Arthur Streeton - Arthur Streeton - Fred Draper's Commercial Hotel in Mittagong, 1892, NSW, Australia, watercolour; Barn, watercolour; In My Studio, 1913 watercolour over pencilon paper
Sir Arthur Ernest Streeton (1867–1943) was a great Australian Impressionist landscape painter. He was born in Duneed, Victoria, Australia. Aged 15 years, he began night classes at the National Gallery of Victoria School of Design. He also learned the rudiments from studying art manuals and photographs.
At age nineteen, he began an apprenticeship as a lithographer. He also joined a painting group where he painted plein air, alongside Tom Roberts, Frederick McCubbin, and Louis Abrahams. He soon became a full time painter and developed a friendship with Charles Conder. The group of artists often camped and painted outdoors at Box Hill, Heidelberg, and the Yarra. They also provided art lessons and formed the Heidelberg School. During the 1890s, Streeton traveled further inland in New South Wales to explore the outback and the Hawkesbury River.
Streeton traveled to England. He took some time to adjust his artistic identity and become acquainted with very different landscapes. His best market was sending his English works for sale in Australia. Gradually, he began to win recognition in England, France, and the United States.
In 1915, Streeton served as a private in the Australian Army Medical Corps. After three years, he was appointed an official war artist and painted the Western Front in France. After the war, Streeton returned to painting romantic visions of the Australian landscape. By this time, he was a well-established painter. In 1937, was knighted for services to the arts.
