Summary
The Art and Heritage Collection holds three works by painter Elizabeth Prior (1929–2018), all of which focus on her Victorian hometown. Melbourne City Council purchased this painting from Martin Street Gallery in 1984, some years after Prior completed it in 1975.
Executed in oil on composition board, ‘Melbourne Skyline’ depicts an almost gestural urban skyline, the titular subject relegated a secondary position by the bold rural setting that foregrounds it and the dramatic sky above and behind. Small though the work may be, it is nevertheless energetic, its dynamic brushwork drawing one’s eye into and across the land towards the Melbourne skyline.
Elizabeth Prior began painting in 1952, studying under the private tutelage of artists including Ian Bow, Rollo Thompson and William Frater, until 1966. She was known for her large, expressive landscape compositions – many painted plein air – and during her long career her work was recognised through some 18 solo exhibitions, the first of these in 1968.
