Green-Robed Senators

Keeley Halswelle ARSA, RI, 1832-1891

c.1880

Oil on canvas

65.8 × 39.5 cm

National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne

Accession no. 148-2

Bequest of Alfred Felton, 1904

The title comes from John Keats's "Hyperion," in which stately trees are described as "green-robed senators of mighty woods," charmed to stillness by the stars at night. As in his other landscapes and seascapes, Halswelle endows the scene with a spiritual dimension — here, the two trees with their intertwining branches stand on the bank of a silvery river.

  • The painting in its original frame

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