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An image of Spring frost

Elioth Gruner

(Australia, New Zealand 16 Dec 1882–17 Oct 1939)

Title
Spring frost
Place of origin
Emu Plains, New South Wales, Australia
Year
1919
Media
Painting
Medium
oil on canvas
Dimensions
131.0 x 178.7cm stretcher; 157.5 x 206.3 x 14.0cm frame
Signature & date
Signed and dated l.r., black oil "E GRUNER/ 1919".
Credit
Gift of F G White 1939
Accession number
6925
Location
20th and 21st c Australian art
Further information

‘Spring frost’ is one of Elioth Gruner’s most critically acclaimed achievements and probably the most loved Australian landscape painting in the Gallery. Produced almost entirely out-of-doors at Emu Plains on Sydney’s western outskirts, this bravura work was awarded the 1919 Wynne Prize for landscape painting, which the artist claimed seven times during his distinguished career.

Born in Gisborne, New Zealand, Gruner came to Sydney with his family when he was one year old. He struggled financially in his youth but maintained determination to become a good painter. His early work revealed a nostalgic admiration for the traditions established by Arthur Streeton and the artists of the Heidelberg school, however, early in his career Gruner became inspired by influential Melbourne-based artist and theorist Max Meldrum, who propounded tone as the most important component of painting. Gruner experimented with various techniques and began favouring the intense clarity of winter dawn, turning to paint into the light, so that his forms became dark silhouettes lit from behind.

In order to paint ‘Spring frost’, Gruner wrapped his legs with chaff bags to guard against the brisk morning air, and built a structure to protect the canvas from the elements. The broken colour and energetic brushwork of the foreground suggests Gruner’s interest in the paintings of Emanuel Phillips Fox, which he would have seen exhibited in Sydney in 1913. Highly praised at the time of its first showing at the Society of Artists spring exhibition in 1919, one critic declared of ‘Spring frost’:

‘It is … very early morning light on the southern mountain pastures, the rarefied air, and the impalpable blue shadows thrown by the cattle and the fences across the dry yellow herbage, realistically yet poetically reproduced … Over all there rests a spirit of peace and tranquillity. The eye never tires of dwelling upon this exquisite masterpiece’1

Often regarded as the last of the Australian impressionists, Gruner established his reputation during this period as perhaps the country’s most accomplished and lyrical painter of light and certainly its most dedicated plein-airist, always painting in front of the motif. After a trip to Europe in 1923–25, his work reveals an increasing influence from certain aspects of modernism, with a simplification of colour, tone and contour. A major exhibition of the artist’s work was organised by the Gallery in 1932–33 and, following his death in 1939, retrospective exhibitions in 1940 and 1983.

1 ‘Society of Artists: a strong spring show’, Sydney Morning Herald, 3 Oct 1919, p6

Bibliography (45)

Look (May 2012), Jill Sykes (Australia) (Author), 10pm [print management] (Australia), Newtown, New South Wales, Australia.

The Arms Chronicle (Jun 2010), Craig Werner (Australia) (Editor), Arms of Australia Inn Museum (Australia, estab. 1976), Penrith, New South Wales, Australia.

Look (Dec 2007-Jan 2008), Jill Sykes (Australia) (Editor), 10pm [print management] (Australia), Newtown, New South Wales, Australia.

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In our own image: the story of Australian art (2002), Donald Williams (Australia) (Author), McGraw-Hill Book Company Australia Pty Ltd (Australia), Sydney, New South Wales, Australia.

Parallel visions: works from the Australian collection (2002), Barry Pearce (Australia) (Author), Art Gallery of New South Wales (Australia, estab. 1874), Domain, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia.

Patrick White, painter, manqué: paintings, painters and their influence on his writing (2002), Helen Verity Hewitt (Australia) (Author), The Miegunyah Press (Australia), Carlton, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia.

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The Weekend Australian financial review (05 Aug 2000-06 Aug 2000), Roger Johnstone (Australia) (Editor), John Fairfax & Sons (Australia), Sydney, New South Wales, Australia.

Australian art: in the Art Gallery of New South Wales (2000), Barry Pearce (Australia) (Author), Art Gallery of New South Wales (Australia, estab. 1874), Domain, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia.

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Seeking the Centre (1998), Roslynn Haynes (Australia) (Author), Cambridge University Press (England), Cambridge, England.

Art & Mind (1998), Joanne Raheb-Mol (Australia) (Author), Oxford University Press (Australia), Melbourne, Victoria, Australia.

Wynne centenary 1897-1997: a selection of past winners from the Gallery's collection (1997), Helen Campbell (Australia) (Author), Art Gallery of New South Wales (Australia, estab. 1874), Domain, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia.

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Roy and Matilda - The Golden Locket (1994), Susan Venn (Author), Edwina Publishing (Australia), Canterbury, Victoria, Australia.

The Art Gallery of New South Wales collections (1994), Ewen McDonald (Australia) (Editor), Art Gallery of New South Wales (Australia, estab. 1874), Sydney, New South Wales, Australia.

