Hailed as the high point of [his] Emu Plains series" and "one of his greatest masterpieces", Morning Light was awarded the Wynne Prize in 1916.

[1] Morning Light was largely painted en plein air at Emu Plains—now an outer western suburb of Sydney but then a rural area—on a farm owned by James Innes.

[1] The slightly elevated point of view allows for an expansive vista across the paddocks to the misted horizon line, with nearly two-thirds of the painting sky.

Gruner invested the pastoral subject with both intimacy and universality; the turning figure lit by the sun draws us into the scene, which is a meditation on light and atmosphere.

[2] After winning the Wynne Prize the work was immediately purchased by the Art Gallery of New South Wales and remains part of its collection.