Prints [PR] - Before Felton

Juan Dolivar: engraving from Les Grandes Conquêtes du Roi, c.1686-87. Gift of G.C.Levey 1879 (NGV p.183.152-1)

Introduction

Reproductive prints were a major emphasis in the pre-Felton collection, reflecting the proliferation and relatively low cost of engraving, wood engraving, lithography etc. during the era (alongside the early development of Photography).

Etching, according to its 19th-century champions, was an inherently more creative medium than other forms of printmaking. But this is a debatable claim. Not long after the invention of printing liberated humanity from the drudgery of repetitive manual copying, Albrecht Dürer demonstrated how brilliantly media like woodcut and engraving could be employed to creative effect. Several good examples were acquired for Melbourne in the pre-Felton period, including Dürer’s own three “master engravings,” and prints by Goltzius and others (see full list below).

Nevertheless, the reproduction of other works of art, and images of notable personages of the day, dominated print acquisitions in the pre-Felton era. (NB for remarks on the separate issue of autotypes and other reproductions not catalogued here, see Reproductions, casts and copies). There was also inevitable overlap with the Public Library collections, which included major illustrated publications such as Haghe after Roberts The Holy Land… (1842-49) {by 1860} SLV [PR].

Acquisition of prints proceeded steadily throughout the period, augmented by several significant gifts. For instance in 1868, several examples were donated by John Pascoe Fawkner and other notable prints were presented by the Belgian Government (see e.g. Cruikshank & Mottram The Worship of Bacchus 1864 {1868} NGV [PR]).

Particular emphasis should be given to the large group of engravings donated in 1879 by George Collins Levey (1835-1919), a noted Melbourne journalist who had a significant involvement in various major exhibitions, both in Australia and internationally, between 1870 and 1900. The great majority of the prints donated by Levey are from the Cabinet du Roi, a series of prints commissioned by Louis XIV from various engravers, beginning in the early 1670s, which included copies of many of the paintings then in the French royal collection, and visual documentation of the lavish festivals staged by the Sun King at Versailles during the 1660s and 1670s. Unfortunately, the full significance of this remarkable gift does not seem to have been apparent, at least to Melbourne’s gallery-going public, since only a few seem to have been exhibited. For a more detailed account, see Levey gift.

By 1894, many of the prints in the Melbourne collection were displayed in the Buvelot Gallery, hanging alongside drawings, watercolours, etchings, photographs, autotypes and other reproductions, in a typically late Victorian pot-pourri (see NGV 1894 catalogue, section V).

Pride of place was given to prints reproducing paintings by Old Masters (including many painters not represented in the NGV by original works, even now), among them Giotto, Leonardo, Michelangelo, Raphael, Correggio, Titian, the Carracci, Reni, Rubens, van Dyck, Valentin, Poussin, and many others. There were also prints after major 19^th-century artists, including J.M.W.Turner (but not Constable), Landseer, Edwin Long and various others whose names are less familiar to us now but were hugely popular at the time (e.g. Siemiradzki). For details, see list below, and Artists A-Z. As with the collections of paintings and sculpture, there was a definite Victorian flavour, including sentimental examples like Lemon after Le Jeune Pity 1867 {1868} NGV [PR] and the prints after Rivière by Lewis and Stacpoole; and ruminations on the fate of early Christians: see e.g. * Bourne after Doré The Christian Martyrs 1875 {1876} Loc? [PR] and Tegazzo after Siemiradzki Les Torches vivantes de Neron 1878 {1879} NGV [PR].

Portraits

The other main group of pre-Felton prints (again, often reproducing other works of art) comprised portraits of notables of the era. The 1894 NGV catalogue listed a large number of these. The sitters represented included many of the monarchs and aristocrats of 19^th-century Europe, including various relatives of Queen Victoria. Visually speaking, there is an inevitable sameness to these portraits, but several merit special emphasis for the light they shed on the complex and often problematic character of dynastic politics in the era: see examples noted below. It should be observed that none of these prints apparently survives in the Melbourne collection, perhaps dispensed with later because of subsequent events, or simply because they were no longer relevant.

