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The artist as traveller: the sketchbooks of Eugene von Guérard

Author: Dr Ruth Pullin
Price: $75
Publisher: Art Gallery of Ballarat in association with State Library Victoria

The artist as traveller retraces the momentous journeys that shaped Eugene von Guérard's career, viewed through the lens of his sketchbooks.

This new and intimate view of one of Australia's greatest and most adventurous landscape painters presents substantial new research on the artist, and highlights how von Guérard's work was informed by his travels and how his travels were dictated by his art practice.

Rediscovered drawings from sketchbooks thought missing are brought to light, along with never-before-translated diary entries describing von Guérard's expeditions from 1834 to 1900 in Europe and Australia.

Like graphic travelogues, these sketchbooks contain von Guérard's direct and most immediate responses to people and places, as well as detailed and exquisitely finished studies and drawings that were the foundation of his studio practice.

The book was published for the Eugene von Guérard: Artist-traveller exhibition, curated by Dr Ruth Pullin at the Art Gallery of Ballarat, 24 March to 27 May 2018.

Ruth's research on von Guérard's sketchbooks was undertaken with the support of her 2012 Creative Fellowship, and has been published in Australian and international journals.