The Sunny South (painting)

Last updated

The Sunny South
Tom Roberts - The Sunny South.jpg
Artist Tom Roberts
Year 1887
Mediumoil on canvas
Dimensions30.8 cm× 61.4 cm(12.1 in× 24.2 in)
Location National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne

The Sunny South is a 1887 painting by the Australian artist Tom Roberts. [1] The painting depicts a group of boys swimming naked at Ricketts Point at Beaumaris, Victoria, a suburb of Melbourne. [2]

The painting was acquired by the National Gallery of Victoria in 1940 with funds from the Felton Bequest. [1]

The title appears to be a triple entendre. The title refers to the popular show titled The Sunny South, which was a popular play first produced in Melbourne by George Darrell and starring Essie Jenyns in 1883, [3] four years before the painting was finished, then taken to London. Ricketts Point, Beaumaris, is a seaside suburb to the south of Melbourne particularly popular during summertime. The third reference could be to the exposed backside of the central figure in the painting.

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Heidelberg School</span> 19th-century Australian art movement

The Heidelberg School was an Australian art movement of the late 19th century. It has been described as Australian impressionism.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Kalorama, Victoria</span> Suburb of Melbourne, Victoria, Australia

Kalorama is a suburb in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia, 35 km east of Melbourne's central business district, located within the Shire of Yarra Ranges local government area. Kalorama recorded a population of 1,277 at the 2021 census.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Black Rock, Victoria</span> Suburb of Melbourne, Victoria, Australia

Black Rock is a suburb in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia, 18 km south-east of Melbourne's Central Business District, located within the City of Bayside local government area. Black Rock recorded a population of 6,389 at the 2021 census.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mentone, Victoria</span> Suburb of Melbourne, Victoria, Australia

Mentone is a suburb in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia, 21 km south-east of Melbourne's Central Business District, located within the City of Kingston local government area. Mentone recorded a population of 13,197 at the 2021 census.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">William Beckwith McInnes</span> Australian portrait painter

William Beckwith McInnes was an Australian portrait painter, winner of the Archibald Prize seven times for his traditional style paintings. He was acting-director at the National Gallery of Victoria and an instructor in its art school.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Tom Roberts</span> Australian artist (1856-1931)

Thomas William Roberts was an English-born Australian artist and a key member of the Heidelberg School art movement, also known as Australian impressionism.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Arthur Streeton</span> Australian painter

Sir Arthur Ernest Streeton was an Australian landscape painter and a leading member of the Heidelberg School, also known as Australian Impressionism.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Beaumaris, Victoria</span> Suburb of Melbourne, Victoria, Australia

Beaumaris is a suburb in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia, 20km south-east of Melbourne's Central Business District, located within the City of Bayside local government area. Beaumaris recorded a population of 13,947 at the 2021 census.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Clara Southern</span> Australian artist (1860–1940)

Clara Southern was an Australian artist associated with the Heidelberg School, also known as Australian Impressionism. She was active between the years 1883 and her death in 1940. Physically, Southern was tall with reddish fair hair, and was nicknamed 'Panther' because of her lithe beauty.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Beaumaris Bay</span>

Beaumaris Bay is a short but wide bay within the eastern shore of Port Phillip Bay in southern Victoria, Australia. It commences at the cliffs of Rickett's Point in the southern end of the Melbourne suburb of Beaumaris, then recesses north briefly alongside Mentone Beach in Mentone before stretching south through a string of suburban beaches along Parkdale, Mordialloc, Aspendale, Edithvale, Bonbeach, Carrum and Seaford, and ends at a small headland near the Olivers Hill boat ramp at the junction between Frankston and Mount Eliza. The main tributary streams draining into the bay are Mordialloc Creek, Patterson River, Kananook Creek and Sweetwater Creek.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Clarice Beckett</span> Australian artist (1887–1935)

Clarice Marjoribanks Beckett was an Australian artist and a key member of the Australian tonalist movement. Known for her subtle, misty landscapes of Melbourne and its suburbs, Beckett developed a personal style that contributed to the development of modernism in Australia. Disregarded by the art establishment during her lifetime, and largely forgotten in the decades after her death, she is now considered one of Australia's greatest artists.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Victor O'Connor</span> Australian artist (1918–2010)

Victor George O'Connor was an Australian artist and an exponent of the principles of social realist art. From the time of the Great Depression in the 1930s his work embodied social and political comment on the conditions of working-class people and the structures of society that caused their suffering.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">David Davies (artist)</span> Australian artist

David Davies was an Australian artist who was associated with the Heidelberg School, the first significant Western art movement in Australia.

<i>A holiday at Mentone</i> 1888 painting by Charles Conder

A holiday at Mentone is an 1888 painting by the Australian artist Charles Conder. The painting depicts a beach in the Melbourne suburb of Mentone on a bright and sunny day. Conder's depiction of people engaged in seaside activities and the brilliant noonday sunshine mark the painting as distinctively Australian in character.

The Sunny South, or the Whirlwind of Fate is a 1915 Australian silent film directed by Alfred Rolfe based on the popular play The Sunny South by George Darrell. It is considered a lost film.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Constance Stokes</span> Australian painter (1906–1991)

Constance Stokes was an Australian modernist painter who worked in Victoria. She trained at the National Gallery of Victoria Art School until 1929, winning a scholarship to continue her study at London's Royal Academy of Arts. Although Stokes painted few works in the 1930s, her paintings and drawings were exhibited from the 1940s onwards. She was one of only two women, and two Victorians, included in a major exhibition of twelve Australian artists that travelled to Canada, the United Kingdom and Italy in the early 1950s.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">James Ranalph Jackson</span>

James Ranalph Jackson (1882-1975) was an Australian painter, perhaps best known for painting views of Sydney harbour. Today, his work hangs in public galleries in both Australia and New Zealand. The Art Gallery of New South Wales has 16 of his paintings, however none are currently on display.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">George Darrell</span> Australian playwright

George Frederick Price Darrell (1851–1921) was an Australian playwright best known for The Sunny South (1883), which was made into a film The Sunny South or The Whirlwind of Fate.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mentone Beach</span> Beach in Victoria, Australia

Mentone Beach is a beach located in Mentone, on Port Phillip Bay, Victoria, Australia, 21 kilometres south from the Melbourne City Centre. Mentone beach is the northern section of a beach that extends alongside Beaumaris Bay from the cliffs at Rickett's Point in Beaumaris to Frankston in the south on the eastern shoreline of Port Phillip Bay.

The Sunny South is an Australian drama in five acts and eight tableaux by George Darrell. Claimed as the first all-Australian play, its first production in 1883 was a resounding success and was taken to London the following year. It was made into a silent film The Sunny South or The Whirlwind of Fate in 1915, now considered lost. The play was published in 1975.

References

  1. 1 2 "The Sunny South". Collection. National Gallery of Victoria. Retrieved 18 September 2013.
  2. "The Sunny South". Coastal Arts Trail. Bayside City Council. Retrieved 12 January 2014.
  3. Poorten, Helen M. Van Der, "Darrell, George Frederick Price (1851–1921)", Australian Dictionary of Biography, National Centre of Biography, Australian National University, retrieved 23 September 2018