Firelight 1919

Grace Cossington Smith’s painting, Firelight, presents an intimate domestic scene rendered with loose brushstrokes. It invites us to consider the social values attached to the home. Made in Australia, we can only wonder when, this painting seems caught between the representation of ‘Australianess’ and European modernism. The interior, with its fireplace and orderly table setting, speaks to a certain middle-class domesticity, yet it is rendered in a style reminiscent of post-impressionism. What makes the painting modern is not so much the subject, but the artist’s reduction of form to pure planes of colour. The warm hues of the fire contrast with the cooler tones of the table, creating a tension between the traditional comfort of home and the avant-garde aesthetics of modern art. To fully appreciate a work like this, we need to look at the development of modernism in Australia, and the social networks that supported its artists and institutions. We need to ask how national identity shapes artistic expression.