From a distant land

From a distant land' is a work from David Davies' student years and reveals the academic teaching influence of George Folingsby, art master at the National Gallery of Victoria Art School from 1882. This firmly organised painting makes use of the most prevalent compositional device that flourished under Folinsgby: from a darkened room a door opens out to the glaring sun of the Australian bush, allowing the interior narrative element to expand into the outside world.

Davies subsequently left Australia in 1897, spending time in France and England and encountering plein-air painting first-hand. He eventually settled at St Ives in Cornwall, where he died in 1939.