Elder Wing of Australian Art: Self-Guided Audio Tour
Work 7 of 15

Evening Shadows, Backwater of the Murray, South Australia, painted in London in 1880 by H.J. Johnstone was the first acquisition of the Art Gallery of South Australia in its founding year of 1881. Evening Shadows is said to be the most copied work of art in Australia, copied an estimated 300 times. In fact, this work is itself one of several similar scenes painted by the artist.

Johnstone was born in Birmingham in 1835 where he studied under a number of private teachers and later at the Birmingham School of Design, he travelled to Australia in 1853 hoping to make his fortune on the Victorian goldfields, but was unsuccessful. Following the goldrush he set up a photographic business in Melbourne and also painted. He made at least one sketching trip to South Australia between 1874-5 and after this time his paintings depicted scenery in the vicinity of Adelaide. Johnstone’s techniques were meticulous and were a useful record of the vegetation of this era. After his return to London in 1880 Johnstone produced a number of large gum trees and still water paintings, conveying a mood of passivity and loneliness.

Evening Shadows, Backwater of the Murray, South Australia depicts the river at dusk, reflecting the sky and the enormous gums trees in the surface of the river. The gum trees possess the canvas, stretching from left to right and because of the reflection from top to bottom. A fallen branch becomes a bridge in the centre of the painting. The Aboriginal people are dressed in blankets, a symbol of ever-encroaching European settlement. The painting is both tranquil and troubling. Johnstone was possibly referring to the perceived gradual demise (emphasised by the tiny silver moon) of the Aboriginal people, their loss of land and traditional culture.