Colonial Art (1770-1900)

The visual arts have a long history in Australia, from ancient Aboriginal rock paintings to colonial landscapes to contemporary movements of today. Europeans depicted the natural landscape, plant life, and wildlife of the Australian continent during initial voyages in the late 1700s. John Lewin and Harriet and Helena Scott were among the first professional natural-history illustrators, while artists such as Augustus Earle focused on ethnographic portraiture of Aboriginal Australians.

The colonial art market primarily desired landscape paintings, which are often described as making a gradual shift from a European sense of light to a more Australian one. The lighting in Australia is notably different from that of Europe, and early attempts at landscapes attempted to reflect this. The art of this era is also characterized by transformation, where artistic ideas originating from beyond (primarily Europe) gained new meaning and purpose when transplanted into the new continent and the emerging colonial society. 

Early Colonial Art (1770-1850) 

The first artistic representations of the Australia scene by European artists were mainly natural history illustrations, depicting the distinctive flora and fauna of the land for scientific purposes and the topography of the coast. Sydney Parkinson, the Botanical illustrator on James Cook's 1770 voyage that first charted the eastern coastline of Australia, made a large number of such drawings under the direction of naturalist Joseph Banks. Until the turn of the century, all drawings made in the colony were crafted by soldiers, including British naval officers George Raper and John Hunter, and convict artists, including Thomas Watling. Most are in the style of naval draughtsmanship and cover natural history topics, specifically birds, while a few depict the infant colony itself.

Later Colonial Art (1850-1895)

From 1851, the Victorian Gold Rush resulted in a huge influx of settlers and new wealth. S. T. Gill (1818–1880) documented life on the Australian gold fields; however the colonial art market primarily desired landscape paintings, which were commissioned by wealthy landowners or merchants wanting to record their material success. Some of the artists of note included Eugene von Guerard, Nicholas Chevalier, William Strutt, John Skinner Prout, and Knut Bull. Louis Buvelot was a key figure in landscape painting, illustrating a more domesticated and settled view of the land. Among the first Australian artists to gain a reputation overseas were the impressionist John Peter Russell and landscape painter Rupert Bunny. 

The Heidelberg School (1885-1910)

The origin of distinctly Australian painting is associated with the Heidelberg School of the 1880s-1890s. Like European Impressionists, artists such as Arthur Streeton, Frederick McCubbin, Tom Roberts, and Charles Conder applied themselves to recreating a truer sense of light and color as seen in the Australian landscape. They began an impressionistic plein air approach to the Australian landscape that remains embedded in Australia's popular consciousness, both in and outside the art world. Their most recognized paintings involve scenes of pastoral and outback Australia. Central themes of their art are considered those of work, conquering the land, and an idealization of the rural pioneer. By the 1890s, most Australians were city-dwellers, and a romantic view of pioneer life gave great power and popularity to images of the rural landscape.

Shearing the Rams, 1888-1890, oil on canvas, Tom Roberts (1856 - 1931)

Colonial artists such as Tom Roberts captured aspects of everyday life in Colonial Australia.

Golden Summer, Eaglemont (1889) oil-on-canvas, by Arthur Streeton (1867–1943)

Artists such as Arthur Streeton attempted to capture the unique light and color that characterize the Australian landscape.