In 1926, at the age of forty-nine, Hans Heysen travelled to the Flinders Ranges for the first time and was fascinated by what he found there, making ten more trips between 1927 and 1949. Following the death of his daughter Lilian in 1925, Heysen was in search of a landscape that would reawaken his feelings for nature and he found this in the Flinders Ranges.

Heysen’s paintings of the Flinders Ranges reflect his love and understanding of it and he considered these works to be among his finest paintings. What can they tell us about the Australian landscape and Heysen’s relationship with nature?