In Land of the Golden Fleece Arthur Streeton presents a view
towards Mount William from the southern end of the Grampians
mountain range in Victoria. Looking down and across a property
at Willaura (owned by Streeton’s friend Walter Cain),1 Streeton
depicts a flock of sheep grazing, a dam and a windmill. Shadows
move across the land and Streeton has used colour to give the
image a sense of space, painting the distant Grampians with
blues and greys to make them recede, and using warm yellows in
the foreground to make the golden fields appear closer to the
viewer. Land of the Golden Fleece displays an open and opulent
pastoral Australia: full of potential, grand in scale and scenic
in beauty. In this work Streeton presented a country rich in
‘blue and gold’, earth and water, sky and land. Australia was a
land of youth and possibility. Following the death of many
thousands of Australians during the First World War, and the
devastation of the landscapes of France and Belgium, artists
such as Streeton looked to the