'From Mudgee Hills to London Town': A Critical Biography of Henry Lawson

Abstract

 On 23   April 1900, at his studio in New Zealand Chambers, Collins Street, Melbourne,   John Longstaff began another commissioned portrait. Since his return from   Europe in the mid-1890s, when he had found his native Victoria suffering a   severe depression, such commissions had provided him with the mainstay to   support his young family. While abroad he had studied in the same Parisian   atelier as Toulouse-Lautrec and a younger Australian, Charles Conder. He had   acquired an interest in the new 'plein air' impressionism from another   Australian, Charles Russell, and he had been hung regularly in the Salon and   also in the British Academy.