Robert Ponsonby Staples and early plein-air painting in Australia, Peter Walker

Article from Vol 45 no 4, Nov 2023

Robert Ponsonby Staples and early plein-air painting in Australia, Peter Walker

Abstract:

British artist Robert Ponsonby Staples was a casual visitor to Australia with his father Sir Nathaniel Staples, sailing on the first
voyage outwards of the SS Orient in November-December 1880. After a month in Sydney, the pair departed on SS Orient’s return
voyage in January 1881. When the ship was moored off Adelaide in early February, R P Staples executed what Peter Walker
describes as one of the first plein-air Impressionist works painted in Australia, Off Adelaide, 1880.

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The Australiana Society acknowledges Australia’s First Nations Peoples – the First Australians – as the Traditional Owners and Custodians of this land and gives respect to the Elders – past and present – and through them to all Australian Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people.