Hans HEYSEN
Germany 1877 – Australia 1968
Australia from 1884; Europe, England 1899-1903

In the Flinders - Far North 1951
oil on canvas
signed and dated l.r., oil "HANS HEYSEN. 51"
102.0 (h) x 141.0 (w) cm
National Gallery of Australia, Canberra
NGA 1959.66
© Hans Heysen, Licensed by VISCOPY, Australia

In the Flinders—Far North 1951 is an example of Heysen combining the two great motifs of his oeuvre in one composition: the monumental Australian gum tree and the Flinders Ranges. The mightiness of the gum dominates this work, and is a symbol of survival in this semi-arid Arcadia. The work was commissioned by the Commonwealth Government to celebrate the fiftieth anniversary of Federation and, for the unusually large canvas he used at this late date, Heysen aptly chose a landscape that combined the rugged red and purple ranges with a stand of gums whose clawing roots hold on against adversity. By the mid-twentieth century Heysen’s landscapes, though still magnificent, were anachronistic survivors from an earlier phase of Australian landscape.