Evening shadows, backwater of the Murray, South Australia

Few works in the Gallery’s collection have generated more fascination than this tranquil twilight scene. It was the first painting to be acquired by the Gallery and immediately following its acquisition it became the institution’s most popular work. 

Infused with nostalgic overtones, this large quintessential example of naturalism became the pre-eminent ideal teaching example for landscape painting students in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Over time, this has led to Evening shadows gaining a reputation for being the most copied work in Australian art history, establishing it as the source of a multiples and copying phenomenon. Today, in excess of around 400 documented copies of this painting by other artists have been identified.

Including an Aboriginal family camping on a river bend, the work is often considered to represent a meditation on the passage of time. Today, its potent subject points to this nation’s difficult history, inspiring further artistic responses from several contemporary Australian artists.

Tracey Lock, Curator of Australian Paintings and Sculpture