She-Oak and Sunlight : Australian Impressionism

Anne Gray and Angela Hesson (editors) and contributors. Melbourne, Victoria : Thames & Hudson Australia & National Gallery of Victoria, 2021. Quarto, illustrated boards, pp. viii, 289, illustrated. New copy.

From the publisher’s website:

“The Australian Impressionists are among the most loved figures of Australian art, and their work has long formed an imaginative backdrop to life in this country. She-Oak and Sunlight: Australian Impressionism offers diverse perspectives on this complex movement and the artists who participated in it, drawing together the threads that comprise its multifaceted nature. This publication explores the importance of historical contexts, personal relationships, international influences, and the impact of place on the trajectory of Impressionism in Australia. Other art forms which intersected with Impressionism, including music and photography, are also considered in detail.

On display at the National Gallery of Victoria, She-Oak and Sunlight: Australian Impressionism is a large-scale exhibition of more than 250 artworks drawn from major public and private collections around Australia, including the NGV Collection. Featuring some of the most widely recognisable and celebrated works by Tom Roberts, Frederick McCubbin, Jane Sutherland, Arthur Streeton, Charles Conder, Clara Southern, John Russell and E. Phillips Fox, the exhibition also brings to light lesser-known paintings by Iso Rae, May Vale, Jane Price and Ina Gregory. She-Oak and Sunlight presents these works in new and surprising contexts, exploring the impact of personal relationships, international influences and the importance of place on the trajectory of the movement.

With contributions by Anne Gray, Angela Hesson, Helen Ennis, Ann Galbally, Sophie Gerhard, Elizabeth Kertesz, Hannah Presley and MaryAnne Stevens, She-Oak and Sunlight: Australian Impressionism presents new scholarship on the movement’s most celebrated figures, as well as many lesser-known artists. It features more than 200 works from collections around Australia, several of which have undergone transformative conservation treatments….”