{{Short description|1919 painting by Elioth Gruner}} {{Use dmy dates|date=November 2019}} {{Infobox artwork | image_file=Elioth Gruner - Spring frost - Google Art Project.jpg | backcolor=#FBF5DF | image_size=300px | title=Spring Frost | artist=Elioth Gruner | year=1919 | medium=oil on canvas | height_metric=131.0 | width_metric=178.7 | height_imperial= | width_imperial = | metric_unit=cm | imperial_unit=in | city=Sydney | museum=Art Gallery of New South Wales }} '''''Spring Frost''''' is a 1919 painting by the Australian artist Elioth Gruner. The painting depicts a small herd of dairy cows in the early morning. Gruner's most well-known painting, ''Spring Frost'' was awarded the Wynne Prize in 1919.<ref name=Maher>{{cite web|last=Maher|first=Louise|title=Treasure Trove: Elioth Gruner's Landscape|url=http://www.abc.net.au/local/stories/2013/03/08/3711418.htm|work=666 ABC Canberra|publisher=Australian Broadcasting Corporation|accessdate=9 March 2014}}</ref><ref name=Pryor>{{cite news|last=Pryor|first=Sally|title=Canberra's gain until the cows go home|url=http://www.canberratimes.com.au/act-news/canberras-gain-until-the-cows-go-home-20140304-345fv.html|accessdate=9 March 2014|newspaper=Canberra Times|date=9 March 2014}}</ref>
''Spring Frost'' was largely painted ''en plein air'' at Emu Plains—now an outer western suburb of Sydney but then a rural area—on the farm built by Isaac Innes and inherited by his son Jim Innes.<ref name=EmuPlains>{{cite journal|title=Elioth Gruner and the Innes family of Emu Plains|journal=The Arms Chronicle, Newsletter of the Nepean District Historical Society|issue=August and September 2013}}</ref> It is Jim Innes in this painting with his cattle.<ref name=EmuPlains /> Elioth Gruner's 1916 painting ''Morning Light'' also shows this farm.<ref name=EmuPlains /> To compose the painting Gruner built a small structure on site to protect the canvas and, to avoid frostbite, he wrapped his legs with chaff bags.<ref name=AGNSW>{{cite web|title=Spring frost|url=http://www.artgallery.nsw.gov.au/collection/works/6925/|work=Collection|publisher=Art Gallery of New South Wales|accessdate=9 March 2014}}</ref> A 2002 article on the painting argues that the work is more "sensual" than "realistic":<ref>{{Cite web |date=2002-04-03 |title=Milking works for a moment in the sun |url=https://www.smh.com.au/entertainment/milking-works-for-a-moment-in-the-sun-20020403-gdf5z1.html |access-date=2025-03-28 |website=The Sydney Morning Herald |language=en}}</ref>
{{blockquote|There is a sense in this startling and surprisingly complex picture of a mature artist, who is also at once a wilful child, wanting to gaze directly at the sun, to revel and roll in the sun, to be exposed to, and by, the sun. In the passages where he paints its pure light, for example in the sky, shrub edges and the dew-wet grass, Gruner surrenders to this sensual, if potentially destructive, instinct. In so doing, he creates a work which is actually far less realistic than we think, less anecdotal, too.|3=Milking works for a moment in the sun|author=Sydney Morning Herald|source=}}
==References== {{Reflist}}
==External links== *[http://www.artgallery.nsw.gov.au/collection/works/6925/ ''Spring Frost''] — Art Gallery of New South Wales collection
Category:1919 paintings Category:Paintings of cattle Category:Collection of the Art Gallery of New South Wales Category:Wynne Prize Category:Paintings by Elioth Gruner Category:Oil paintings on canvas