Blue and Gold 1903

ARTHUR STREETON (1867-1943)

Blue and Gold 1903

oil on canvas
53.5 x 87.5 cm; 73.0 x 106.0 cm (framed)
signed lower left: A Streeton.
bears inscription on stretcher verso: This Picture belongs to McPherson Smith

Provenance:
(possibly) Helen Macpherson Smith (Schutt), Melbourne
Private collection
Leonard Joel, Melbourne, 8 November 1973, lot 400a
Private collection, Perth
Sotheby's, Sydney, 23 November 2010, lot 19
Harold Mitchell AC, Melbourne
Estate of the above
Private collection, Melbourne

Related Works:
Blue and Gold c1904, oil on canvas, 96.2 x 153.1 cm, Art Gallery of South Australia collection, Adelaide, Morgan Thomas Bequest Fund 1907

Estimate: $120000 - 160000

Result Hammer: $140000

When Arthur Streeton arrived in London in May 1897, he was astounded by the prosperity and dynamism of the city – then the bustling centre of the British empire. Streeton relished the opportunity to view the work of European Old Masters firsthand, alongside the English landscape paintings of Thomas Gainsborough (1727-1788), J. M. W. Turner (1775-1851) and John Constable (1776-1837). Writing to Tom Roberts (1856-1931) in June 1898, Streeton declared, ‘I feel convinced that my work hereafter will contain a larger idea & quality than before.’(1)

Alas, the artist’s early years in England were plagued by poverty, self-doubt and homesickness. Streeton keenly felt the absence of Tom Roberts, his friend and mentor, as he struggled to navigate the often snobbish and arcane workings of the London art scene. In 1899 Streeton met the woman who would become his wife of thirty years, Canadian-born violinist Nora Clench. Their blossoming relationship and subsequent marriage marked a vital turning point, providing Streeton with an expanded social circle and renewed artistic confidence.(2) Streeton began to exhibit regularly in London and Paris, and was later elected as a member of the Royal Society of British Artists and Royal Institute of Oil Painters.  

Streeton travelled frequently outside London throughout this period, spanning the length and breadth of England – from Sussex and Kent in the south east, to Dorset and Southampton in the south west and Liverpool, Northumberland and Yorkshire in the north. He quickly became accustomed to the most distinctive aspects of the English landscape – its low muted skies, perennially green pastures and soft, fleeting sunlight. While Streeton’s London scenes often depicted the modern world – such as Chelsea Barges c1905 (National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne) or Victoria Tower, Westminster 1912 (Art Gallery of South Australia, Adelaide) – his paintings of rural England harked back to a more distant, Romantic past. Taking inspiration from the early 19th century landscapes of Turner and Constable, Streeton painted the ruined outlines of medieval castles against skies of billowing cloud (Corfe Castle 1909; National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne) and cattle grazing below towering white clifftops (Malham Cove c1910; Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney). 

In June 1903, Streeton rented a villa in Windsor with fellow painter Albert Henry Fullwood (1863-1930)(3) and embarked on a series of landscapes depicting the local countryside and the River Thames, as well as Windsor Castle. Blue and Gold 1903 would appear to be a precursor to a larger painting of the same title from circa 1904, held in the collection of the Art Gallery of South Australia, Adelaide, and included in the major Streeton exhibition at the Art Gallery of New South Wales in 2021.(4) It seems likely that the present work was created in Windsor, and the larger painting worked up at a later stage once Streeton had returned to his London studio. Anne Gray writes of the AGSA painting:

It is a lyrical Thames-side scene at eventide, with autumn-tinted beech trees lining a riverbank, and a fallen branch touching the water. The rich painterly surface, flickered with yellow, captures the textures of the golden foliage, while the reflection in the water provides an illusionist echo.(5) 

The present work conveys a similar sense of lyricism and tranquillity, revealing Streeton’s continued interest in the atmospheric effects of light and water, adapted to an English setting.  His palette is rich and tonal, the lighting subdued. The colouration of the trees is perhaps less intense in this version, and Streeton has included two standing figures on the riverbank which are omitted from the AGSA painting.   

Anne Gray identifies two possible sources for Blue and Gold c1904, citing Streeton’s admiration for the French artist Camille Corot (1796-1875), whose 1855-60 landscape The Bent Tree (National Gallery of Victoria collection, Melbourne) may have inspired Streeton’s use of a fallen branch as a central motif.(6) Moreover, Gray points to Claude Monet’s various versions of The Seine at Giverny 1896-97, a number of which were exhibited at London’s Guildhall in 1898 and show a similar emphasis on the transient and reflective qualities of water.(7)    

Streeton’s Blue and Gold 1903 is a serene and poetic painting which celebrates the ephemeral beauty of autumn, and its mirror image in water. 

Footnotes

1. Letter from Arthur Streeton to Tom Roberts, 28 June 1898, quoted in Gray, A., ‘Streeton’s England,’ in Tunnicliffe, W. (ed.), Streeton, Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney, 2020, p.172
2. Gray, A., ‘Streeton’s England,’ op. cit., p.173
3. Ibid., p.179
4. Illustrated in the Streeton catalogue on p.186
5. Gray, A., ‘Streeton’s England,’ op. cit., p.177
6. Ibid.
7. Ibid.

Catherine Baxendale

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