EVERYONE who knows a bit about Australian art knows Arthur Streeton’s ‘The purple noon’s transparent might’, and any Hawkesbury arty person would know that iconic painting was painted at Freemans Reach, off the park on Terrace Road.
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But Streeton wasn’t the only painter from the much-loved Heidelberg school who painted here.
Charles Conder spent two weeks in Richmond and North Richmond in August, 1888, staying at the Royal Hotel in Richmond with three other painters, including Henry Fullwood who went on to become an official war artist in WWI. On that trip to Richmond Conder produced several paintings of the area.
Conder had arrived in Sydney from England four years before, supposed to train as a surveyor. He did so briefly, but then in early 1888 Tom Roberts came up to Sydney and Conder went out painting with him around the harbour.
Then in winter 1888 Conder joined the painting group of well-known Sydney painter Julian Ashton. They painted at Griffiths’ farm and at other sites along the Hawkesbury River.
While Griffiths farm is popularly said to have been at Richmond, the National Gallery of Victoria’s map of painting locations around the Hawkesbury puts the farm at North Richmond, near Hanna Match.
This jaunt to Richmond was the real beginning of Conder’s career as an open-air painter.
On this trip he painted several of his blossomy works including ‘Springtime’.
While Conder did start his paintings on location he would also add elements later in the studio, such as people.
In October of 1888 Conder left Sydney for Melbourne, where he linked up more closely with the Heidelberg school artists.
Eight years later Arthur Streeton came to the Hawkesbury, which is when he painted the magnificent ‘Purple Noon’ and other river scenes which have been some of his most famous paintings. The National Gallery of Victoria said Purple Noon was created on a very hot January day.
“Streeton later recalled the experience of painting it as he stood on top of a cliff overlooking the river, not bothering with an easel, instead using a dead sapling to support the canvas as he worked,” the gallery site says, then quoting Streeton’s recollections of it.
“The glory of the river and plain spread before me. Far below were the tops of river-oaks, and water like the blue of a black opal. The brightness of noon, the power of deep blue, the flies, and the temperature now 108 degrees, wrought me to a pitch of excitement. The atmosphere, 10 degrees higher than my own temperature, crept round my face like a flame; and it seemed like working in a fiery trance. I paused and found that in two hours, two thirds of my canvas was covered with paint. I had stamped my big impression upon it; I had made my picture.”
“His friend and fellow 'Heidelberg school' artist, Frederick McCubbin later wrote that the painting was a 'poem of light and heat' and that 'You could almost take this picture as a National Symbol.' It was purchased by the National Gallery of Victoria- external site the same year it was painted and remains there to this day, on permanent display,” the gallery site said.
In Melbourne Streeton and Conder became friends and influenced each other’s style. It’s thought Streeton might have stayed at Griffiths’s farm where Conder had stayed, though it’s not known for sure.
It’s thought Streeton may also have stayed at the Traveller’s Rest hotel at North Richmond.
