In 1914 Long produced a second version of The Spirit of the plains 1897 (cat 9). Painted in London just before the First World War, it is one of several images from this time in which Long re-worked earlier subjects.

The rhythmically curving necks and wings of the brolgas form a graceful arabesque in counterpoint to the stand of flattened eucalypts. But here Long simplified the composition by including a smaller number of trees in the background, fewer brolgas and not as much detail in the foreground foliage. The ‘native companions’ no longer dance in the same complex arrangement. Instead of tripping gracefully as in the earlier painting, they now appear to be slowly gliding. This painting also differs from its predecessor in its more muted tone.

As in his earlier version of this subject, Long’s concern was with creating Australian imagery using the country’s natural flora and fauna. He wanted to convey the Spirit of place, of the land – rather than produce a more traditional view, with men and women in the landscape, as he had in By tranquil waters (cat 3) and Midday (cat 6) (albeit that these works had symbolic overtones too).

In this second version of The Spirit of the plains, Long also created an elegant Art Nouveau-style painting. Even if it was a reprisal of his original work, it still had a rare place in Australian art. Some 16 years earlier, in May 1898, the English magazine The Studio, which exerted a major influence on the promotion of the Art Nouveau approach and the Arts and Crafts movement, had set Long apart from the rest of the Australian landscape painters (including Tom Roberts and Arthur Streeton) because of his ‘Decorative figure subjects’ – In The Studio's review of the exhibition of Australian art at the Grafton Galleries in London, it was observed that ‘with the exception of Mr. S. Long’s fanciful Spirit of the Plains there is nothing … which reveals any inclination towards imaginative design. At present the dominant idea is that of a straightforward realism.’ And in 1914, Long’s Art Nouveau-style paintings still remained unique in Australian art.

Likewise, the Bulletin’s suggestion on 9 October 1897 that Long’s first version of the subject had ‘the sweet seduction of Keats’, seems an equally apt description for this second version. This is an imaginative image in which Long fulfilled his aim to evoke something of ‘the lonely and primitive feeling of this country … a feeling more suggestive of some melancholy pastoral to be rendered in music’ (Long 1905, p 10).

In 1914 Long produced a second version of The Spirit of the plains 1897 (cat 9). Painted in London just before the First World War, it is one of several images from this time in which Long re-worked earlier subjects.

The rhythmically curving necks and wings of the brolgas form a graceful arabesque in counterpoint to the stand of flattened eucalypts. But here Long simplified the composition by including a smaller number of trees in the background, fewer brolgas and not as much detail in the foreground foliage. The ‘native companions’ no longer dance in the same complex arrangement. Instead of tripping gracefully as in the earlier painting, they now appear to be slowly gliding. This painting also differs from its predecessor in its more muted tone.

As in his earlier version of this subject, Long’s concern was with creating Australian imagery using the country’s natural flora and fauna. He wanted to convey the Spirit of place, of the land – rather than produce a more traditional view, with men and women in the landscape, as he had in By tranquil waters (cat 3) and Midday (cat 6) (albeit that these works had symbolic overtones too).

In this second version of The Spirit of the plains, Long also created an elegant Art Nouveau-style painting. Even if it was a reprisal of his original work, it still had a rare place in Australian art. Some 16 years earlier, in May 1898, the English magazine The Studio, which exerted a major influence on the promotion of the Art Nouveau approach and the Arts and Crafts movement, had set Long apart from the rest of the Australian landscape painters (including Tom Roberts and Arthur Streeton) because of his ‘Decorative figure subjects’ – In The Studio's review of the exhibition of Australian art at the Grafton Galleries in London, it was observed that ‘with the exception of Mr. S. Long’s fanciful Spirit of the Plains there is nothing … which reveals any inclination towards imaginative design. At present the dominant idea is that of a straightforward realism.’ And in 1914, Long’s Art Nouveau-style paintings still remained unique in Australian art.

Likewise, the Bulletin’s suggestion on 9 October 1897 that Long’s first version of the subject had ‘the sweet seduction of Keats’, seems an equally apt description for this second version. This is an imaginative image in which Long fulfilled his aim to evoke something of ‘the lonely and primitive feeling of this country … a feeling more suggestive of some melancholy pastoral to be rendered in music’ (Long 1905, p 10).