Eugene von Guerard
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Eugene von Guerard (1811 - 17 April 1901) was an Austrian-born artist active in Australia 1852-1882.
Born in Vienna, von Guerard toured Italy with his father (a painter of miniatures at the court of Emperor Francis I of Austria) from 1826, and between 1830 and 1832 resided in Rome, where he became involved with the Nazarenes, a group of German expatriate artists. From around 1839 to 1844 he studied landscape painting at the Dusseldorf Academy, and travelled widely. Von Guerard's personal artistic style was formed by the heritage of Claude Lorraine, Nicolas Poussin and Salvator Rosa, while at the Düsseldorf Academy he was inspired by the German Romantic landscape tradition exemplified by the art of Caspar David Friedrich, which, like the Nazarenes, attempted to link man and God through nature.
In 1852 he arrived in Victoria, determined to try his luck on the goldfields. As a gold-digger he was unsuccessful, but he did produce a large number of intimate studies of goldfields life [1], quite different from the deliberately awe-inspiring landscapes for which he was later to become famous. Realising that there were opportunities for an artist in Australia, von Guerard abandoned the diggings and was soon undertaking lucrative commissions recording the dwellings and properties of wealthy pastoralists [2].
By the early 1860s he was recognised as the foremost landscape artist in the colonies, touring Southeast Australia and New Zealand in pursuit of the sublime and the picturesque[3]. Guerard is most known for the wilderness paintings produced during this time, which are remarkable for their shadowy lighting and fastidious detail. Indeed, his view of Tower Hill in South Western Victoria was used as a botanical template over a century later when the land, which had been laid waste and polluted by agriculture, was systematically reclaimed, forrested with native flora and made a state park. The scientific accuracy of such work has lead to a reassessment of Guerard's approach to wilderness painting, and historians believe it likely that the landscapist was strongly influenced by the environmental theories of the leading scientist Alexander von Humboldt.
In 1870 he was appointed the first Master of the School of Painting at the National Gallery of Victoria, where he was to influence the training of artists for the next 11 years. His reputation, high at the beginning of this period, had faded somewhat towards the end because of his rigid adherence to picturesque subject matter and detailed treatment in the face of the rise of the more intimate Heidelberg School style. He retired from his position at the National Gallery School the end of 1881 and departed for Europe in January 1882. He died in London on 17 April 1901.
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[edit] Publications
[edit] Bibliography
- Heathcote, Christopher, "When Science meets Art: Humboldt, Guérard and the Australian Wilderness," Art Monthly Australia, (Canberra), Nov. 2001, pp27-31.
[edit] See also
- Art of Australia
- View of Geelong, 1856 painting by Eugene von Guerard
