'It is hard to think of the Australian landscape without conjuring up a favourite Fred Williams painting,' says Paul Kildea. 'He defined the way I view this country: trees as copper wire, or daubs of golds and browns, canopies of pinks and blues, viewed from above.'
He continues: 'German poets and naturalists did a similar thing in the nineteenth century, linking the language and metaphors of landscape to the Romantic imagination and sense of national identity. By contrast, Wilhelm Müller’s lonely journeyman in Winterreise resists the siren calls of Romantic thinking. Instead, each step, each encounter with nature, provokes a cool analysis of his thoughts and situation.
'A Winter’s Journey is a marriage of these contrasting views of nationality and identity. It pairs Schubert’s incomparable setting of Müller’s poems with twenty-four Williams images, exploiting the contrasts, conflicts and overlaps in three great artists’ visions of themselves and their homelands.'
Green Cloud and Owl (1966) © Estate of Fred Williams
You Yangs Landscape (1967), National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne © Estate of Fred Williams
You Yangs Landscape (1966) © Estate of Fred Williams
The Charcoal Burner (1959), National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne © Estate of Fred Williams
Fred Williams (1927-1982) is a towering figure in Australian art. Leaving school at 14, Williams died drawing and painting at the Gallery School and George Bell Studio, before leaving for London in December 1951. In London, while working full time as a picture framer, he undertook further classes and was captivated by the vast collections in the great museums. Upon his return to Melbourne in December 1956 Williams moved away from the figure painting and drawing he had done so successfully and embarked on a wholly unique way of representing the Australian landscape.
He saw the country differently – saw the land underneath seasonal patinas and thought distinctively about perspective in nature – and he painted it differently: varnishes and glazes, sweeps of ochre and blobs of paint, colours that change depending upon light or the angle of view.
And suddenly part of Australia that had largely escaped the eye of all but Indigenous artists – the You Yangs, Sherbrooke Forest, Upwey – came to artistic life. After Williams, Australians never saw their country the same again.
You Yangs Landscape (1963) © Estate of Fred Williams
Saplings, Lilydale (1957-58) © Estate of Fred Williams
You Yangs Pond (1963) © Estate of Fred Williams
Lysterfield Pink and Silver (1966) © Estate of Fred Williams
Director Lindy Hume writes: 'Winterreise is a portrait in landscape. In this version, the luminous and familiar Australian landscapes of Fred Williams offer the wanderer no more comfort than the snowy European panoramas evoked by Schubert and Müller. By surrounding this Romantic-era winter journey with Williams’ 20th-century images, we make no attempt to transplant the action from northern to southern hemisphere; rather, we aim to celebrate the timelessness and universality of Schubert’s great work.'
Winter’s Journey tours nationally in 2026, pairing Schubert’s Winterreise with the evocative landscapes of Fred Williams, in a staging by Lindy Hume with videography by David Bergman.
The paintings you see in this blog are among those featured in A Winter's Journey, reproduced here with permission from the Fred Williams Estate. Musica Viva Australia is grateful to Lyn Williams AC, the artist's widow, for helping to source the images, selected from private and public collections including the National Gallery of Victoria and the National Gallery of Australia.
