Hoddle St., 10 p.m.

Arthur Streeton's Hoddle St., 10 p.m. (1889) is one of the earliest serious paintings of Melbourne as a nocturnal subject — placing the youngest of the core Heidelberg group in the tradition of the urban nocturne established by Whistler and practiced in Australia with increasing sophistication. Streeton was barely twenty when he painted this night view of one of Melbourne's main streets, showing remarkable ambition in tackling the technical challenges of artificial night light. The painting demonstrates both the rapid development of Australian Impressionism and Streeton's personal facility for atmospheric effect.

The night street scene requires Streeton to manage artificial light sources — gas lamps, shop windows — and their reflections on wet or dusty street surfaces. His palette is restricted and cool: dark blues and greys punctuated by the warm amber of artificial lighting. The street's recession into dark distance creates spatial depth without the usual tonal resources of daylight painting. Figures are suggested rather than described, appropriate to the limited visibility of night. The overall impression is atmospheric rather than topographically precise.