Box Hill artists' camp

In the summer of 1885–86, plein air painters Tom Roberts, Frederick McCubbin and Louis Abrahams set up a tent near Damper Creek (now Gardiners Creek) on the property of David Houston, in the Box Hill area east of Melbourne.[1] They were attracted to Box Hill due to its rural scenery and tracts of untouched bushland while also being easily accessible from the city, the Box Hill railway station having opened three years prior.

Painting activities were carried out on weekends by the trio over the next few years and at various times other artists joined them, including Arthur Streeton, Charles Conder, Jane Sutherland, Tom Humphrey, John Llewellyn Jones and John Mather. By 1889, these artists had moved on from Box Hill and founded other camps around Melbourne, most notably at Heidelberg.

Notable works painted in and around the Box Hill camp include:

McCubbin, Down on His Luck, 1889

• The artists' camp (Roberts, 1886)[2]
• A summer morning tiff (Roberts, 1886) [3]
• Lost (McCubbin, 1886)[4]
• Gathering mistletoe (McCubbin, 1886][5]
• Obstruction (Sutherland, 1887)[6]
• Reconciliation (Roberts, 1887)
• Settler's Camp (Streeton, 1888)[7]
• Pastoral (Streeton, 1888)[8]
• The way to school (Humphrey, 1888)[6]
• Orchard at Box Hill (Conder, 1888)[9]
• Down on His Luck (McCubbin 1889)[10]

The artists remembered the Box Hill era with great fondness and nostalgia. In old age, Roberts recalled:[11]

Happy Box Hill – the barked roof of the old people, Houstens [sic] – the land sylvan as it ever was – tea-tree along the creek – young blue gum-twigs – the ‘good night’ of the jackies as the soft darkness fell – then talks round the fire, the ‘Prof’ [McCubbin] philosophic – we forgot everything, but the peace of it.

The site is located within the now suburbanised area of Box Hill South and is commemorated by a cairn in Artists Park off Prince Street. Other local tributes to the camp include the Roberts McCubbin Primary School and the Whitehorse Artists' Trail.

• 
  Frederick McCubbin, Lost, 1886, National Gallery of Victoria
• 
  Tom Roberts, A Sunday Afternoon, 1886, National Gallery of Australia
• 
  Tom Roberts, A Summer Morning Tiff, 1886, Art Gallery of Ballarat
• 
  Tom Roberts, Evening, when the quiet east flushes faintly at the sun's last look, 1887, National Gallery of Victoria
• 
  Jane Sutherland, Obstruction, Box Hill, 1887, Art Gallery of Ballarat
• 
  Charles Conder, Orchard at Box Hill, 1888, National Gallery of Victoria
• 
  Arthur Streeton, Butterflies and blossoms, 1889, National Gallery of Victoria
• 
  Arthur Streeton, Evening with bathers, 1888, National Gallery of Victoria
• 
  Arthur Streeton, Settler's Camp, 1888, private collection
• 
  Pastoral, 1888, National Gallery of Australia

• Art of Australia
• Heidelberg School
• Montsalvat
• One Summer Again, 1985 docudrama
• Heide Circle

• In the Artist's Footsteps
• Walkabout - Box Hill