This book brings together, in the form of an annotated critical anthology, a selection of writings by, or about, artists who lived and worked in Australia between 1770 and 1914. The extracts are arranged chronologically and by topic in order to illustrate the current preoccupations of a period. The author has built his selections round the two themes of Art and Nature, providing a wide variety of approach while at the same time indicating, in his own commentary, the ways in which these ideas were linked to the emergence of traditional attitudes. Each chapter contains an explanatory introduction, biographical notes about the authors of each extract, and annotations of the texts. People who want to understand the beginnings of Australian art from the points of view of those who brought that art into existence will find this book fascinating.