‘But thy tranquil waters teach/ Wisdom deep as human speech,/ Moving without haste or noise/ In unbroken equipoise’, wrote the American poet Henry Wadsworth Longfellow in ‘Songo River’ (1875), which describes a tranquil, slow moving river. Earlier in this poem, he observed ‘Nowhere such a devious stream,/ Save in fancy or in dream,/ … In the mirror of its tide/ Tangled thickets on each side/ Hang inverted, and between/ Floating cloud or sky serene’. This could well be a description of By tranquil waters, a painting in which Long depicted a group of youths bathing in Cook’s River at the close of a summer’s afternoon. Sunlight falls on the foliage of the distant trees and upon the figures, and the sky is reflected in the water. The positioning of the figures stabilises the composition and gives it a sense of timeless tranquillity. The whole is like an idyll, a scene of peace and contentment.

Long knew Longfellow’s work and, in 1897, he inscribed a segment from one of Longfellow’s poems on his oil painting, Fleur de luce (cat 8). It may be that in painting By tranquil waters, and in deciding upon its title, Long had Longfellow's 'Songo River' in mind.

The painting is Impressionist in the manner of Long’s teacher Julian Ashton — as well as that of Tom Roberts, Charles Conder and Arthur Streeton — in that it is freshly and broadly painted, depicts the momentary effects of light and shade, and was probably begun outdoors. In its subject, with the naturalistic depiction of the young nude boy in the foreground playing a pipe, it foreshadows Long’s decorative paintings and his interest in the mythological Pan.

By tranquil waters was the first work by Long to be purchased by the Art Gallery of New South Wales and, as such, it was his final student work and first as a professional artist. It was acquired conditionally upon the artist cutting down the lower portions of the painting to give it more definition.

Long was certainly not the first to depict nudes bathing in an Australian landscape: Roberts did so in The sunny south c 1887 (NGV), Streeton in Evening with bathers 1888 (NGV) and Spring 1890 (NGV), and Conder in The Yarra, Heidelberg 1890 (NGA). But Long’s painting was the first Australian landscape with nudes to be purchased and placed on display in a local public gallery. For this reason it provoked controversy, and was criticised on moral grounds by some of the press, and shocked at least one member of parliament, who suggested it was a disgraceful addition to the collection.

When By tranquil waters was first shown in 1894 at the ‘Art Society of NSW exhibition’ (272), it also received considerable praise, with critics suggesting it was daring and ‘impudent in its very cleverness’ and regarding it as the work of a highly talented and cheeky artist. On 29 September 1894 the reviewer for the Daily Telegraph wrote ‘it may truly be said that the most fastidious “stickler” for propriety in art could raise no objection to studies from the nude if all artists who were given to depicting undraped figures were content to leave so much to the imagination’. Whatever they thought of the nude bathers, the reviewers were generally in agreement that ‘the remarkable feature in the work is a splendid effect of sunlight falling upon the foliage of distant trees … as to have absolutely the effect of nature’ (SMH, 29 September 1894). A few years later J.G. de Libra wrote in the Australasian Art Review that Long’s ‘poetic treatment of everyday events, as seen in “By Tranquil Waters” … form so welcome a relief to the realism which as yet has almost wholly characterised Australian Art’ (1 August 1899).

Despite the furore created when it was first shown, By tranquil waters remained, throughout his life, one of Long’s most popular paintings, beingfondly referred to as ‘The bathers’.

‘But thy tranquil waters teach/ Wisdom deep as human speech,/ Moving without haste or noise/ In unbroken equipoise’, wrote the American poet Henry Wadsworth Longfellow in ‘Songo River’ (1875), which describes a tranquil, slow moving river. Earlier in this poem, he observed ‘Nowhere such a devious stream,/ Save in fancy or in dream,/ … In the mirror of its tide/ Tangled thickets on each side/ Hang inverted, and between/ Floating cloud or sky serene’. This could well be a description of By tranquil waters, a painting in which Long depicted a group of youths bathing in Cook’s River at the close of a summer’s afternoon. Sunlight falls on the foliage of the distant trees and upon the figures, and the sky is reflected in the water. The positioning of the figures stabilises the composition and gives it a sense of timeless tranquillity. The whole is like an idyll, a scene of peace and contentment.

Long knew Longfellow’s work and, in 1897, he inscribed a segment from one of Longfellow’s poems on his oil painting, Fleur de luce (cat 8). It may be that in painting By tranquil waters, and in deciding upon its title, Long had Longfellow's 'Songo River' in mind.

The painting is Impressionist in the manner of Long’s teacher Julian Ashton — as well as that of Tom Roberts, Charles Conder and Arthur Streeton — in that it is freshly and broadly painted, depicts the momentary effects of light and shade, and was probably begun outdoors. In its subject, with the naturalistic depiction of the young nude boy in the foreground playing a pipe, it foreshadows Long’s decorative paintings and his interest in the mythological Pan.

By tranquil waters was the first work by Long to be purchased by the Art Gallery of New South Wales and, as such, it was his final student work and first as a professional artist. It was acquired conditionally upon the artist cutting down the lower portions of the painting to give it more definition.

Long was certainly not the first to depict nudes bathing in an Australian landscape: Roberts did so in The sunny south c 1887 (NGV), Streeton in Evening with bathers 1888 (NGV) and Spring 1890 (NGV), and Conder in The Yarra, Heidelberg 1890 (NGA). But Long’s painting was the first Australian landscape with nudes to be purchased and placed on display in a local public gallery. For this reason it provoked controversy, and was criticised on moral grounds by some of the press, and shocked at least one member of parliament, who suggested it was a disgraceful addition to the collection.

When By tranquil waters was first shown in 1894 at the ‘Art Society of NSW exhibition’ (272), it also received considerable praise, with critics suggesting it was daring and ‘impudent in its very cleverness’ and regarding it as the work of a highly talented and cheeky artist. On 29 September 1894 the reviewer for the Daily Telegraph wrote ‘it may truly be said that the most fastidious “stickler” for propriety in art could raise no objection to studies from the nude if all artists who were given to depicting undraped figures were content to leave so much to the imagination’. Whatever they thought of the nude bathers, the reviewers were generally in agreement that ‘the remarkable feature in the work is a splendid effect of sunlight falling upon the foliage of distant trees … as to have absolutely the effect of nature’ (SMH, 29 September 1894). A few years later J.G. de Libra wrote in the Australasian Art Review that Long’s ‘poetic treatment of everyday events, as seen in “By Tranquil Waters” … form so welcome a relief to the realism which as yet has almost wholly characterised Australian Art’ (1 August 1899).

Despite the furore created when it was first shown, By tranquil waters remained, throughout his life, one of Long’s most popular paintings, beingfondly referred to as ‘The bathers’.