This early work by Long poses several questions that revolve around the subject’s identity. The painting, with its high-key palette and lively, illustrative qualities, shows the influence of Long’s then teacher, Julian Ashton. Long has washed in the details quickly over sketchy pencil underdrawing, suggesting that he may have completed the watercolour in front of a model for a class exercise set by Ashton. This would account for the work’s spontaneity, and explain why Long appears not to have exhibited it.

Long made the sketch in 1894, the year the Art Gallery of New South Wales acquired his first major painting By tranquil waters (cat 3), and before he had adopted the symbolist style for which he is best known. If the title is Long’s, and there is scant evidence for this, we might speculate that some adverse reviews of By tranquil waters may have led him to cast his subject in a shabby light. The figure is, nevertheless, not easily identified as any contemporary critic.

Inscriptions on the verso of the work, which were made by Dr Norman Behan, a previous owner, complicate the picture. He describes the subject as ‘one of the artists [sic] colony in Sydney — 1894’. Behan’s reference is, presumably, to the artists’ camp flourishing at Balmoral, Sydney, in the 1890s, which was established by Bulletin cartoonist Livingston Hopkins (Hop) and Ashton. Long was one of many students who painted with their master at the Balmoral camp. Neither Ashton nor Hop, however, clearly resembles the figure.

In establishing the subject’s identity, we might also consider Long’s first job as a customs and shipping clerk, which he held until October 1894. In an interview in the Triad, Long recounted how he would escape work’s tedium by ‘sketching an old, perspiring cellarman who had a beard like Noah’s. From studying Noah I naturally passed on to the study of other antiques’ (2 March 1926). The man in this watercolour could well be one of these ‘antiques’.

Regardless of who the figure actually is, or where the work was made, Study sketch of a critic is a consummate character study painted with confidence by an artist on the cusp of a successful career.

Samantha Littley

This early work by Long poses several questions that revolve around the subject’s identity. The painting, with its high-key palette and lively, illustrative qualities, shows the influence of Long’s then teacher, Julian Ashton. Long has washed in the details quickly over sketchy pencil underdrawing, suggesting that he may have completed the watercolour in front of a model for a class exercise set by Ashton. This would account for the work’s spontaneity, and explain why Long appears not to have exhibited it.

Long made the sketch in 1894, the year the Art Gallery of New South Wales acquired his first major painting By tranquil waters (cat 3), and before he had adopted the symbolist style for which he is best known. If the title is Long’s, and there is scant evidence for this, we might speculate that some adverse reviews of By tranquil waters may have led him to cast his subject in a shabby light. The figure is, nevertheless, not easily identified as any contemporary critic.

Inscriptions on the verso of the work, which were made by Dr Norman Behan, a previous owner, complicate the picture. He describes the subject as ‘one of the artists [sic] colony in Sydney — 1894’. Behan’s reference is, presumably, to the artists’ camp flourishing at Balmoral, Sydney, in the 1890s, which was established by Bulletin cartoonist Livingston Hopkins (Hop) and Ashton. Long was one of many students who painted with their master at the Balmoral camp. Neither Ashton nor Hop, however, clearly resembles the figure.

In establishing the subject’s identity, we might also consider Long’s first job as a customs and shipping clerk, which he held until October 1894. In an interview in the Triad, Long recounted how he would escape work’s tedium by ‘sketching an old, perspiring cellarman who had a beard like Noah’s. From studying Noah I naturally passed on to the study of other antiques’ (2 March 1926). The man in this watercolour could well be one of these ‘antiques’.

Regardless of who the figure actually is, or where the work was made, Study sketch of a critic is a consummate character study painted with confidence by an artist on the cusp of a successful career.

Samantha Littley