Streeton Arthur Ernest

Born on 08 April 1867: Sir Arthur Ernest Streeton, Australian painter who died on 02 September 1943, specialized in landscapes.

Spring, 1890

 Streeton began night classes at the Gallery School, Melbourne, in 1882, but his formal art training was limited due to its part-time nature. With the encouragement of Tom Roberts, Charles Conder arrived in Melbourne from Sydney in the spring of 1888. Streeton and Conder immediately established a friendship and Streeton's landscapes became influenced by the decorative quality of Conder's art. The time Conder spent in Melbourne with Streeton and Roberts is considered the golden-age of Australian painting and is the high point of the so-called Heidelberg School. In late 1888 Streeton established an artists' camp at Eaglemont, near Heidelberg, from which the term Heidelberg School is derived. Influence Streeton was mainly influenced by his fellow artists Tom Roberts, Frederick McCubbin and especially Charles Conder, since they shared his inclination for plein air painting.

Streeton also used books of instruction in art for guidance, particularly William Hunt's Talks about Art. Hunt was a Paris-trained American artist and teacher who encouraged artists to try for simplicity of the whole painting rather than for complexity of the parts. Hunt's admiration of Camille Corot was also shared by Streeton, who collected photographs of his paintings. Technique and Materials Streeton's early paintings were mainly plein air works, usually completed in one session. He occasionally made preliminary oil studies or watercolors for his larger paintings. It is known that he sometimes adjusted his paintings in his studio. The 'square-brush' method of his paint application was a legacy of Roberts' training in England.