‘For days I have seen nothing but the most awful scenes that the human mind can imagine … Stay calm and don’t worry: I will come back to you – the war will end this year. I must stop; the transport of the wounded, which will take this letter along, is leaving. Stay well and calm as I do.’

Fred Williams has come home to Melbourne. The retrospective of the much-loved painter of the Australian (and particularly Victorian) landscape began last year at the National Gallery of Australia in Canberra. Fred Williams: Infinite Horizons is now showing at NGV Australia at Federation Square.