Arthur Streeton

Streeton’s watercolour depicts a view of the Melbourne skyline from South Yarra. He builds up the landscape with monochrome washes of brown paint moving from the darkest, most saturated marks of the trees in the foreground, to the sheer treatment of the buildings in the background. Details of windows, domes and spires are delicately defined with fine lines on top of the light wash. The sky and river are presented in milky white, generating the atmosphere of an overcast day. The building to the left is recognisable as Government House in Kings Domain, adjacent to the Royal Botanic Gardens. With this geographic anchor, it is likely one of the domed buildings depicted is Flinders Street Railway Station and the tallest spire may belong to St Paul’s Cathedral.