Walter Withers (1854–1914), painter, interior designer and teacher, trained at the Royal Academy in London before coming to Australia in 1882. Having travelled around Victoria, absorbing the details of the landscape, he worked as a draughtsman in Melbourne before returning to London to marry, and proceeding to Paris to undertake further art classes at the Académie Julian. After some years abroad, he returned to Melbourne, soon joining Tom Roberts, Arthur Streeton and others at their camp at Eaglemont, near Heidelberg. In 1890 he established an artists’ enclave at Charterisville, Heidelberg, where he painted and taught. The following year he opened an atelier in the city; later he moved to Creswick, where his pupils included Percy and Norman Lindsay. At various periods he was a trustee of the National Gallery of Victoria, the Public Library and the museum, and the president of the Victorian Artists’ Society. A key member of what has become known as the ‘Heidelberg School’, many of whose members had nicknames (‘Smike’, ‘Bulldog’, ‘The Prof’ – he was ‘The Colonel’), Withers is represented in most major Australian galleries, as well as the large regional galleries of Victoria.
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased 2009
On one level The Companion talks about the most famous and frontline Australians, but on another it tells us about ourselves: who we read, who we watch, who we listen to, who we cheer for, who we aspire to be, and who we'll never forget. The Companion is available to buy online and in the Portrait Gallery Store.
Impressions: Painting light and life presents portraits by, and of, artists at the heart of Australian impressionism including Tom Roberts, Arthur Streeton and Frederick McCubbin.
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