| Place | Oceania: Australia, Australian Capital Territory, Canberra |
|---|---|
| Accession Number | ART92900 |
| Collection type | Art |
| Measurement | Framed: 38 cm x 52.8 cm x 4.2 cm; Unframed: 25.5 cm x 38.5 cm |
| Object type | Painting |
| Physical description | oil on print on board |
| Maker |
Sodersten, Emil |
| Place made | Australia: New South Wales, Sydney |
| Date made | c.1936 |
| Conflict |
Period 1920-1929 |
| Copyright |
Item copyright: © Australian War Memorial
This item is licensed under CC BY-NC
|
[Study, landscape treatment, Australian War Memorial, the water garden]
Description
Depicts a vision by the War Memorial's winning architect, Emil Sodersten, for the landscape and garden features proposed for the front of the Australian Memorial, with rows of established trees in a colonnade, square hedges and a garden with flowers in the foreground. The painting was developed by Sodersten's not for the initial War Memorial design in 1925, nor the reworked design with fellow architect , John Crust, in 1927, but as part of a presentation in Canberra in May 1936 for the 'National War Memorial Site Development and Approaches'. As part of his presentation, Sodersten showed photographs of his plans for the gardens and landscaping surrounding the War Memorial, which included terracing and plantings. He visited Europe and the United States between September 1935 and January 1936 to study the latest developments in landscape gardening Emil Sodersten (1899-1961) was an architect who established his own practice in 1925 in Sydney. In the same year he closed his offices to prepare a set of drawings for the international competition to design a national war museum, the Australian War Memorial, in Canberra. He prepared 17 complete schemes. The two winning designs for the War Memorial were chosen; no. 41 by fellow architect John Crust, which was praised for being 'frugal and ingenious' and no. 52 by Emil Sodersten, which although above the 250,000 pound proposed budget for the Memorial, was considered 'exceptionally restrained and expressive of the purpose of the building'. The winning architects were asked to collaborate on a new, fresh design which was presented in 1927. The building of the War Memorial was delayed until 1938 and was officially opened in November 1941. In 1942 Sodersten enlisted in the RAAF, serving in New Guinea as a Flight Lieutenant with no.13 Survey & Design Unit, being demobilized in 1945. After the Second World War he designed fewer buildings, but had been one of the leading Australian architects working in the Art Deco style.