* Cousins after Winterhalter Napoleon III {by 1870} Loc? [PR] and * Franck after Devaux Princess Charlotte, impératrice de Méxique {by 1894} Loc? [PR]: Cousins’ engraving reproduced an oil portrait (presumed destroyed in the Tuileries fire in 1870) of Napoleon III, who presided over the French Second Empire from 1852-70. In 1864, following the French invasion of Mexico, Napoleon III installed Archduke Maximilian of Austria (the brother of Austrian Emperor Franz Joseph I) and his wife Charlotte (daughter of King Léopold I of Belgium and sister of his successor Léopold II: see entry below) as Emperor and Empress of Mexico. However, the French almost immediately withdrew from Mexico, abandoning Maximilian and his wife. Charlotte (or Carlota, as she was known in Mexico) returned to Europe to enlist support, but Maximilian was captured and shot in 1867 – an event which horrified Queen Victoria and others, and was commemorated in Manet’s famous painting (Mannheim, 1868-69). Franck’s engraving of Charlotte apparently dates from 1867 (after a painting produced at the time of her marriage to Maximilian in 1857). In poor health and allegedly insane, she lived on in Trieste for the next 60 years, styled “Her Imperial Majesty Empress Charlotte of Mexico…” (etc.), until her death in 1927. For further details, see individual entries.

* Feckert after Winterhalter Victoria Adelaide, Princess Royal… {by 1871?} Loc? [PR]; * Milster William I, King of Prussia {by 1871?} Loc? [PR]; and * Rohrbach after Hellwig Frederick William of Prussia {by 1871?} Loc? [PR]. These three prints were donated by the Prussian Government in 1871, the year of the formation of the second German Reich and the coronation of Wilhelm I (King of Prussia from 1861) as German Emperor at Versailles. For another portrait of Wilhelm or William I, donated to the Melbourne collection by the sitter in 1871, see Unknown (German 19C?) William I, Emperor of Germany {1870} SLV [PA]. On his death in March 1888, he was succeeded as Emperor by his son Frederick William (1831-88), also known as Fritz, who reigned for only 99 days before succumbing to cancer, in what subsequently became known as the year of the Three Emperors. Frederick William and his wife Victoria Adelaide, Queen Victoria’s first-born child (1840-1901; also known as Vicky), were both close to Queen Victoria, and both were opposed to the nationalist policies of Otto von Bismarck (1815-98), William I’s Prime Minister from 1862 and then Imperial Chancellor from 1871. Frederick William was succeeded in turn by his son Wilhelm II (1859-1941), Queen Victoria’s grandson, whose foreign policy was much more aggressive (and far less diplomatically subtle than the approach of Bismarck, who Wilhelm sacked in 1890), eventuating in World War I, and the abdication of “Kaiser Bill,” as he was dubbed during the war, in November 1918. Again, refer individual entries.

* Unknown after Ghémar Frères Léopold II & Marie-Henriette of Belgium {by 1894} Loc? [PR]. As explained in more depth in the linked entry, these prints depicted the Belgian monarch (ruled 1865-1909), notorious for his appallingly exploitative rule over the Belgian Congo – the inspiration for Joseph Conrad’s Heart of Darkness (1902) – and his unfortunate wife, a Hapsburg princess who lived essentially apart from Léopold during the second half of his long reign, and died in 1902. For Léopold II’s sister princess Charlotte, see above.

The collection also included prints of various other notable figures of the era, including heroes of the Napoleonic wars and other battles and events: see (amongst others) * Sharpe after Maclise Death of Nelson {1878} Loc? [PR] & * Stocks after Maclise Wellington and Blücher {1878} Loc? [PR]; * Unknown after Carew The Death of Nelson {1871} Loc? [PR]; * Maguire after Negelen Sir John Franklin {1875} Loc? [PR] and * Unknown Sir George Back {1875} Loc? [PR].

Australian prints also entered the pre-Felton collection on a regular basis, from the very early acquisition, Lowry after Liardet View of Melbourne 1845 {1859} SLV [PR], through to Nuttall [after] First Commonwealth Parliament of Australia 1902 {1903} SLV [PR], the latter promoted at the time with the slogan “No Australian Home will be complete without a Copy.”

