Grace Cossington Smith

Grace Cossington Smith
Australian 1892–1984

Tree trunk 1930
oil on composition board
Geelong Gallery
JH McPhillimy, EA Austin and HP Douglass Bequest Funds, 1970
© Estate of the late Grace Cossington Smith

This painting dates to an important early stage of Grace Cossington Smith’s career when she was testing the potential of colour and light, rhythmic pattern and structure. Works from this period demonstrate Cossington Smith’s preoccupation with the landscape of Turramurra, the suburb of northern Sydney where she lived, and the continued development of her resolutely modern artistic approach.

With its expressive, angular planes of colour and a confined topographical focus, Tree trunk was considered a radically new way of expressing the qualities of the Australian landscape at the time of its creation. As the suburbs of Sydney became more urbanised and the Harbour Bridge neared completion, Cossington Smith’s dynamic and energetic aesthetic encapsulated the exciting spirit of a city on the cusp of transformation.