LONG, SYDNEY (1871-1955)

**PRICE ON APPLICATION**
 
"Moonlight, Narrabeen Lakes" (1944) 
oil on canvas laid on board
44 x 54.5cm
signed lower left
*private collection, Melbourne
*Christie's, November 1999 (No.84)
*Christie's, April 1992 (No.14)
*Lawson's, March 1990 (No.201)
 
Long is an influential, pioneering Australian Symbolist. Originally inspired by the Heidelberg School of Australian impressionism, Long developed his own Symbolist approach to the Australian landscape, and by the 1910s had become Australia's foremost Art Nouveau painter. Long began formal art classes at the New South Wales Art Society in 1890. In 1894 his Heidelberg School-influenced painting, a bathing scene set on the Cooks River By Tranquil Waters (1894) caused a small scandal, but was purchased by the Art Gallery of New South Wales. The sale brought Long to the attention of Julian Ashton, a Trustee of the Gallery and founder of the influential Julian Ashton Art School (at that time called the Sydney Art School), & in 1907 he became Ashton's second-in-command in the school. In 1898 he was briefly engaged to Thea Proctor. In 1910 he moved to London, where he learned etching and became an associate of the Royal Society of Painters, Etchers & Engravers. He returned to Australia in 1921 & helped found the Australian Painters, Etchers & Engravers Society, lived in England for the period 1922–1925, then returned once more to Australia, becoming President of the Society. From 1933 - 1949 he was a Trustee of the Art Gallery of New South Wales. He won the Wynne Prize twice; in 1938 for The Approaching Storm, & in 1940 for The Lake, Narrabeen. He remained a director of the Society for many years, as well as remaining an active art teacher. His works are represented in most major collections, most notably AGNSW.