This highly stylised painting is one of Long’s foremost Art Nouveau images. It presents a woman in tranquil meditation with her head bowed and silhouetted against a full moon (or halo). Dressed in green, the woman stands in the half-light among leaves and rushes which are depicted in ribbony lines as decorative motifs. The verticality is exaggerated, and her figure is elongated. In its dreamlike quality, the painting suggests she is an otherworldly being. In this, and in the poetic reference in the title, the painting has similarities to the work of Pre-Raphaelite artists, and in particular to J.W. Waterhouse’s Circe invidiosa 1892, which had been purchased by the Art Gallery of South Australia in 1892, and included in an exhibition shown at the Art Gallery of New South Wales in 1895. But if Long’s painting is Pre-Raphaelite in mood, it is Pre-Raphaelitism translated into an Australian idiom.

Long may also have been impressed by Arthur Streeton’s small oil on cedar panel ‘decoration’, Scheherazade 1895 (NGV). Both works show a solitary tall woman with a circular shape behind her head; but there the similarity ends. Long’s figure is chastely dressed, while Streeton’s nubile beauty is only barely clad. A solitary standing figure with a halo was, of course, standard in religious iconography in the depiction of saints, and Long may also have had such imagery in mind when creating his 'decoration', and perhaps even thought, in a paganistic way, of his woman as a saint of the bush or dusk. He had earlier, in 1897 and 1898, placed a subtle moon-halo beside the head of his Spirit in The Spirit of the plains (cat 9) and more directly behind the head of Pan in his painting Pan (cat 11).

In January 1900, the critic for The Studio admired Long’s work, and observed that it was ‘painted with deep feeling’. Likewise, much later, the critic for the Bulletin was sympathetic, writing on 26 October 1955 that ‘in a quieter, more melancholy style, with echoes of the pre-Raphaelites, there is … charm in the bare shouldered girl in the green dress of “Decoration”’. The painting, however, was a little too advanced for J.G. de Libra of Australasian Art Review, who wrote that the image was ‘a shade beyond us’ (1 September 1899).

The title ‘Sadder than a single star …’ comes from Alfred, Lord Tennyson’s Three sonnets to a coquette (1836), which reveals the artist’s poetical intent:

Light Hope at Beauty’s call would perch and stand,/ And run thro’ every change of sharp and flat;/ And Fancy came and at her pillow sat,/ When Sleep had bound her in his rosy band … / But now they live with Beauty less and less,/ For Hope is other Hope and wanders far,/ Nor cares to lisp in love’s delicious creeds;/ And Fancy watches in the wilderness,/ Poor Fancy sadder than a single star,/ That sets at twilight in a land of reeds.

It is a mournful poem about disappointed love, and the painting also conveys a degree of sadness. Likewise, Waterhouse’s Circe invidiosa was based on a tale of unrequited love.

Long’s painting was first exhibited in 1899 at the ‘Society of Artists exhibition’ (165, reproduced with unsigned sketch), from which it was purchased by the Art Gallery of New South Wales. The painting was renamed Decoration in March 1941 at the request of the artist who, perhaps, realised that, among other things, it is easier to talk about works of art if they have simpler titles.

This highly stylised painting is one of Long’s foremost Art Nouveau images. It presents a woman in tranquil meditation with her head bowed and silhouetted against a full moon (or halo). Dressed in green, the woman stands in the half-light among leaves and rushes which are depicted in ribbony lines as decorative motifs. The verticality is exaggerated, and her figure is elongated. In its dreamlike quality, the painting suggests she is an otherworldly being. In this, and in the poetic reference in the title, the painting has similarities to the work of Pre-Raphaelite artists, and in particular to J.W. Waterhouse’s Circe invidiosa 1892, which had been purchased by the Art Gallery of South Australia in 1892, and included in an exhibition shown at the Art Gallery of New South Wales in 1895. But if Long’s painting is Pre-Raphaelite in mood, it is Pre-Raphaelitism translated into an Australian idiom.

Long may also have been impressed by Arthur Streeton’s small oil on cedar panel ‘decoration’, Scheherazade 1895 (NGV). Both works show a solitary tall woman with a circular shape behind her head; but there the similarity ends. Long’s figure is chastely dressed, while Streeton’s nubile beauty is only barely clad. A solitary standing figure with a halo was, of course, standard in religious iconography in the depiction of saints, and Long may also have had such imagery in mind when creating his 'decoration', and perhaps even thought, in a paganistic way, of his woman as a saint of the bush or dusk. He had earlier, in 1897 and 1898, placed a subtle moon-halo beside the head of his Spirit in The Spirit of the plains (cat 9) and more directly behind the head of Pan in his painting Pan (cat 11).

In January 1900, the critic for The Studio admired Long’s work, and observed that it was ‘painted with deep feeling’. Likewise, much later, the critic for the Bulletin was sympathetic, writing on 26 October 1955 that ‘in a quieter, more melancholy style, with echoes of the pre-Raphaelites, there is … charm in the bare shouldered girl in the green dress of “Decoration”’. The painting, however, was a little too advanced for J.G. de Libra of Australasian Art Review, who wrote that the image was ‘a shade beyond us’ (1 September 1899).

The title ‘Sadder than a single star …’ comes from Alfred, Lord Tennyson’s Three sonnets to a coquette (1836), which reveals the artist’s poetical intent:

Light Hope at Beauty’s call would perch and stand,/ And run thro’ every change of sharp and flat;/ And Fancy came and at her pillow sat,/ When Sleep had bound her in his rosy band … / But now they live with Beauty less and less,/ For Hope is other Hope and wanders far,/ Nor cares to lisp in love’s delicious creeds;/ And Fancy watches in the wilderness,/ Poor Fancy sadder than a single star,/ That sets at twilight in a land of reeds.

It is a mournful poem about disappointed love, and the painting also conveys a degree of sadness. Likewise, Waterhouse’s Circe invidiosa was based on a tale of unrequited love.

Long’s painting was first exhibited in 1899 at the ‘Society of Artists exhibition’ (165, reproduced with unsigned sketch), from which it was purchased by the Art Gallery of New South Wales. The painting was renamed Decoration in March 1941 at the request of the artist who, perhaps, realised that, among other things, it is easier to talk about works of art if they have simpler titles.