32 Facts About Arthur Streeton

Sir Arthur Ernest Streeton was an Australian landscape painter and a leading member of the Heidelberg School, known as Australian Impressionism.

Arthur Streeton's family moved to the Melbourne suburb of Richmond in 1874.

Arthur Streeton's parents were English migrants who had met on their voyage to Australia in 1854.

In 1882, Arthur Streeton commenced art studies with George Folingsby at the National Gallery School.

In 1885, Arthur Streeton exhibited works for the first time with the Victorian Academy of Art.

Arthur Streeton found employment as an apprentice lithographer under Charles Troedel.

Arthur Streeton was exhibiting and perhaps painting in the studio of his friend Roberts at Grosvenor Chambers, Collins Street by May 1888.

Arthur Streeton intended to walk the remaining distance to the site where Louis Buvelot painted his 1866 work Summer afternoon near Templestowe, which Streeton considered "the first fine landscape painted in Victoria".

Arthur Streeton spent the first few nights at Eaglemont alone with the estate's tenant farmer Jack Whelan, and slept upon the floor, the rooms being bare of furniture.

Arthur Streeton descended the hill daily to Heidelberg village for meals before jaunting into the bush with a billycan of milk and swag of paints and canvases.

About the same time, Arthur Streeton met the artist Charles Conder, who travelled down from Sydney in October 1888 at the invitation of Tom Roberts.

Later, critics would describe some of the pair's Eaglemont paintings as companion pieces, as both artists often painted the same views and subjects using a high-keyed "gold and blue" palette, which Arthur Streeton considered "nature's scheme of colour in Australia".

In 1891, Arthur Streeton Merric and Emma Minnie of the Boyd artistic dynasty took Golden Summer, Eaglemont to Europe where it became the first painting by an Australian-born artist to be exhibited at the Royal Academy, London, and was awarded a Mention honourable at the 1892 Paris Salon.

On 2 June 1890, in the wake of an economic depression in Melbourne, Arthur Streeton sailed to Sydney, and initially stayed there with his sister in the suburb of Summer Hill.

Arthur Streeton soon relocated to Curlew Camp, a plein air artists' camp on Sydney Harbour, where he painted many views of his natural surroundings and was visited by a number of artists, including Julian Ashton and Albert Henry Fullwood, who stayed at the camp for extended periods.

From 1891, Arthur Streeton began travelling widely in rural New South Wales.

In 1893, Arthur Streeton wrote in Sydney's Daily Telegraph criticising a proposal by a mining company to develop a colliery on the shores of Sydney Harbor, which would necessitate the cutting down of a great many gum trees.

The letter helped raise public alarm over the proposal, and in 1895, Arthur Streeton painted Cremorne pastoral, his largest harbour composition, as "an elegiac image of what [he] believed would be lost" if the project went head.

In 1897 Arthur Streeton sailed for London on the Polynesian, stopping at Port Said before continuing on via Cairo and Naples.

Arthur Streeton held an exhibition at the Royal Academy in 1900 and became a member of the Chelsea Arts Club in 1903.

In 1906, Arthur Streeton returned to Australia and completed some paintings at Mount Macedon in February 1907 while staying with his patrons the Pinschofs at Hohe Warte.

Arthur Streeton married Esther Leonora Clench, a Canadian violinist, in 1908 and paintings done during their honeymoon in Venice in September that year, including The Grand Canal, were exhibited in Australia in July 1909 as "Arthur Streeton's Venice".

Arthur Streeton worked at the 3rd London General Hospital in Wandsworth and reached the rank of corporal.

Arthur Streeton was made an Australian Official War Artist with the Australian Imperial Force, holding the rank of Honorary Lieutenant, and he travelled to France on 14 May 1918 and was attached to the 2nd Division, receiving his movement order on 8 May 1918.

Arthur Streeton worked in France, with a break in August, until October 1918.

Unlike more famous military artists who depicted the definitive moments of battle, Arthur Streeton produced "military still life", capturing the everyday moments of the war.

Arthur Streeton built a house on five acres at Olinda in the Dandenongs where he continued to paint, though in 1936 he complained that it 'tends to interfere with the gardening,' and only produced art for 'a couple of months in the year,' though he was then preparing a Sydney exhibition in time for his 70th birthday.

Arthur Streeton won the Wynne Prize in 1928 with Afternoon Light, Goulburn Valley.

Arthur Streeton was an art critic for The Argus from 1929 to 1935 and in 1937 was knighted for services to the arts.

Arthur Streeton died in September 1943 and is buried at Ferntree Gully cemetery.

Arthur Streeton's works appear in many major Australian galleries and museums, including the National Gallery of Australia and state galleries, and the Australian War Memorial.

Arthur Streeton's paintings are amongst the most collectible of Australian artists and attracted high prices during his lifetime.