Sydney
LONG
Australia
1871
–
London
1955
England, Europe 1910-21; Australia 1921- 22; England 1922-25; Australia 1925-52; England from 1952
13.9 (h) x 21.2 (w) cm
5/30 , published state , edition of 30 , watermark lower right corner, 'Head & Co [fragment, runs vertically]'
Signed lower right below plate-mark in black pencil, 'Sydney Long'. Not dated. Inscribed with edition details lower left below plate-mark in black pencil, '5/30'.
Reference: Mendelssohn (1979), 65; Paul (1928), 17 National Gallery of Australia, Canberra NGA 1977.9.69 The Stephen Collection, purchased 1976. Reproduced with the kind permission of the Ophthalmic Research Institute of Australia
- J.W.F. Stephen, who formed a definitive collection of the etched work of Sydney Long. J.A.C. Stephen, the artist’s son, by descent. Purchased by the Australian National Gallery, from J.A.C. Stephen, Sydney, 1977.
At first glance, Turkeys and pumpkins is executed in the academic, linear style of Long’s conservative painter–etcher contemporaries, Malcolm Osborne and
Sir Frank Short, whose ethos he claimed to have assumed by the early 1920s. The artist was never completely convinced, however, by the argument for pure line etching.
In this seemingly forthright composition, small flourishes appear. The birds’ plumage, for example, is printed with fine retroussage – the ink teased gently from incisions in the plate to give softness and depth to otherwise two-dimensional wings. Elsewhere, trees stretch impossibly toward the periphery of the plate; outhouses lean from one another at perfect angles; a fourth turkey, only partially composed, appears faintly at the left – whether an impressionistic embellishment or unresolved pictorial element, we are left
to wonder.
This is Long’s only image of turkeys, and it is possible he was influenced by Hans Heysen’s or Lionel Lindsay’s evocation of the same theme. Heysen’s 1921 watercolour, Bronzewings and saplings, depicted a rafter of turkeys proceeding through a copse of sinuous eucalypts. Printed in 1923, Lindsay’s wood engraving, Heysen’s birds, was inspired by Heysen’s watercolour and portrayed a group of turkeys, the central bird ostentatiously fanning its tail in a glittering, silver arc.
A copy of Turkeys and pumpkins was first exhibited in 1925 at the ‘Fifth annual exhibition of the Australian Painter–Etchers’ Society’, Sydney, 6–25 July (99). Copies of the print are held by the Art Gallery of New South Wales and the Tasmanian Museum
and Art Gallery.
Elspeth Pitt
At first glance, Turkeys and pumpkins is executed in the academic, linear style of Long’s conservative painter–etcher contemporaries, Malcolm Osborne and
Sir Frank Short, whose ethos he claimed to have assumed by the early 1920s. The artist was never completely convinced, however, by the argument for pure line etching.
In this seemingly forthright composition, small flourishes appear. The birds’ plumage, for example, is printed with fine retroussage – the ink teased gently from incisions in the plate to give softness and depth to otherwise two-dimensional wings. Elsewhere, trees stretch impossibly toward the periphery of the plate; outhouses lean from one another at perfect angles; a fourth turkey, only partially composed, appears faintly at the left – whether an impressionistic embellishment or unresolved pictorial element, we are left
to wonder.
This is Long’s only image of turkeys, and it is possible he was influenced by Hans Heysen’s or Lionel Lindsay’s evocation of the same theme. Heysen’s 1921 watercolour, Bronzewings and saplings, depicted a rafter of turkeys proceeding through a copse of sinuous eucalypts. Printed in 1923, Lindsay’s wood engraving, Heysen’s birds, was inspired by Heysen’s watercolour and portrayed a group of turkeys, the central bird ostentatiously fanning its tail in a glittering, silver arc.
A copy of Turkeys and pumpkins was first exhibited in 1925 at the ‘Fifth annual exhibition of the Australian Painter–Etchers’ Society’, Sydney, 6–25 July (99). Copies of the print are held by the Art Gallery of New South Wales and the Tasmanian Museum
and Art Gallery.
Elspeth Pitt
At first glance, Turkeys and pumpkins is executed in the academic, linear style of Long’s conservative painter–etcher contemporaries, Malcolm Osborne and
Sir Frank Short, whose ethos he claimed to have assumed by the early 1920s. The artist was never completely convinced, however, by the argument for pure line etching.
In this seemingly forthright composition, small flourishes appear. The birds’ plumage, for example, is printed with fine retroussage – the ink teased gently from incisions in the plate to give softness and depth to otherwise two-dimensional wings. Elsewhere, trees stretch impossibly toward the periphery of the plate; outhouses lean from one another at perfect angles; a fourth turkey, only partially composed, appears faintly at the left – whether an impressionistic embellishment or unresolved pictorial element, we are left
to wonder.
This is Long’s only image of turkeys, and it is possible he was influenced by Hans Heysen’s or Lionel Lindsay’s evocation of the same theme. Heysen’s 1921 watercolour, Bronzewings and saplings, depicted a rafter of turkeys proceeding through a copse of sinuous eucalypts. Printed in 1923, Lindsay’s wood engraving, Heysen’s birds, was inspired by Heysen’s watercolour and portrayed a group of turkeys, the central bird ostentatiously fanning its tail in a glittering, silver arc.
A copy of Turkeys and pumpkins was first exhibited in 1925 at the ‘Fifth annual exhibition of the Australian Painter–Etchers’ Society’, Sydney, 6–25 July (99). Copies of the print are held by the Art Gallery of New South Wales and the Tasmanian Museum
and Art Gallery.
Elspeth Pitt
