National Gallery of Australia | Audio Tour | Turner to Monet: the triumph of landscape

The scene is idyllic; abundant cabbage-tree palms sway on the beach as sea fowls soar above Pellew’s Group of Islands in the Gulf of Carpentaria. In December 1802 the Investigator, under the command of Captain Matthew Flinders, sailed into the Gulf, continuing its arduous circumnavigation of Australia. Aboard the sloop was the young artist William Westall, who produced a wide range of sketches during his Australian voyage. Upon his return to England the Admiralty commissioned nine oil paintings of New Holland, including View of Sir Edward Pellew’s Group, Gulph of Carpentaria 1802. Art historians such as Bernard Smith have recognised that this is an innovative and remarkable painting.1 It is notable both for its heightened sense of light and the well-defined horizontal lines, delicately intersected by palms. In standard Picturesque paintings the foreground is dark and brooding, receding to a light background, usually with one tall feature, such as a tree or a mountain, placed at the side to frame the composit