The 9 by 5 Impression Exhibition was an art exhibition held in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia. It opened on 17 August 1889 at Buxton's Rooms on Swanston Street and featured 183 "impressions", the majority of which were painted by Charles Conder, Tom Roberts and Arthur Streeton, three leading members of the Heidelberg School art movement, also known as Australian impressionism. Two other members, Frederick McCubbin and Charles Douglas Richardson, made smaller contributions.
The exhibition's name references the dimensions of most of the paintings (9 x 5 inches), which were painted en plein air on cigar box lids supplied by Louis Abrahams, a patron of the Heidelberg School and owner of the Melbourne cigar business Sniders & Abrahams.[1] In staging the exhibition, the artists sought to introduce the Melbourne public to impressionist painting, and in doing so established themselves as the vanguard of Australian art. The works, together with the artists' overall arrangement of the exhibition space, reflected several concurrent styles and movements, including Japonisme, aestheticism and symbolism, with James McNeill Whistler being a particularly strong influence.
The majority of the 9 by 5s were painted over the autumn and winter of 1889, which comes through in the tones and weather effects of many of the landscapes. The rural suburb of Heidelberg, where Streeton had established an artists' camp the previous year, is featured in many of the works. Melbourne's urban life and culture are also depicted, with landmarks such as Princess Theatre, the Old Treasury and the Burke and Wills statue making appearances, as well as the city's trams and games of Australian rules football.
The exhibition created much lively commentary at the time and is now seen as a "celebrated event in Australian art history".[1] 9 by 5s continue to appear on the market; in 2019, Roberts' She-Oak and Sunlight sold at Sotheby's for A$770,000, and was acquired by the National Gallery of Victoria.[2] In 2012, to mark the 123rd anniversary of the exhibition, arts benefactor Max Carter donated four 9 by 5s (valued at over A$3,000,000) to the Art Gallery of South Australia, the largest group of 9 by 5s ever given to an Australian public institution.[3]
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