Picturing a Nation

Author: Gary Werskey Publisher: Newsouth RRP: $49.99 Reviewer: Mary Ann Elliott

MANY of us are familiar with the names of iconic Australian artists such as Tom Roberts, Arthur Streeton and Frederick McCubbin. Their beautiful paintings are on show in the major art galleries. However another contemporary artist, Henry Fullwood is far less known, even though he was of equal stature and one of the most versatile and prolific painters of the early 1900s.

Highly regarded by critics and peers alike, Fullwood was an important contributor to the “Australian Impressionism” movement, travelling widely to capture the unique landscapes of the Australian bush and colonial life, as well as capturing scenes in London, New York, Cape Town and poignantly, war-torn French villages and the battlefields of the Somme. Working in watercolour, oils, lithography, etching, monotype and even picture-framing, why is Fullwood not better known?

After all by age 23, he had become one of settler-colonial Australia’s leading art figures. In this book Gary Werskey redresses the balance. He unfolds Fullwood’s story which, through success and failure, war and peace, reads like a highadventure novel.

After a decade of rediscovering the artist’s seldom-seen art works, Werskey takes the opportunity to not only tell Fullwood’s fascinating life story, but to newly reappraise the beautiful paintings. At the same time he casts fresh light on the entire spectrum of early 20th century art in Australia. Werskey’s absorbing text is enhanced by an abundance of full colour plates of Henry Fullwood’s glorious paintings of early Sydney, together with many more from around the country and overseas. Both the engrossing text and the pictures evoke time and place in brilliant fashion.

This is a book to be treasured. *In 2021, exhibitions of Fullwood’s art will run at the National Library to mid-July, and later in the year, over 100 of his art works will be shown at Macquarie University Art Gallery.