[photo: Hangard-Maugé & Schultz after Jan & Hubert van Eyck: lithographic reproduction (1868) of the Ghent Altarpiece (NGV, purchased 1868)] In several meticulously-researched studies, Melbourne art historian Alison Inglis has emphasized the reliance of both private and public collections in colonial Australia on “replicas, reproductions and copies.” Although the modernist “tradition of the new”
This scholarship, instituted by G.F.Folingsby, was first awarded to John Longstaff in 1887. The terms of the award dictated that at least one original canvas and two Old Master copies from each recipient be added to the Melbourne collection. Other recipients during the pre-Felton period were Aby Altson [1890], James Quinn [1893], George Coates [1896], Max
In 1879, George Collins Levey (1835-1919), a British-born journalist and newspaper editor who lived and worked in Australia, mostly in Melbourne, between 1851 and c.1883, donated a substantial collection of prints to the NGV – arguably the most significant donation to the gallery prior to the Felton Bequest. (For Levey, see in particular the biography
As reported in the Melbourne Age (19 May 1943), a group of 19 sculptures was auctioned off at the NGV by Mr Leonard Joel: see attached report (via Trove). Some 15 of these were pre-Felton acquisitions. This sale was part of the larger process of extensive culling of the Melbourne collection (mostly Victorian-era works) carried out between
[comparative photo: cover of the 13 Sept.1888 issue of The Graphic, showing the opening of the Melbourne Centennial Exhibition] Established in 1869, The Graphic was a significant platform for black and white illustrators of the period, continuing weekly publication until 1932. Founded to compete with the established Illustrated London News, it attracted many of the best graphic
[photo: William Bligh (no.9)] This series of portraits of colonial governors was initiated by Redmond Barry and the Melbourne Public Library Trustees in 1866. Most of them appear to have been produced during the 1860s and 1870s, although new examples were still being added in the 1880s. In the gallery’s annual reports, they are usually described as “painted photographic