Steamers
on Sydney Harbour 1913
Oil on board
Signed and dated “E.GRUNER 1913” lower right
Inscribed “Gruner Fine Art Society /Bligh St” to the reverse
14.3 x 34.0 cm
Provenance
Clarice Thomas, Sydney
Elioth Gruner was born in Gisborne, New Zealand,and arrived in Australia a
year later. Trained under Julian Ashton (1851 –1942), he combined his
master’s plein air methods with an interest, then widely current, in the “lyrical
excursions of the later paintings of Corot ”. “Invariably sentimental ” in
mood, and with a “keen and discriminating eye for fine tonal gradations”,
Gruner exemplified the “typical Australian landscape painter of the period
between the wars”. (Smith 1971)
Gruner ’s serene landscapes“ guaranteed a ready market for his work...[His
]sweetly domesticated landscapes of gently rolling hills and quiet waters gave
visual expression to this sense of complacent well-being.” (Strugeon 1987)
In a letter to Hans Heysen dated 5 September 1917,Gruner expressed his feelings
towards painting:
While these men are groveling around in the dark miserable world, not for a
time but all their lives, be sure if it ’s not the war, it would be something
else. While for you? The sun, the morning mists, the thousand and one other
wondrous things that nature has for her own. Clear your mind of it old chap,
and just paint and all will be right, that is the magic of the whole business.
(Pearce 1983)
Represented
National Gallery of Australia
All State galleries and regional and public collections throughout Australia
References
Pearce, Barry 1983,A Century of Australian Landscape: Mood and Moment, Beagle
Press in association with the CC Ltd, Sydney, p.62.
Smith, Bernard 1971, Australian Painting: 1788 –1970, Oxford University
Press, Melbourne, pp.106, 187.
Strugeon, Graeme 1987, Australia: The Painter ’s Vision, Bay Books, Sydney,
p.32.