National life and landscape - Australian painting 1900-1940 (1990), Ian Burn (Australia; United States of America, b.1939, d.1993) (Author), Bay Books Pty. Ltd. (Australia), Sydney, New South Wales, Australia.

Art Gallery of New South Wales Handbook (1988), Annabel Davie (Editor), Trustees of the Art Gallery of New South Wales (Australia), Domain, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia.

The Wynne prize: an Australian landscape tradition (1986), Edmund Capon (England; Australia, b.1940) (Director), Barry Pearce (Australia) (Curator), Dinah Dysart (Australia) (Curator), Art Gallery of New South Wales (Australia, estab. 1874), Sydney, New South Wales, Australia.

Portrait of a Gallery (1984), Edmund Capon (England; Australia, b.1940) (Editor), Jan Meek (Australia) (Editor), Capel Court Corporation Pty. Ltd., Sydney, New South Wales, Australia.

A century of Australian landscape: mood and moment (1983), Barry Pearce (Australia) (Author), The Beagle Press (Australia), Sydney, New South Wales, Australia.

Art Network (Spring 1983), Editor Unknown, Publisher unknown, Artarmon, New South Wales, Australia.

Elioth Gruner 1882-1939 (1983), Barry Pearce (Australia) (Author), Art Gallery of New South Wales (Australia, estab. 1874), Sydney, New South Wales, Australia.

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100 years of Australian painting (1948), Bernard Smith (Australia, b.1916, d.2011) (Author), National Art Gallery of New South Wales (Australia, estab. 1874), Sydney, New South Wales, Australia.

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Loan exhibition of the works of Elioth Gruner (1932), National Art Gallery of New South Wales (Australia, estab. 1874) (Author), National Art Gallery of New South Wales (Australia, estab. 1874), Sydney, New South Wales, Australia.

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Exhibition history (16)

The Wynne prize: an Australian landscape tradition (1987), (01 Jul 1987–26 Jul 1987), at Wagga Wagga City Art Gallery (estab. 1975), 40 Gurwood St Wagga Wagga N.S.W Australia 2650.

The Wynne prize: an Australian landscape tradition (1987), (03 Jun 1987–20 Jun 1987), at Griffith Regional Art Gallery (estab. 1983), Banna Ave Griffith 2680.

Society of Artists Spring Exhibition (1919), (04 Oct 1919–20 Oct 1919), at Education Department Gallery [Loftus Street] (Australia, estab. 1927), Education Department Gallery Loftus Street Sydney New South Wales Australia.

The Wynne prize: an Australian landscape tradition (1987), (05 Nov 1987–13 Dec 1987), at Tamworth City Gallery (Australia, estab. 1961).

The Wynne prize: an Australian landscape tradition (1987), (06 Mar 1987–29 Mar 1987), at Lake Macquarie City Art Gallery (Australia).

The Wynne prize: an Australian landscape tradition (1987), (07 Aug 1987–06 Sep 1987), at Albury Regional Gallery (Australia, estab. 1981), 564 Dean Street Albury, New South Wales, Australia 2640.

The Wynne prize: an Australian landscape tradition (1987), (10 Apr 1987–17 May 1987), at Orange Regional Gallery (Australia, estab. 1986), Civic Square Byng Street Orange, NSW Australia 2800.

The Wynne prize: an Australian landscape tradition (1987), (18 Sep 1987–26 Oct 1987), at Broken Hill City Art Gallery (Australia), Cnr Blende & Chloride Streets Broken Hill, New South Wales, Australia 2880.

100 years of Australian painting (1948), (19 Apr 1948–17 May 1948), at Art Gallery of New South Wales (Australia, estab. 1874), Art Gallery Road Domain, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia 2000.

The Wynne prize: an Australian landscape tradition (1987), (19 Dec 1986–01 Feb 1987), at S.H. Ervin Gallery (Australia), GPO Box 518 Sydney, New South Wales, Australia 2001.

Loan exhibition of the works of Elioth Gruner (1932), (21 Dec 1932–21 Feb 1933), at National Art Gallery of New South Wales (Australia, estab. 1874), Art Gallery Rd Domain Sydney New South Wales Australia 2000.

Parallel Visions: Twenty-two artists from the Australian collection, (22 Feb 2002–May 2003), at Art Gallery of New South Wales (Australia, estab. 1874), Art Gallery Rd Domain, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia 2000.

A retrospective exhibition of Australian painting, (25 Sep 1953–25 Oct 1953), at Art Gallery of New South Wales (Australia, estab. 1874), Art Gallery Rd Domain, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia 2000.

Elioth Gruner: Light and landscape (2010), (30 Oct 2010–06 Feb 2011), at New England Regional Art Museum (Australia, estab. 1983), Kentucky Street Armidale New South Wales Australia 2350.

A century of Australian landscape painting: mood and moment, (Oct 1983–Dec 1983), at Peking Art Gallery (China), Peking, China.

A century of Australian landscape painting: mood and moment, (Oct 1983–Dec 1983), at Shanghai Art Gallery (China).