Pea Stacks, Woodside Pastoral 1920
Watercolour
33x47cm
Signed Lower Right, Dated 1920
Prov: Private Collection Victoria
$12,000-15,000
The cultivated landscapes surrounding Hahndorf and Ambleside provided Sir Hans Heysen with a substantial body of pastoral subjects throughout his career. While his depictions of monumental eucalyptus trees established much of his reputation, his studies of agricultural life reveal an equally sustained interest in the rural character of the Adelaide Hills. Horses, haystacks and harvested fields appear frequently in these works, reflecting the seasonal rhythms of farming and the changing character of the landscape under cultivation.
In the present watercolour, horses resting beside pea stacks in an Ambleside farm landscape bring together two recurring elements of Heysen’s pastoral imagery. Both subjects were closely associated with the agricultural practices of the district, where horses remained essential to farm labour and stacks of harvested crops were familiar features of the countryside. Such compositions form an important part of Heysen’s broader interpretation of the South Australian landscape, documenting the relationship between rural settlement, agricultural activity and the natural environment.
