnists at the time as ‘sketchy’ and ‘brilliant in colour but vague in design.’ The size of the paintings is unusual too, a mere nine inches by five inches (23cm x 13cm), a scale usually reserved for preliminary studies, not the final piece. But perhaps most shocking is the medium on
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