The Beauty in the Flood
The flood in the Darling 1890 (1895) | WC Piguenit (27 Aug 1836 - 17 Jul 1914) - Australia | Photo courtesy of:
With the insanity of the bushfires in Australia I hope people can remember that this is not normal. We have to do our best to fight against human-made climate change, which is destroying the world’s beautiful natural ecosystems.
I'm not from Australia, I only lived there for 4 months almost 10 years ago during my first semester of college and my first study abroad program. As the final in our art history course we were instructed to write a paper on a piece of art that could be found in the Art Museum of New South Wales. The paper was to include the history behind the piece and the artist, a description, an interpretation, and the impact of the piece or school on the future of Australian art. There were several inspiring works, but this painting, and the entire experience surrounding it, touched my heart more than any other piece, and it has never released that hold.
I walked through the gallery, looking over the paintings, this was the one to speak to me. Well not speak, per se, but sing. Imagination is a crazy thing, and I've always been a sucker for European Romanticism.
Many of the simple facts about the artist can be found on Wikipedia, or here, but not what he meant to the world. Piguenit's generation, and the school of art that the work represents, brought new light and a new perspective on the landscape of Australia. They showed that it became a real home, not an alien world that clearly demonstrated the colonialist identities of the painters. The romanticism and impressionism gave inspiration to others to see the beauty as well. Piguenit was part of the first generation of artists born in the foundling English colony, being born in Hobart, Tasmania, on 27 August 1836. Prior to this, the transplanted artists looked at the land with English eyes and were blinded by the strength of the light and the heat; creating images with sometimes wide, empty, washed out spaces and sometimes portraying clustered environments with strange animals. This new generation, growing up in this place, could see the light as it truly was. They could see the change in season, and the life that existed outside of the cities.
While primarily self-taught, Piguenit joined art societies in Sydney, Melbourne, and Auckland after receiving public patronage. He also joined a camp for artists and photographers in 1875, in the Blue Mountains outside of Sydney, where he could practice his landscapes.
Fifteen years later, in 1890, the Darling river burst out from its embankments and flooded the township of Bourke, which Piguenit is supposed to have witnessed. What Piguenit did with this is amazing. Instead of falling into a hole of despair and melancholy, he produced this painting. It took years, but he painted a soft landscape full of life, and softness, and the birds endemic to the region.
Silvery glowing light peeks through rolling clouds. The clambering of birds is cut through and almost silenced by the rippling water. Watching the painting for a time, you can almost believe that you’re out there, the clouds are moving, birds are flying overhead, and the water is streaming past.
I often took the train to back the Art Museum to look at the painting and search for more inspiration. Photographs and copies cannot do it justice as, in person, the light seems to stream off the canvas, welcoming the onlooker into a world of hope, even in the wake of disaster.
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