Sydney Long was born on 20 August 1871 at Goulburn, New South Wales, the fifth child and posthumous son of James Long, an Irish Commission Agent and his Australian born wife, Susan Fletcher. As a young man he moved to Sydney and worked for some years with a wine and spirit merchant. From about 1890 to 1894 he studied under A.J. Daplyn and Julian Ashton at the Art Society of NSW School.

Long participated in painting camps along the Nepean River near Richmond, but also made other explorations. In 1894 the National Art Gallery of NSW purchased Long’s first major painting, By tranquil waters, a plein air study of boys bathing at Cook’s River, near Tempe railway station. The following year Long’s style started to move towards the flat surfaces and decorative art nouveau style as expounded by the English Studio magazine, which was widely circulated in Australia. His works, such as Pan 1898 (Art Gallery New South Wales, Sydney) and Spirit of the Plains 1897 (Queensland Art Gallery, Brisbane), were reproduced in The Studio, and pay homage to the English Aesthetic movement. However he remained passionate about Australian subject matter and his eucalypt, ti-trees and open plains are sometimes inhabited by distinctly Australian fauna such as magpies, as well as nymphs and fauns. The Valley, 1898 (Art Gallery of South Australia) is essentially the same landscape as Arthur Streeton’s The Purple Noon’s Transparent Might, 1896 (National Gallery of Victoria), but rendered in a decorative mode. He was at this time sharing a studio with the young George Lambert, but they later ceased to be friends. When the Society of Artists split from the Art Society of NSW in 1895, Long moved with the rebels who included his mentor, Julian Ashton, and Tom Roberts. Later he became President of the Society of Artists and was involved with the Governor, Earl Beauchamp’s efforts to amalgamate the two warring societies. He was known to attend Government House in his top hat, which had the advantage of making him as tall as his companion, the artist Thea Proctor. His painting, Flamingoes 1902 (Art Gallery of NSW) was in part a gesture of reconciliation as it combined the decorative elements of the Society of Artists with the dark tonality of the Art Society. In 1907 the societies split again, and again Long moved with the radicals.
From 1895-1910 Long taught at the Julian Ashton’s Sydney Art School, and in 1907 this became a full-time appointment. He had long wanted to travel, and in he finally managed to leave Australia. He arrived in London in October 1910. Later he visited France, Belgium and Holland. World War I disrupted his relationship with his dealer, Adolf Albers, and finances were uncertain. He was also troubled by his youthful appearance that made him vulnerable to possible conscription.
In 1918 Lionel Lindsay sent him a copy of Pastoral a softground and aquatint he had made to show how a Sydney Long painting could be rendered as an etching. Long began to study printmaking at the London Central School and rapidly became an accomplished printmaker, converting many of his images into etchings and aquatints. However when Dorothy Paul published her early catalogue of his work, he claimed to have begun etching long before Lindsay’s print. Long was appointed an Associate of the Royal Society of Painter-Etchers in 1921, and returned to Australia with a reconfigured career. He stayed for 18 months but returned to England, where he married Catherine Brennan, a dancer (although they later claimed to have married in 1911, they did not in fact marry until 1 December 1924). In 1925 the couple moved back to Sydney where they settled at Lane Cove, although Long spent much of his time with students, either in his city studio or his caravan which was permanently based at the Narrabeen Lakes. Mrs Long became committed to caring for Sydney’s stray cats.
In his later years he denounced modern art, even in its modest Australian incarnation, and became active in the Royal Art Society of NSW. After the Great Depression precipitated the end of the market in printmaking, he turned increasingly to painting. He was also active on the Trustees of the National Art Gallery of NSW. He was awarded the Wynne Prize for landscape in 1938 and 1941 while he was a trustee of the Gallery. The prize was judged by the trustees. In 1952, after realising that he was suffering from senile dementia, Long and his wife returned to London where he died in London on 23 January 1955.

Writers:

Gray, Dr Anne Note: Head of Australian Art, National Gallery of Australia, Canberra, ACT
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Date written:

2006

Last updated:

2011