Individual entries

* Adlard after Evans (G.) Hobart Town, 1821 {by 1894} Loc? [PR]
Audran after Mignard Tableaux de la Voute… a Versailles {1879} NGV [PR]
Audran after Spada Aeneas saving his father {1879} NGV [PR]

Bai after Germak La Monténégrine {1868} NGV [PR]
Bartolozzi & Byrne after Webber Death of Captain Cook 1785 {1882} SLV [PR]
Baudet after Carracci (Annibale) Martyrdom of St Stephen 1677 {1879} NGV [PR]
Baudet after Le Brun Le Grand Escalier de Versailles {1879} NGV [PR]
Baudet after Valentin Tribute Money {1879} NGV [PR]
* Baugniet Léopold Prémier, roi des Belges {by 1894} Loc? [PR]
* Béatrizet after Michelangelo The Last Judgement {by 1894} Loc? [PR]
Bellin after Buckner Sir Charles Fitzroy {1872} SLV [PR]
Bérain Plan General du Chasteau du Louvre {1879} NGV [PR]
Bérain & Scotin Ornemens de peinture… 1710 {1879} NGV [PR]
Bérain Galerie d’Apollon [Ornemens, pls.2-12] {1879} NGV [PR]
* Bourne after Doré The Christian Martyrs 1875 {1876} Loc? [PR]
* Boys after Martens View of Sydney, from St Leonards 1843 {1904} Loc? [PR]

* Calvert (?) after Cope Departure of the Pilgrim Fathers {1874} Loc? [PR]
Carmichael after Adamson Melbourne from the South side of the Yarra 1839 {by 1865} SLV [PR]
Carmichael after Adamson Melbourne from the South side of the Yarra {1891} SLV [PR]
* Carmichael Sydney Cove, from Fort Phillip 1838 {1891} Loc? [PR]
* Carmichael Sydney Cove, from the Stream 1838 {1891} Loc? [PR]
* Carracci (Agostino) after Barocci Aeneas bearing his father Anchises {by 1894} Loc? [PR]
Cawker Floating battery 1867 {1868} SLV [PR]
Chant after Buckner (?) Sir William Thomas Denison 1863 {by 1894} SLV [PR]
Chasteau after Carracci (Annibale) Assumption of the Virgin {1879} NGV [PR]
Chasteau after Carracci (Annibale) Martyrdom of St Stephen {1879} NGV [PR]
Chasteau after Poussin Gathering of Manna 1680 {1879} NGV [PR]
Chasteau after Poussin Jesus healing the blind {1879} NGV [PR]
Chasteau after Poussin Pyrrhus hidden 1676 {1879} NGV [PR]
Chasteau after Poussin St Paul lifted up {1879} NGV [PR]
Châtillon 14 engravings from Les Grandes Conquêtes du Roi {1879} NGV [PR]
Chauveau Grand Apartment of the Tuileries Palace 1710 {1879} NGV [PR]
Chevalier Houses of Parliament, Melbourne 1856 {by 1894?} SLV [PR]
Clark (J.) after Eyre View of Sydney (nos.1 & 2) {1904} SLV [PR]
Colin Sortie de la Garnison de Dole {1879} NGV [PR]
* Cousins after Winterhalter Napoleon III {by 1870} Loc? [PR]
* Cruikshank & Mottram The Worship of Bacchus 1864 {by 1865} Loc? [PR] and Cruikshank & Mottram The Worship of Bacchus… 1864 (c.2) {1868} NGV [PR]
Cunego & others after Raphael Engravings after Paintings in the Loggie {by 1861} SLV [PR]

* Dawe after Raeburn (?) Lord Alexander Abercromby {by 1865} Loc? [PR]
* Dayes after Hunter Sydney Cove, Port Jackson 1792 {by 1894} Loc? [PR]
De Gruchy & Leigh after Strafford Melbourne, 1856 {by 1861} SLV [PR]
De Gruchy & Leigh Panoramic View of Melbourne 1863 {by 1865} SLV [PR]
De Mare after Schenck Anguish 1879 {1880} NGV [PR]
* Desvachez after Raphael: La vierge au livre {1868?} Loc? [PR]
Dolivar 3 engravings from Les Grandes Conquêtes du Roi {1879} NGV [PR]
Dürer Knight, Death and the Devil 1513 {1891} NGV [PR]
Dürer Melencolia I 1514 {1891} NGV [PR]
Dürer St Jerome in his Study 1514 {1891} NGV [PR]

