p21

THE 9 x 5 inch ART HISTORY

The Heidelberg School, in Melbourne Victoria
Was the artist’s school, in South-eastern Australia
In eighteen eighty nine, a hundred years ago
began our famous nine by fives picture show
No!....... Not of the moving kind
Ones that hang and last with time.

Artists’ like Condor, Roberts, McCubbin and Streeton
These boys knew their stuff, and were not to be beaten
Brandishing their brushes and easels in awe
Painting and dabbing, all of what they saw
Working, nine by five inch on cigar box lids
Land and seascapes, wasn’t all that they did

Their Pallets, they blended with localised colour
They’re styles they developed, like not any other
‘Australian Impressionists’ branded by critics
they shocked the likes of painting traditionalists.
They were the innovators of their time
With 9 X 5 Exhibition, August 17.1889.

Over 200 paintings were in this show
Though the critics jeered and crowed
Paintings at 3 pounds 3 shillings and 3 pence
And four thousand people were in attendance
Yes, the critics they laughed and scoffed
Not knowing that they would sell the lot

So once a year we keep this tradition
In hopes to gain the same recognition.
The Masters have given us all so much
We assemble our paintings, and artistry stuff
The changes taken place in a hundred years
Still have not deterred, the art critics leers.