Australian Master's Secret Sweetheart Emerges from Canvas

MELBOURNE (Agence France-Presse)—A bullet-riddled canvas by one of Australia's most respected painters has revealed a story of hidden passion dating back more than a century, art historians said June 12.

The National Gallery of Victoria said restoration work on Arthur Streeton's impressionist masterpiece Spring showed the painted over figure of a nude woman and secret love messages inscribed in the paint.

The gallery said Streeton wrote "Florry Walker my sweetheart" several times on the 1890 work with a fine point when the paint was still wet, in lettering only visible when viewed under a microscope.

Intrigued by the messages, the gallery X-rayed Spring and discovered the nude, believed to be Florry, which had been painted over, possibly to avoid offending contemporary Australian sensibilities.

Art historians then turned detective, finding Streeton hid another dedication to Florry on a painting depicting her father's property.

They then contacted her descendents and found they had a previously unknown work that Streeton gave to her early in his career, depicting a mysterious woman wreathed in smoke.

"The new painting is a marvelous find and the story of the inscriptions is truly remarkable," said gallery deputy director Francis Lindsay.

"Above all, these discoveries highlight the fact that now-famous artists were also people, with human stories and romantic attachments."

Streeton (1867-1943) was a member of the Heidelberg school, a group heavily influenced by the French impressionists that is regarded as the first Australian art movement.

His attachment to Florry Walker, the sister of a fellow artist, was a brief affair. She and Streeton both went on to marry and raise families with others, although the romance became part of Florry's family folklore.

Spring, an idyllic scene of rural Australia, needed painstaking restoration taking more than a year after several previous attempts to patch bullet holes in the work.

The gallery said the initial damage was done around the turn of the 20th century when the painting was hanging in an Australian mansion and the gentleman of the house had some friends around for dinner.

After a few drinks they got their rifles and decided to take potshots at the cows lazing contentedly in the background of the painting, missing the bovines but hitting the canvas 14 times.