On the face of it, Long’s The Spirit of the plains is an odd painting to have emerged from the antipodean colonies in the final years of the 19th century. When he completed the painting, in 1897, the artist was 26 years old and had not, as far as is known, travelled outside New South Wales. This is not to suggest that The Spirit of the plains was a single flash. Rather, it was one of a series of paintings Long made in a characteristic decorative style. The Spirit of the plains is the least classical of this major group, and the most self-consciously Australian. The painting could be read as a nationalist statement appropriate to the years leading to Federation or, more reasonably, as a specifically Australian work in a style that was seen to be international.

At the turn of the 20th century in Australia, an international, particularly a British, context was desirable as a comparative measure for Australian art. The Spirit of the plains was exhibited at the Grafton Galleries in London in an exhibition of Australian art in 1898, and was reproduced in The Studio, the leading English art magazine of the period, in the same year. Such international recognition certainly gave the painting an aura of importance. It is an important painting for reasons, however, other than international fame.

Long first made his reputation as a painter of landscapes with figures and, in this sense, The Spirit of the plains is a logical development of that focus. It relates to his subsequent decorative works, but differs from them in both the subject and the sparse elegance of its landscape. Although there is an implied narrative, this is a myth of Long’s own creation and so it emerges as from a dream; the quiet metallic grey tones of the bush landscape help create the impression
of ethereal beauty.

This is the first painting by Long to show the distinctive clumps of trees, starting to move together, like ghosts at night. The trees have been placed in blocks, progressively smaller as a counterpoint to the procession of the girl with her brolgas. They serve to define the space, as though it were a theatre stage, with the brolgas dancing across it. Clutter is eliminated and the whole piece is reduced to one glorious motif. As the critic of the Sydney Mail wrote: ‘It is a poetic and imaginative picture, in soft and myrtle greys, and the idea of the queer Australian bird and its enchantress is very cleverly handled’ (9 October 1897).

It was an easy painting for the critics of the 1890s to read. The critic for the Daily Telegraph gave the most detailed analysis, and the most favourable: ‘It is essentially Australian, beautifully decorative, and full of feeling. The graceful sweep in the composition, along the group of “native companions,” weirdly capering to the soughing of the winds, and culminating in the clump of trees to the left, leaves nothing to be desired’ (2 October 1897). The general consensus among the critics was that Long was creating an authentic Australian myth. And certainly, at the turn of the century, Long understood the need for his country to develop its own mythological language.

Yet Long’s myth of a bush Spirit, leading her dancing birds through the gum-treed plains, is based on a European, not Australian, sensibility. Long was a self-consciously modern artist. He subdued the vertical strokes of the trees, pushed them back in a receding rhythm and instead placed across his stage a pubescent nymph, piping her birds in an elaborate dance. The moon rises to the side of her head, and her features are defined in shadow.

The Spirit of the plains was first exhibited in the 1897 ‘Society of Artists Spring exhibition’ (81). It was the first major work in Long’s decorative style, and the purest, and a marked contrast from the sweetly lyrical Midday (cat 6).

Joanna Mendelssohn

On the face of it, Long’s The Spirit of the plains is an odd painting to have emerged from the antipodean colonies in the final years of the 19th century. When he completed the painting, in 1897, the artist was 26 years old and had not, as far as is known, travelled outside New South Wales. This is not to suggest that The Spirit of the plains was a single flash. Rather, it was one of a series of paintings Long made in a characteristic decorative style. The Spirit of the plains is the least classical of this major group, and the most self-consciously Australian. The painting could be read as a nationalist statement appropriate to the years leading to Federation or, more reasonably, as a specifically Australian work in a style that was seen to be international.

At the turn of the 20th century in Australia, an international, particularly a British, context was desirable as a comparative measure for Australian art. The Spirit of the plains was exhibited at the Grafton Galleries in London in an exhibition of Australian art in 1898, and was reproduced in The Studio, the leading English art magazine of the period, in the same year. Such international recognition certainly gave the painting an aura of importance. It is an important painting for reasons, however, other than international fame.

Long first made his reputation as a painter of landscapes with figures and, in this sense, The Spirit of the plains is a logical development of that focus. It relates to his subsequent decorative works, but differs from them in both the subject and the sparse elegance of its landscape. Although there is an implied narrative, this is a myth of Long’s own creation and so it emerges as from a dream; the quiet metallic grey tones of the bush landscape help create the impression
of ethereal beauty.

This is the first painting by Long to show the distinctive clumps of trees, starting to move together, like ghosts at night. The trees have been placed in blocks, progressively smaller as a counterpoint to the procession of the girl with her brolgas. They serve to define the space, as though it were a theatre stage, with the brolgas dancing across it. Clutter is eliminated and the whole piece is reduced to one glorious motif. As the critic of the Sydney Mail wrote: ‘It is a poetic and imaginative picture, in soft and myrtle greys, and the idea of the queer Australian bird and its enchantress is very cleverly handled’ (9 October 1897).

It was an easy painting for the critics of the 1890s to read. The critic for the Daily Telegraph gave the most detailed analysis, and the most favourable: ‘It is essentially Australian, beautifully decorative, and full of feeling. The graceful sweep in the composition, along the group of “native companions,” weirdly capering to the soughing of the winds, and culminating in the clump of trees to the left, leaves nothing to be desired’ (2 October 1897). The general consensus among the critics was that Long was creating an authentic Australian myth. And certainly, at the turn of the century, Long understood the need for his country to develop its own mythological language.

Yet Long’s myth of a bush Spirit, leading her dancing birds through the gum-treed plains, is based on a European, not Australian, sensibility. Long was a self-consciously modern artist. He subdued the vertical strokes of the trees, pushed them back in a receding rhythm and instead placed across his stage a pubescent nymph, piping her birds in an elaborate dance. The moon rises to the side of her head, and her features are defined in shadow.

The Spirit of the plains was first exhibited in the 1897 ‘Society of Artists Spring exhibition’ (81). It was the first major work in Long’s decorative style, and the purest, and a marked contrast from the sweetly lyrical Midday (cat 6).

Joanna Mendelssohn