Waterfall, Strath Creek

Viennese-born, and trained in Italy and Germany, Eugene von Guérard arrived at the Victorian goldfields in 1852. After two years of limited success, he moved to Melbourne to resume his career as a painter and settled there for the next 28 years, becoming a teacher at the National Gallery of Victoria Art School.

In January 1862, von Guérard made an exploratory expedition along the upper reaches of the Goulburn River in Victoria. Among various sketches, he made a large drawing of Strath Creek Falls (now Murchison Falls), later working it up in his studio. 'Waterfall, Strath Creek' is imbued with a sense of awe and wonder, reflecting the German Romantic belief in painting as an expression of personal insight into the divine.