Eugene von Guerard: Search for art in every corner

Universidad San Francisco de Quito

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Composition and Rhetoric

Eugene von Guerard: Search for art in every corner

Nicole López

00130119

Table of  contents

Abstract:        2

Introduction:        3

Small Details, Big impression        4

Nature suffering man’s intervention        5

Reverence to the wild aspects        6

Bibliografía        8

Abstract:

This essay analyses the way that Eugene von Guerad has to find beauty and magic in every place that he goes. Considering that he moved a lot of times, the natural beauty of his news homelands suited his search for the sublime and his desire to express the profound qualities of nature. It argues that his artwork focus on small details about the nature, his understanding of the topography of the land meant his paintings were more accurate than many of his contemporaries. There are tree important things that difference him from his contemporaries. Part one is that for him all the details were important as they led to an awareness of the divine qualities perceived in nature. Part two is that each work is a celebration of of reverence of its untamed aspects, its wild beauty and awe inspiring presence, finally it concludes by he painted nature suffering under the onslaught of man’s intervention as gold, and getting rich quick became the only focus.

Introduction:

Eugene von Guerard was arguably Australia, and certainly Victoria’s most important colonial landscape painter about 1867, he became Australia's most significant mid nineteenth century landscape painter and his work can be seen in most of the state galleries in Australia. “He is best known for his large-scale paintings of dramatic views of the Australian bush, painted in the romantic tradition of the sublime” (Diggins, 2001, p.3). Which for me is not completely true, because I think that he was more focused on nature as a symbol of beauty and power, than in a romantic aspect. Landscape painting in the eighteenth century continued to develop in response to the general social and political climate angered by the ancient regimes in England, France and the rest of Europe. New attitudes to the natural environment emerged. Scenic paintings were still not regarded as ends in themselves. Rather they portrayed the divine harmony of nature, and a calm confidence in the current climate of prosperity (Jonhson, 2001, p.1). One of its main influencers was Alexander von Humboldt who was one of the most prominent intellectuals in the world; but they were different because Alexander Von Humboldt belief in the mutual reinforcement of art and science, and Eugene Von Guerard include different aspects of what was going on in nature to reinforcement his artworks and he did not think about science; but they both used the details of nature to reinforce their beauty.

Small Details, Big impression

Illustration 1: A brush with Fidelity

The first thing that makes Eugene's paintings so incredible is his way of painting small details, his views of the Australian bushland reveal, that his focus was on detailing the floro of the Australian bush, with deft brush strokes that define his scenes. “He sought to capture the atmosphere of a particular time of day and the effects of different weather conditions on the landscape” (MCDOWALL, 2014, p.6). In order to capture these fleeting effects he had to work quickly. he applied his paint in small; what distinged him was the freshness of Impressionist colour and the energy of their brushwork which revealed a spontaneity that had only previously been valued in the sketches of the old masters.  As well as Alexander Von Humboldt who through the details, expressed his love for nature and how it could change in matter of days, that is because he analyzed the geography and topography and he mixed this science in his paintings. [pic 2]

Nature suffering man’s intervention

 Illustration 3: Nature Reveled, 1854 

During his career, he had a break and He traveled to Australia hoping to find his fortune on the Victorian goldfields; is attempts were unsuccessful and for that reason he decided instead to resume his landscape painting practice, so he had a new way to Paint, he started to incorporate how nature was being mistreated for man. So some books for example: An Artist on the Goldfields - The Diary of Eugene Von Guerard, say that he contributed a great deal to our collective knowledge today about life on the goldfields during the Victorian gold rush period, through the illustrated journal he wrote and drew in daily. “He painted the Australian landscape from the perspective of an observer, an explorer and as a resident” (Smith, 2010, p.4).   So today his paintings are famous not just like art, they are famous too because they serve as an answer to scientists and geologists in observing climate change. This is another reason that differentiates him from Alexander von Humboldt, because Von Humboldt focused his journeys on exploring and discovering new landscapes, not on showing what was happening in each one of them.[pic 3]

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