The Spirit of the Plains

Spirit of the Plains (Original painted 1897, oil on canvas) is one of Sydney Long's most celebrated paintings, and a landmark of Australian Symbolism. It depicts a nude female figure — an "enchantress" of Long's own invention — playing a flute-like instrument as she leads a dancing procession of brolgas (native Australian cranes) through a stand of slender, rhythmically arranged gum trees, under a rising moon. Painted in soft, muted greys and greens, with the trees arranged almost like a theatre backdrop in receding blocks, the work blends European Art Nouveau elegance with a distinctly Australian mythology — Long invented his own bush "spirit" rather than drawing on any existing folklore, effectively inventing a new visual mythology for the Australian landscape at a time when the young nation was searching for its own cultural identity. He was only 26 when he painted it, and had not yet travelled outside New South Wales. The work was popular with critics of the day and later became one of the paintings he returned to repeatedly throughout his career, producing etched versions of it during his London years. This is a facsimile etching of the original.