(An Australian Scene)

Artur Jose Loureiro

Loureiro (Australian Scene)
(An Australian Scene) by Artur Jose Loureiro

Details

Artist
Artur Jose Loureiro
Title
(An Australian Scene)
Medium
oil on canvas
Size
73 x 167

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Provenance

Germana and Artur de Sousa Loureiro, nephew of Artur José de Sousa Loureiro
Germana Augusta Ferreira Osório Loureiro, 1982
Gifted to Georgette Amélia Ferreira Osório Martins Mendonça, 2015
by descent

Further Information

In (An Australian Scene) Loureiro transferred the melancholy bush setting to a Symbolist influenced farmland scene, marked by bushfire and death.  As mood dominates description, the poignancy of the moment of despair is emphasised by the enveloping freshness of a plein air landscape, action centred in the very forefront of the composition. Loureiro, Portuguese by birth and European by training, arrived in Melbourne in early 1885.  His close friendship with McCubbin encouraged a stronger narrative in his art, as seen in this painting.  Although its original title has escaped discovery, there is a strong probability that it was influenced by the painting Anguish by the German artist A. T. A. Schenck and purchased by the National Gallery of Victoria in 1888.  In keeping with its title, a ewe cries in anguish over the body of her dead lamb, surrounded by a crowd of hungry black crows. (An Australian Scene) reflects on abandonment in death.

An extract from the catalogue essay by David Thomas, 2017