Australian Nation Represented through Art

Paper Summary:

An essay outlining how the views and perception of a nation can be both represented and influenced by the art of that nation. In the late 19th century, although two-thirds of the Australian population lived in an urban setting, a bushman identity emerged, both within Australia and in global perceptions of Australians, that was fueled by such artistic work as McCubbin's paintings. Through an examination of McCubbin's, "A Bush Burial", this essay explores the values of Australia and Australians and their view of themselves as a nation.

From the Paper:

"In the late nineteenth century an appreciation of the Australia bush emerged along with a fascination for its populace. Fuelled by contemporary art and literature, a common "bushman" image surfaced as a popular Australian view of the nation. Although two thirds of the Australian population lived in urban settlements, paintings such as McCubbin's "A Bush Burial" romanticized the rural lifestyle and assisted in the development of a bushman identity whose valiant qualities urban dwellers liked to imagine they too possessed. However, historians have difficulty in assessing and agreeing on the reality of this image as, when writing upon a view of the nation, each historian is affected by the concerns embedded within their own time period which, in turn, influences their interpretation."

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