Walter Withers
The last of summer
Trained at the Royal College of Art London before coming to
Australia in 1882 Withers took evening classes at the National
Gallery School, Melbourne where he met other artists such as
Streeton, Conder and McCubbin with whom he was to later paint at
Eaglemont.
Withers, who undertook further studies at the Academy Julian in
Paris in 1887-1888, was usually drawn to conditions of light that
required a more romantic treatment than the harshness of full
sunlight. Here in The last of summer with its large
white gum set against the dark blue-grey clouds of the gathering
storm Withers has captured a lonely figure in a red shawl carrying
a bundle of firewood in the eerie stillness that so often precedes
a storm. This image for which the Gallery also has
sketchbooks appears to have had a number of titles including The
Rising Storm and The Coming Storm. It was possibly also
known as The Faggot Gatherer referred to in Walter Withers: The
Forgotten Manuscripts.