JAN SCHELTEMA
In the late 19th century, Jan Scheltema's acclaimed pastoral scenes of the Australian landscape made the inhospitable bush and landscape comprehensible and welcoming as a rural arcadia, revealing a popular sentimentality influenced by the artist’s knowledge of academic impressionism and European romanticism.
Scheltema was born in Nes, Holland, and attended the Royal Academy Schools in Brussels, working as a portrait painter prior to immigrating to Australia. He arrived in Melbourne in 1889 and exhibited regularly with the Victorian Artists Society (1895-1902) and the Yarra Sculptors Society (1889-1906), establishing a reputation for his romantic pastoral landscapes, which typically included figures tending to cattle and horses in fields and pastures enriched by the warmth of the early morning light.
Scheltemas impressionism revealed the influence of the French Barbizon School and the respect his work was accorded at that time was shared by other Australian artists, including John Mather and Charles Rolando, with the latter often painting with Scheltema, preparing his work by sketching in the backgrounds for his landscapes.
Scheltemas work is held in the collection of the Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney and the National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne.
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