James Swinton Diston Australian Landscape with Farmstead

An original early 20th-century watercolour painting, James Swinton Diston, Australian Landscape with Farmstead.

A beautiful landscape, delicately painted, with two foreground figures by a watering hole, with a rural farmstead in the background. This watercolour is similar to others by James Swinton Diston (1857–1940), one of which he titled 'Solitude'.

Diston was born in Leven, Scotland in 1857. He studied at the Royal Scottish Academy in Edinburgh, with his early work was exhibited there and at the Royal Academy, London. Diston emigrated to Australia in 1886 and became a prominent member of the Victoria Art Society, where he exhibited from 1914 to 1917. His preferred medium was watercolour, painting coastal scenes and rural landscapes throughout his extensive travels around Australia, as well as in India, Ceylon (Sri Lanka) and in Europe. Later in his career he became a well-known art guide and lecturer.