Friends exclusive

Preview: A Nation Imagined: The Artists of the Picturesque Atlas

Join us to welcome the Library's newest exhibition with a preview before it opens to the public. 

Original drawings and paintings by the artists of The Picturesque Atlas of Australasia will be on show at the National Library in A Nation Imagined: The Artists of the Picturesque Atlas, open from Friday 12 March to Sunday 11 July 2021.

The Atlas, published in supplements between 1886 and 1889, set out to document through illustrations, maps and text a settler-colonial view of Australia's history, landscape and ways of life. It was also a catalyst for the art movement that followed, now known as Australian impressionism.

This exhibition has been co-curated by Natalie Wilson, Curator of Australian and Pacific Art at the Art Gallery of New South Wales, and Dr Gary Werskey, an Honorary Associate in the Department of History at the University of Sydney and author of Picturing a Nation: The Art and Life of A.H. Fullwood (March 2021). The event will include a book signing with Dr Werskey.

A Nation Imagined: The Artists of the Picturesque Atlas is presented in partnership with the Art Gallery of New South Wales and will be open from Friday 12 March until Sunday 11 July 2021.

Image at top: Julian Ashton, The Prospector, 1889 (detail), oil on canvas on hardboard, Art Gallery of NSW, purchased 1889

Type Special event