Sunlight (Cutting on a hot road)

Arthur Streeton painted this sunbaked country scene in 1890, and the title says it all: "Sunlight (Cutting on a hot road)." A pale dirt road curves through dry, golden grass, with a rough wooden fence leaning across a low hill. Tall gum trees rise against a clear blue sky, and if you search along the road you will spot a tiny figure making their way through the heat. Everything about the picture speaks of an Australian summer afternoon, when the ground bakes and the air seems to shimmer.

Streeton belonged to the Heidelberg School, a group of young painters who left their studios to work outdoors and capture the true light of the Australian bush. Instead of carefully finishing every leaf and blade of grass, he worked fast and loose, letting quick strokes and warm colours do the job. The result feels bright and dry, exactly as a hot day should. Streeton once talked about his wish to paint the "great hot sun" of his homeland, and that ambition comes through clearly in this small but confident work, where the local landscape is treated with an Impressionist eye but a firmly Australian heart.