Sydney LONG | Moonrise pastoral

Sydney LONG
Australia 1871 – London 1955
England, Europe 1910-21; Australia 1921- 22; England 1922-25; Australia 1925-52; England from 1952

Moonrise pastoral 1918 intaglio , aquatint, printed in blue ink with plate-tone, from one copper plate on soft off-white wove paper
30.7 (h) x 22.8 (w) cm
3/60 , published state , 2nd state edition of 60 , no manufacturer's mark
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, '3/60'.
Reference: Mendelssohn (1979), 25; Paul (1928), 10 National Gallery of Australia, Canberra NGA 1965.135 The Oscar Paul Collection, Gift of Henriette von Dallwitz and of Richard Paul in honour of his father 1965. Reproduced with the kind permission of the Ophthalmic Research Institute of Australia
  • The Oscar Paul Collection.
  • Bequest to the Commonwealth Art Advisory Board (C.A.A.B.), from Mrs Henriette von Dallwitz legatee of Richard Paul after reinbursement to estate, to fulfill Richard Paul's intentions to honour his father, May 1965.

Long’s ‘decorative pastorals – recall his water-colours in form and handling. Flat masses of foliage raised from low horizons; grace of shape and of line’. And ‘through them Sid Long approaches his concept of beauty’ (Lindsay, 1921). Using soft, delicate tones, in Moonrise pastoral Long again created a poetic image of the twilight hours, with a rising moon. According to the collector J.W.F. Stephen, Long based this image on a pencil sketch he made at Woy Woy, on the southern reaches of Brisbane Water, some time previously.

Stephen observed that the plate was made of very thick copper and that it curled every time it was rolled through the press when printing.

It is likely Long produced his three twilight pastorals – sandgrain, softground and aquatint – while he was a student at the Central School of Arts and Crafts in London, and that he did so as experiments in the use of these different approaches to printmaking. He described aquatint as ‘a method of producing a pictorial effect in tones instead of lines’, and that it has ‘much of the appearance of a wash drawing’ (Paul 1928, p 8).

‘The “Moonlight Pastoral” will attract attention, for the soft, delicate blue tones of its landscape beneath a rising moon’ wrote the Sydney Morning Herald critic on 15 December 1925.

Long first exhibited a copy of this print in 1921 at the exhibition, The water-colours and etchings of Sydney Long, ARE, Decoration Galleries, Melbourne, 15–26 August (14, as ‘Moonlight Pastoral’). It was illustrated in Art in Australia in September that year.

Dorothy Ellsmore Paul dated the print 1918. And if the print was made as an experiment in technique as suggested, then Long is indeed likely to have produced it in 1918, at the time he was a student at the Central School.

Copies of the print are held by the Art Gallery of New South Wales, the Art Gallery of South Australia and the Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery; a copy in brown ink is held by the National Gallery of Victoria. A copy in black ink was presented to the Victoria & Albert Museum, London, in 1921 by William P. Robins, and a copy, in black ink, was given by Long to the British Museum, London, in 1924.

Long’s ‘decorative pastorals – recall his water-colours in form and handling. Flat masses of foliage raised from low horizons; grace of shape and of line’. And ‘through them Sid Long approaches his concept of beauty’ (Lindsay, 1921). Using soft, delicate tones, in Moonrise pastoral Long again created a poetic image of the twilight hours, with a rising moon. According to the collector J.W.F. Stephen, Long based this image on a pencil sketch he made at Woy Woy, on the southern reaches of Brisbane Water, some time previously.

Stephen observed that the plate was made of very thick copper and that it curled every time it was rolled through the press when printing.

It is likely Long produced his three twilight pastorals – sandgrain, softground and aquatint – while he was a student at the Central School of Arts and Crafts in London, and that he did so as experiments in the use of these different approaches to printmaking. He described aquatint as ‘a method of producing a pictorial effect in tones instead of lines’, and that it has ‘much of the appearance of a wash drawing’ (Paul 1928, p 8).

‘The “Moonlight Pastoral” will attract attention, for the soft, delicate blue tones of its landscape beneath a rising moon’ wrote the Sydney Morning Herald critic on 15 December 1925.

Long first exhibited a copy of this print in 1921 at the exhibition, The water-colours and etchings of Sydney Long, ARE, Decoration Galleries, Melbourne, 15–26 August (14, as ‘Moonlight Pastoral’). It was illustrated in Art in Australia in September that year.

Dorothy Ellsmore Paul dated the print 1918. And if the print was made as an experiment in technique as suggested, then Long is indeed likely to have produced it in 1918, at the time he was a student at the Central School.

Copies of the print are held by the Art Gallery of New South Wales, the Art Gallery of South Australia and the Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery; a copy in brown ink is held by the National Gallery of Victoria. A copy in black ink was presented to the Victoria & Albert Museum, London, in 1921 by William P. Robins, and a copy, in black ink, was given by Long to the British Museum, London, in 1924.

Long’s ‘decorative pastorals – recall his water-colours in form and handling. Flat masses of foliage raised from low horizons; grace of shape and of line’. And ‘through them Sid Long approaches his concept of beauty’ (Lindsay, 1921). Using soft, delicate tones, in Moonrise pastoral Long again created a poetic image of the twilight hours, with a rising moon. According to the collector J.W.F. Stephen, Long based this image on a pencil sketch he made at Woy Woy, on the southern reaches of Brisbane Water, some time previously.

Stephen observed that the plate was made of very thick copper and that it curled every time it was rolled through the press when printing.

It is likely Long produced his three twilight pastorals – sandgrain, softground and aquatint – while he was a student at the Central School of Arts and Crafts in London, and that he did so as experiments in the use of these different approaches to printmaking. He described aquatint as ‘a method of producing a pictorial effect in tones instead of lines’, and that it has ‘much of the appearance of a wash drawing’ (Paul 1928, p 8).

‘The “Moonlight Pastoral” will attract attention, for the soft, delicate blue tones of its landscape beneath a rising moon’ wrote the Sydney Morning Herald critic on 15 December 1925.

Long first exhibited a copy of this print in 1921 at the exhibition, The water-colours and etchings of Sydney Long, ARE, Decoration Galleries, Melbourne, 15–26 August (14, as ‘Moonlight Pastoral’). It was illustrated in Art in Australia in September that year.

Dorothy Ellsmore Paul dated the print 1918. And if the print was made as an experiment in technique as suggested, then Long is indeed likely to have produced it in 1918, at the time he was a student at the Central School.

Copies of the print are held by the Art Gallery of New South Wales, the Art Gallery of South Australia and the Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery; a copy in brown ink is held by the National Gallery of Victoria. A copy in black ink was presented to the Victoria & Albert Museum, London, in 1921 by William P. Robins, and a copy, in black ink, was given by Long to the British Museum, London, in 1924.