Edelinck after Raphael Holy Family {1879} NGV [PR]
Edelinck after Turchi The Deluge 1681 {1868} NGV [PR]

* Feckert after Winterhalter Victoria Adelaide, Princess Royal… {by 1871?} Loc? [PR]
* Franck after De Winne Le Comte de Flandre 1860 {by 1894} Loc? [PR]
* Franck after Devaux Princess Charlotte, impératrice de Mexique {by 1894} Loc? [PR]
Frezza after Maratti Ascension of the Virgin 1728 {by 1868} NGV [PR]

* Gauci (?) George Augustus Robinson {by 1865} Loc? [PR]
Geller after Solari Ecce Homo {by 1865} NGV [PR]
Gerlier Inauguration of Monument… {1868} NGV [PR]
Gill Ballaarat from Mount Buninyong 1855 {1868?} SLV [PR]
Gill Melbourne Exhibition Buildings 1854 {1868?} SLV [PR]
* Gill Post Office, Melbourne 1856 (?) {1868} Loc? [PR]
Gill City Terminus of the M.& H.B.Railway 1854 {1868} SLV [PR]
Gill Toorak. The Residence of the Lieut.Govr.of Victoria 1854 {1868?} SLV [PR]
Gill The Treasury, Melbourne 1854 {1868} SLV [PR]
Girard after Reverdin Laocoon {by 1861} NGV [PR]
Girardet after Long An Egyptian Feast 1879 {1883} NGV [PR]
* Goed after Owen William Pitt {by 1894} Loc? [PR]
* Goltzius Adoration of the Magi 1594 {by 1894} Loc? [PR]
* Goltzius The Visitation 1593 {by 1894} Loc? [PR]
* Gruner after Raphael Conversion of Saul 1864 {by 1894} Loc? [PR]
* Gruner after Raphael The Deluge 1866 {1876} Loc? [PR]
* Gruner after Raphael Joseph sold into Egypt 1866 {1876} Loc? [PR]
* Gruner after Raphael Martyrdom of St Stephen 1867 {by 1894} Loc? [PR]
Guérard Australian Landscapes [Nos.1-24] {1868} SLV [PR]

Haghe after Roberts The Holy Land… (1842-49) {by 1860} SLV [PR]
Ham (T.) after Strutt Opening of Prince’s Bridge 1851 {by 1861} SLV [PR] and Ham (T.) after Strutt Opening of Prince’s Bridge 1851 (c.2) {1868} SLV [PR]
Ham (T.) Post Office, Melbourne {1868} SLV [PR]
Hanhart The Hon.Francis Scott {1893} SLV [PR]
Hart St Phillip’s East Collingwood 1866 {1868} SLV? [PR]
Hollar Sleeping Huntress {1900} NGV [PR]
* Hymans after Dell’Acqua The Tortoise Merchant {1868} [PR]
* Hymans after Induno Popolane di Roma {1868} Loc? [PR]

Jeaurat after Le Brun Interview of Louis XIV & Phillip IV 1728 {1897} NGV [PR]
Jeaurat after Le Brun Marriage of Louis XIV & Maria Theresa 1731 {1879} NGV [PR]
Joubert after Webster The Playground 1865 {1868} NGV [PR]

* Kaiser after Pieneman Willem de Derde, Koning der Nederlanden {by 1870} Loc? [PR]

Maguire after Negelen Sir John Franklin {by 1865} SLV [PR] and * Maguire after Negelen Sir John Franklin (c.2) {1875} Loc? [PR]
Maile Napoleon I {1875} NGV [PR]
Marot (D.) 4 engravings from Les Grandes Conquêtes du Roi {1879} NGV [PR]
Marot (J.) