The Yappala Range 1940

Hans Heysen made this pencil drawing, The Yappala Range. While the date of its creation is unknown, we might consider it in light of Heysen’s broader career as a landscape painter working in early 20th century Australia. Heysen is considered a pioneer of European painting in Australia, especially of the arid landscapes of the outback. We might consider his role in the creation of a national artistic identity in a settler-colonial society. How do Heysen’s landscapes contribute to a vision of Australia? Does the absence of human figures suggest the sublime, or does it function as an erasure of the presence and history of indigenous peoples on this land? Research into the archives of Australian art institutions, the history of Australian settlement, and the history of indigenous dispossession might help us to understand the cultural work that landscape painting performs in this context.