The Pastoral Pursuits of Australia
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- Place made
- Melbourne
- Medium
- oil on canvas
- Credit line
- James and Diana Ramsay Fund 1987
- Accession number
- 875P15(a-e)
- Signature and date
- See entries for separate works for inscriptions.
- Media category
- Painting
- Collection area
- Australian paintings
- Copyright
- Courtesy of the Trustees of the Waller Estate
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This large and exuberant series of paintings by Victorian-born artist Mervyn Napier Waller is a major example of the neoclassical style, popular in Australia during the 1920s and 1930s. The multiple panels depict post-war Australia as a pastoral arcadia – a sunny land of abundance and contentment, nurtured by strong, youthful men and women. Set against a landscape that resembles the artist’s Victorian Western District homeland, the carefully balanced foreground is animated by classical poses, draped cloths and ruined temples, which express a sense of the ideal.
The Pastoral Pursuits of Australia was commissioned for the dining room of the Menzies Hotel in Melbourne, where it was enjoyed by many before the hotel was demolished in the late 1960s. The ambitious work was created after the artist’s right arm had been amputated as a result of wounds received as a soldier in France during the First World War. Waller, who received several prominent public commissions in Melbourne from the 1920s onwards, remained committed to his craft and used his left hand to produce detailed draftsmanship in diverse media, including stained glass windows and mosaic.
Elle Freak, Associate Curator of Australian Paintings and Sculpture
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[Book] AGSA 500.