C19th landscape star: Eugene von Guérard

Vienna-born Eugene von Guérard (1811-1901) toured Italy with his father and teacher Bernhard von Guérard, painter of miniatures to Emperor Francis I of Aust­ria.

In 1830-2 Eugene lived in Rome, studying traditional landscapes under Giovanni Battista Batti. Any Poussin-type influen­ces in von Guérard’s mature work came from Bat­ti’s great pas­s­ions - Claude Lorrain, Nic­ol­as Poussin and Salvator Rosa. If there was a feeling of mystery, grandeur of nature and spir­itual values in his art, it probably came from the German Naz­arenes. If there was an interest in the natural world in Eugene’s art, con­sid­er the scientist-explorer Alexander von Humboldt. The most important landscape painter for the young Austrian was Johann Anton Koch.

In 1838 van Guérard studied at the Düsseldorf Kunst-akademie, where he was encouraged to paint directly from nature a la Dutch landscape painting. During his Düsseldorf studies, he absorbed the German art promoted by landscape lecturer Joh­ann Wilhelm Schirmer. The work of the Düsseldorf Kunstakademie was char­acterised by finely detailed landscapes, often with religious or allegorical stories set in the landscapes. Leading members of the Düsseldorf School advocated en plein air with subdued colours, part of the German Romantic movement.

 Aborigines Met on the Road to the Dig­gings, 1854

Attracted to Australia at the height of the Victorian gold rush, von Guérard moved to the Ballarat goldfields in 1852 and tried his luck.  But labouring in boiling hot summers and wet miserable winters did­ not make Eugene rich. So the artist sensibly left the dig­g­ings and acc­ept­ed com­missions to document wealthy landed estates. Only one copy of von Guérard's 1852–1854 goldfields diary remains, translated from Ger­man by his Australian-born daughter. And 10 sketches about camp life.

Von Guérard became fascinated with the Australian bush, trav­el­ling widely between 1852-82. In this time, he filled 22 sketch books with drawings that captured his sense of wonder. He travelled away from civilisation, carrying pencils and sketch books, then returned to the comfort of his own studio to transform his sketches into completed paintings.

A 2018 exhibition, Eugene von Guérard: Artist–Traveller, was at Ballarat Art Gallery. It examined von Guér­ard’s many adventures in the Western Dist­rict, his sketches and his best known and most sensitive paintings. Many of the drawings and sketchbooks from our most famous mid C19th col­on­ial artist came from the State Libraries of Victoria and NSW.

Geelong Gall­ery’s loan of three von Guérard works was much val­ued by the Exhibition, adding to a new re-examination of his Aust­ral­ian art. The 3 works were Aborigines met on the Road to the Diggings 1854, View of Geelong 1856 and View from Fritz Wilhelm­berg, Herne Hill Geelong 1860. Additionally there were paintings from the National Gallery of Australia, National Gal­lery of Vic­t­oria/NGV, Warrnam­bool Art Gallery, Benalla Art Gallery and from private collectors, some of which were never seen by the public before.

Examine von Guérard’s painting Aborigines Met on the Road to the Dig­gings 1854, normally at the Geelong Gallery. Note the rough, dry gum trees, the distant hills and sweeping plains which all “trans­late into Italian with warm distant clouds, a sweet sienna glaze and a lyrical composition”.

von Guérard had been train­ed to unify his pictures with an atmos­pheric restfulness, typically in a quiet moment, facing the peace of nature. The hills and clouds collected warm light on their west­ern side, from the Otway Ranges in Australia to Ves­uv­ius in Italy. Just think of the Italian grace that inspired Claude Lorraine and Salvator Rosa.

Mount Abrupt, The Grampians, Victoria, 1856

Of course Eugene von Guérard’s art had begun in Europe and carried with it two contrasting European traits: a] an affinity with class­icism and an air of noble serenity; and b] an attraction to the de­tail of nature, the exact scientific recording of flora, topog­raphies and peoples.

But then he deliberately went into the unfamiliar, depicting Aborigines in the bush. Far from the image of the Noble Savage, he showed the indigenous people con­front­ed with trade and European culture. Sometimes acad­em­ics expressed unease about the depict­ions of Aborigines, which may have been as­sociated with a fatalistic view of future extinction. But von Guérard was a painter who acknow­ledged the Abor­iginal presence, showing the land as their natural home. 

  John King’s Station, 1861

It was clear from his paintings that Aboriginals played an important role in daily life on the Victorian goldfields: Native Police, miners, route guides, diggers, wives, farmers and traders. In fact the goldrushes opened up NEW opportunities for Ab­or­iginal people to take part in the colonial economy. Their lab­our was in demand on pastoral stations when most of their men left for the goldrush. And because the Central Victorian goldfields were cold in winter, furs were traded.

The exhibition catalogue was filled with drawings, oil paintings and text by Dr Ruth Pullin. She focused on works, notable for their lighting, detail and scientific accuracy.

von Guérard’s 1861 painting John King’s Station seemed like a property portrait, painted in the tradition of the artist’s Western Dis­t­rict commissions. The composition came from classical European landscape tradition, and the contents may have reflected the social and economic concerns of the European landowner. But Pullin suggested that alternative realit­ies concerning this place became apparent. The dark history of war, massacre and dispossession associated with the European settlement of the region was both concealed and revealed in von Guérard’s landscape.

In 1870 von Guérard became the NGV’s first Master of the School of Painting, where he was a great teacher for Frederick McCubbin, Tom Roberts etc. But older age saw him adhering to picturesque qualities and de­tailed treatment, when the rise of the more intimate Heidelberg School style of art was demanding change. Von Guérard retired from his position at the National Gallery School in late 1881 and sailed for Britain, dying in London in 1901.