The Heidelberg School was the first significant art movement in Australia, named after the suburb of Heidelberg where many artists, including Walter Withers and Arthur Streeton, painted landscapes in plein air. These artists captured the unique colors of the Australian landscape, working in areas like Heidelberg, Box Hill, and along Port Phillip Bay in the 1880s-1890s. Key figures included Frederick McCubbin and Tom Roberts, while Jane Sutherland also painted characteristic Australian rural scenes though her work was less recognized during her lifetime.

1. Heidelberg School
Artists

2. The Heidelberg School
The Heidelberg School was the first significant art movement in Australia. The
name originated in July 1891, when art critic, Sidney Dickinson wrote a review of
the exhibitions of Walter Withers and Arthur Streeton.
These artists and others are members of the “HEIDELBERG SCHOOL” for their
work has been done mainly in this attractive suburb.
The paintings, which are all selected from the region around Heidelberg, have a
high appreciation of colour.
It would be quite impossible to find, in any part of the world, more striking effects
than are found ready to the artist‟s hand in the Australian landscape at certain
seasons of the year.
Since the time of the Sidney Dickinson article, the term „Heidelberg School‟ has
taken on a broader meaning, and there are now numerous and diverse publications
on the subject. The term is no longer restricted to those artists who painted in the
Heidelberg area, but is used to cover the Australian artists of the late Nineteenth
Century who worked ‘plein air’ at a number of popular painting sites.
In the 1880‟s and 1890‟s, significant ‘plein air’ painting sites included the Gardiners
Creek area of Box Hill, the foreshore area of Port Phillip Bay, particularly between
Brighton and Mentone, and the sunlit valley of the Yarra River in the vicinity of
Heidelberg, East Ivanhoe, Eaglemont and Templestowe. Later significant sites
included Eltham, Warrandyte, Diamond Creek and areas of the Dandenong
Ranges, such as Olinda and Kallista.

3. Frederick McCubbin, Down on his Luck, 1889, oil on canvas, 145.0 x 183.3 x
14.0 cm (framed), State Art Collection, Art Gallery of Western
Australia, Perth, Purchased, 1896

4. FREDERICK McCUBBIN, Australia 1855 – 1917
THE PIONEER, 1904, oil on canvas, 223.5 x 86 cm; 224.7 x 122.5 cm; 223.5 x
85.7 cm Collection: National Gallery of Victoria

5. Frederick McCubbin, Lost,
1886 oil on canvas 115.8 x
73.9 cm, National Gallery of
Victoria, Melbourne

6. Tom Roberts (1856-1931) - 1888-1890, Shearing the Rams,
(National Gallery of Victoria, Australia)
Oil on canvas on composition board; 122.4 x 183.3 cm

7. Jane Sutherland, Field naturalists (c.1896) oil on canvas, National Gallery of
Victoria, Melbourne Gift of Mrs E. H. Shackell, 1962

8. Jane Sutherland, The Mushroom Gatherers (c.1895) 41.8 x 99.3 cm, National
Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne Gift of Dr Margaret Sutherland, 1972

9. Jane Sutherland
Although Sutherland‟s work reflects the same interests
and qualities as that of her male colleagues, it has not
always been equally recognised or valued. Her paintings
sold for significantly less than those of her male
colleagues, and her work was not represented in public
collections until 1962 when a major work, Field
naturalists, c.1896, was given as a gift to the National
Gallery of Victoria. In 1972 another three Sutherland
paintings entered the collection as a gift from the artist‟s
niece. Around this time feminism caused a surge of
interest in the work of women, and new
research, exhibitions and publications recognised and
celebrated the achievements of women artists, including
artists of the past, such as Sutherland.