CHARLES EDWARD CONDER (1868-1909)

In 1890, Conder returned to Europe, visiting Colombo, Naples, Rome and Florence before settling in Paris. During his time in Australia he had become one of the key figures in the Heidelberg School, painting alongside Tom Roberts and Arthur Streeton. It was here in Melbourne that he developed his love of painting spring, depicting the pink blossoms that flowered around the artists' camps. In the spring of 1891, Conder visited Normandy for the first time: 'The flowering blossom trees, the poplars coming into leaf along the Seine, the characteristic white misty light which persists until late morning were visual poetry to Conder. For the first time since he left the Yarra valley in Heidelberg he felt he had found a landscape which engaged him aesthetically.' (A. Galbally, Charles Conder the last bohemian, Melbourne, 2002, p.98) Conder was to spend the spring in Normandy along the Seine in Normandy for the following few years, capturing the landscape and the light with shades of pale pink, yellow, white and mauve. 'From 1891, when he begun to explore this countryside, until 1893, after which figure composition became his chief concern, he painted his best landscapes. All his life he returned to this region to work, but at no other time did he interpret it with such limpid, spontaneous poetry.' (J. Rothenstein, The Life and Death of Conder, London, 1938, p.71)