ELIOTH GRUNER

Rodney R. Dangar, Sydney, in the collection of Dangar by at least 1940;
until Auction Sale of Pictures from the Collection of Mr and Mrs Rodney Dangar in aid of the Lady Gowrie Red Cross Home, James R. Lawson Auctioneers, Sydney, 9 April 1942, lot 3, as 'Taylor Bay, Sydney Harbour' 
Australian and European Paintings, Spink Auctions, Sydney, 8 October 1980, lot 108, pl. 33, illus., as 'Mosman Bay'
Fine Australian Traditional Paintings, William S. Ellenden, Sydney, 27 August 1981, lot 24, illus.
Mr Hugh Bonython, Adelaide, 1983 
Gordon Marsh Gallery, Sydney, January 1984
Private collection, Sydney; purchased from the above

Elioth Gruner Memorial Loan Exhibition, National Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney, 17 April - 31 May 1940, cat. 56, incorrectly dated 1919; National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne, 5 July - 4 August 1940, cat. 45, as 'Taylor Bay, Sydney Harbour' 
Elioth Gruner 1882-1939, Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney, 13 July - 4 September 1983, cat. 7 (label on the reverse)  
A Very Private Collection, S. H. Ervin Museum and Art Gallery, Sydney,  15 June - 15 July 1990, cat. 20

Geoffrey Batchen, 'Gruner in Retrospect', Art Network, Spring 1983, no. 11, p. 11, illus. 

During the teenage years of the twentieth century, Elioth Gruner painted, with singular vision, some of the most atmospheric paintings in the entire compass of Australian art. The beach scenes from 1912 to 1914 are unrivalled in their evocation of hot sand and salty waters, of baked bodies blissfully relieved in the surf. Of these, Bondi Beach, c.1912 is in the collection of the Art Gallery of New South Wales, and The Wave, c.1913, in the Queensland Art Gallery. In Manly, c.1912-13 (private collection), everything, people, posts and pine trees shimmer in the heat, while Taylor's Bay, 1913 cleverly summons the feelings of a hot and humid Sydney summer's day. The sense of lassitude is such that even the boats lie still. As if to demonstrate his wider dexterity, there followed scenes at Emu Plains of frosty mornings, misty landscapes, and clearing fogs, usually painted into the atmospherically vibrant light so that the images stand out in silhouette. Morning Light, 1916 won Gruner the Wynne Prize for landscape painting that same year and was acquired by the Art Gallery of New South Wales.

A stillness pervades all these works, achieved through the finely tuned compositional balance of verticals and horizontals. Even in The Wave the vertical accents of the figures counter any undisciplined movements of the sea. Ever the master of light, in Taylor's Bay it is hazy, combined with the long, horizontal format to add to the languid mood. Birds glide, making no effort to fly, and even the distant smoke hangs suspended, reluctant to make its heavenward climb. Enveloping light, technical brilliance and pictorial perfection are the hallmarks of the best of Gruner's art.

We are most grateful for assistance in cataloguing this painting from  Steven Miller, Archivist, Art Gallery of New South Wales, who is compiling a catalogue raisonné of the artist's work.