ELIOTH GRUNER

Society of Artist's, Sydney, 1913
Mr Albert Leister, Sydney; purchased from the above; thence by descent 
Mrs C. M. Leister, Sydney (label on the reverse)
Mr Charles Leister; a birthday gift from the above, his mother, 7 September 1936; thence by descent
Fine Australian and International Paintings and Decorative Arts, Sotheby's, Melbourne, 26 - 27 November 2001, lot 7  
Private collection, Sydney

Society of Artist's Annual Exhibition, Society's Rooms, Queen Victoria Markets, Sydney, November 1913, cat. 42
Elioth Gruner Memorial Loan Exhibition, National Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney, 17 April - 31 May 1940, cat. 192 (label on the reverse)

Good condition, slight overall surface dirt - would benefit from a light clean. No visable defects or retouching - confirmed by UV inspection.
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In Little Coogee Elioth Gruner captures to perfection the warm, lazy atmosphere of a Sydney summer's day. Even the breakers are inclined to roll indolently to the shore. Nothing else seems to want to move, the light so bright that shadows are cast in a blue deeper than that of the placid waters. Nobody hurries. This mood of stillness is aided by the classical balance of the composition, long horizontals of horizon, jutting land and buildings, corrected by the structural verticals of the buildings, although the tree to the left seems a little swayed in gentler curves by the weather and noon bright sun. Arthur Streeton portrayed the transparent might of high noon on the Hawkesbury River. But none could exceed Gruner in the atmospheric effects of high noon on Sydney's beaches of Manly, Bondi, Bronte and Coogee. Coogee had been a favourite painting area for Streeton during the late 1890s, his The Long Wave, Coogee,(1895, National Gallery of Victoria) being a classic in its own right. Yet it was Gruner who seemed to envelop his viewer within the scene, its dazzling light and atmosphere. The answer lay in his close identification with the beach for his 'beach panels were a product of his love of and physical involvement with the subject.' ¹ Not only did he live near the beach, but he was also a keen though not very able a body-surfer. Further examples of this passion are Bondi Beach, (circa 1912, Art Gallery of New South Wales) and the evocatively titled The Jewelled Beach, (circa 1913-14, private collection). In Little Coogee the figures shimmer in the heat, ribbon-like. Other felicitous influences of Whistler and Japonisme include the narrow format and the up close portion of the tree stretching across the immediate picture plane.

1. Barry Pearce, Elioth Gruner 1882-1939, Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney, 1983, p. 30               

We are grateful for assistance cataloguing this work from Steven Miller, Librarian of the Art Gallery of New South Wales, who is compiling a catalogue raisonne of Gruner's paintings.