Josephine’s visit to Coolgardie in 1897 generated much interest among locals. The once burgeoning gold-mining town – then the third largest in Western Australia, after Perth and Fremantle – wouldn’t have had many distractions from the harsh conditions.
According to the West Australian Goldfields Courier: ‘There is in Coolgardie at present, in the person of Miss Muntz, an artist whose work has recently been attracting well-merited attention in the other colonies.’
‘She is engaged now in several sunset effects round about Coolgardie in which camels and Afghans may play a picturesque part. It will be interesting to see the disputed beauties of our ‘waste, howling wilderness’ depicted on canvas.’1
Sunlight, Coolgardie has a quiet counterpart in Moonlight, Coolgardie – a companion piece that reflects the stillness and solitude of the goldfields after dark. Both works were exhibited as part of Josephine’s solo retrospective at the Athenaeum Gallery in 1943.
Image courtesy of the Art Gallery of Western Australia.
