Title
Stalagmites, Burragalong Cavern
(1843)
Artist
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Details
- Other Title
- Interior, Burrangalong Cave
- Date
- (1843)
- Media category
- Painting
- Materials used
- oil on cardboard
- Dimensions
- 40.6 x 53.3 cm board; 54.0 x 67.0 x 5.0 cm frame
- Signature & date
Signed verso, ink ".../ .../ .../ Conrad Martens".
- Credit
- Purchased 1964
- Location
- South Building, ground level, Grand Courts
- Accession number
- OA1.1964
- Copyright
- Artist information
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Conrad Martens
Works in the collection
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About
In 1843 Sydney was hit by an economic depression that depleted Conrad Martens of his painting commissions. He used the break in regular work to seek new artistic adventures. Hearing of their ‘discovery’ in 1843, Martens travelled west of the Blue Mountains to paint at Burrangalong Cavern (now known as Abercrombie Caves) near Bathurst in New South Wales.
'Stalagmites, Burragalong Cavern' reflects Martens’ feelings for this spectacular world which he claimed as his ‘romantic abode’. He experimented with a new style, distanced from his well-versed picturesque mode, to describe his encounter with a mysterious geological world and the speculations of infinite time that it aroused. Martens was so taken by the experience that he painted himself and his work in progress on the easel in the composition, declaring the novel occurrence of painting outdoors.
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Exhibition history
Shown in 2 exhibitions
Society for the Promotion of the Fine Arts in Australia. Second exhibition. 1849., Exhibition Venue Unknown, , May 1849 -
Grand Courts collection rehang, Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney, Nov 2021–2023
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Bibliography
Referenced in 3 publications
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Tim Bonyhady, Images in opposition: Australian landscape painting 1801–1890, 'Contrasting lights', pg.135-154, Melbourne, 1985, 139 (illus.), 140, 178.
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Editor Unknown (Editor), The Sydney Morning Herald, Sydney, 02 Jun 1849.
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Society for the Promotion of the Fine Arts in Australia, second exhibition, Sydney, 1849, pg. 13. possibly either cat.no. 341 titled 'Stalactite Columns at the Southern Entrance to Burranglong Cavern' or 344 titled 'Return View of the Stalactite Columns'
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