(La Trobe Collection, State Library of Victoria)

1811 - 1901

Eugene Von Guerard, painter and teacher, was born in Vienna in 1811, his father Bernard, was a miniaturist and court painter to the Emperor of Austria. He studied in Italy and then the Dusseldorf Academy from 1840-45, one of the main art teaching centres in Europe.

In 1852 Von Guerard moved to London to teach, but in the same year decided to travel to Australia to try his luck on the Victorian goldfields. He sketched the mining districts around Ballarat until 1854 when he moved to Melbourne. In the same year he married Fraulein Arnz from Dusseldorf and resumed his career as a landscape painter. He accepted commissions to paint and travelled extensively, exploring many of the mountainous regions of inland Australia and Tasmania. The detailed drawings he collected from these journeys resulted in the romantic landscape subjects for which he became famous. An album of lithographs was published in 1867.

By the 1860s Von Guerard was recognized as Victoria's most foremost landscape artist. He was a teacher and honorary curator at the National Gallery, Victoria and his work was exhibited internationally. In 1881 he retired from the gallery and moved to Dusseldorf. The Von Guerards settled in London in 1891 to live near their daughter. Von Guerard died in London in 1901.

Bib. Clarke, J. & B. Whitelaw. Golden Summera: Heidelberg and Beyond 1986. NGV.

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