Arthur Streeton: Sunlight at the Camp 1894 |
One of our favourite Sydney artworks is impressionist Arthur Streeton's masterpiece: Sunlight at the Camp painted in 1894.
Incredibly, it had not been seen by the public for 130 years when it was unveiled in 2024 before its auction in Sydney.
The picture's subject is Curlew Camp, a fabled artists' colony set up on the shores of Sirius Cove, a beautiful Sydney Harbour inlet at Mosman.
Streeton was one of Australia's most influential landscape painters and a leading member of the Heidelberg school with fellow artists Tom Roberts, Frederick McCubbin and Charles Conder.
Streeton's view of Sydney Harbour was painted quickly with impressionistic brushstrokes, in order to record the hues of changing light hitting the rocks, and their reflections on the water.
The painting was last exhibited in 1894 and was owned by art collector, the late Ruth Simon, for decades, with most of her collection going to the National Museum of Australia in Canberra.
Arthur Streeton's exquisite oil painting, Sunlight at the Camp, 1894, fetched a hammer price of $1.5 million. The buyer will pay $1,875,000 for the painting, taking into account Smith & Singer's 25 per cent buyer's premium. (All sold prices in this article will include buyer's premium.)
ARTHUR STREETON 1867-1943 SUNLIGHT AT THE CAMP 1894
OIL ON CANVAS 31 X 60.7 CM FRAME: S.A. PARKER, SYDNEY (LABEL VERSO)
Estimate:
AU$1,000,000 - AU$1,500,000
SOLD AU$1,500,000
LIVE AUCTION
Important Australian Art AU0867
ARTIST
ARTHUR STREETON
Size
31 x 60.7 cm
frame: S.A. Parker, Sydney (label verso)
Description
ARTHUR STREETON 1867-1943 Sunlight at the Camp 1894 oil on canvas 31 x 60.7 cm frame: S.A. Parker, Sydney (label verso)
Medium
oil on canvas
Signature
signed and dated 'StrEEton / 94' lower right
Provenance
Arthur Streeton, Sydney
Private Collection, Sydney
The Ruth Simon Collection, Sydney, acquired from the above
Literature
(Probably) 'The Art Society's Exhibition. II', The Daily Telegraph, Sydney, 1 October 1894, p. 5
Exhibited
(Probably) Fifteenth Annual Exhibition, Art Society of New South Wales, Sydney, 27 September 1894, no. 337, 'Sunlight at the Camp', £7.7.0
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