Ghost gums with luminous white trunks, palm-filled gorges and red mountain ranges turning purple at dusk are the hallmarks of the Hermannsburg school. Namatjira was born on July 28, 1902 in Alice Springs, Australia and adopted Christianity at an early age, dividing his cultural upbringing between a Western and Aboriginal one. Artworks Albert Namatjira was an Australian Arrente artist largely credited with pioneering contemporary indigenous Australian art and popularizing it worldwide. He is known for watercolours of desert landscapes rather than the symbolic style of … His work, primarily watercolour landscapes of Central Australia, is represented in all Australian State art galleries. Battarbee returned to the area in the winter of 1936 to paint the landscape, and Namatjira, expressing an interest in learning to paint, acted as his cameleer and guide to show him local scenic areas. Description: Albert Namatjira 1902-1959 THE VALLEY, MACDONNELL RANGES, NORTHERN TERRITORY (1956) watercolour over pencil on paper signed 'ALBERT NAMATJIRA' lower right 36 X 51CM PROVENANCE Finke River Mission, Alice Springs Sir Horace Frank Richardson, Melbourne Joseph Brown Gallery, Melbourne Private Collection, Melbourne Battarbee showed him how to paint with watercolours. Indigenous Australian artist Albert Namatjira (1902–1959) is arguably Australia's best known Aboriginal painter. Albert Namatjira (1902–59) was one Australia’s most notable artists. Biography Although not the first Aboriginal artist to work in a European style, Albert Namatjira is certainly the most famous. Namatjira was introduced to western-style painting through an exhibition by two painters from Melbourne, Rex Battarbee and John Gardner, at his mission in 1934. Namatjira was born into the Arrernte community at the Hermannsburg Lutheran …