The Artists

Eugene von Guerard

EUGENE von GUERARD
MOUNT KOSCIUSKO, SEEN FROM THE
VICTORIAN BORDER (MOUNT HOPE RANGES), 1866

EUGENE von GUERARD
Born Vienna 1811, Died London 1901

MOUNT KOSCIUSKO, SEEN FROM THE
VICTORIAN BORDER (MOUNT HOPE RANGES), 1866
oil on canvas, 108.2 x 153.3 cm
Purchased 1870
Collection: National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne

This work was completed in 1866, and purchased by the National Gallery of Victoria in 1870.

The work was exhibited in the Intercolonial Exhibition held in Melbourne in October 1866.

In The Argus 25 October 1866, the following review of the work was given:
'Mr von Guerard's principal contribution to the collection consists of a view of Mount Kosciusko from the Mount Hope Ranges. The timber in the foreground is treated with greater freedom than he usually employs, although he still continues to crowd an immense deal of not always necessary detail into a limited space, which sometimes tends to break up the attention of the observer. But his scale of colour is so harmonious and well graduated as to give a feeling of unity to each of his works; and in that under notice, the eye is led on from the mountain buttresses, enveloped in a purple haze, to the jagged summits, standing out sharp and clear from the rarer atmosphere that surrounds them, by imperceptible stages, until the mind receives that impression of altitude and remoteness which the artist has designed to produce.'

It is further noted in the Golden Summers catalogue, that the work was 'purchased after considerable wrangling'.
'Eugene von Guerard originally offered the work to the Trustees of the National Gallery of Victoria in 1869 for 220 pounds, but eventually with some bitterness, accepted their offer of 150 pounds.'
Note that this figure of 150 pounds, varies from the 157 pounds 10 shillings, reported in the Australian Dictionary of Biography entry for Eugene von Guerard, written by Marjorie J. Tipping.

Mount Kosciusko, is situated in New South Wales and is recorded as having a height of 2230 metres. It was named in 1839 by Polish explorer, Paul Edmund de Strzelecki after Polish leader, Tadeusz Kosciusko.

The Mount Hope Ranges are now called the Youngal Ranges, which was probably derived from the Aboriginal, 'youang' meaning 'hill'. Mount Hope is on the Victorian side of the border, and the view provided is across the border into New South Wales.

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Left: Arthur Streeton - Above Us The Great Grave Sky, 1890
Collection: National Gallery of Australia, Canberra.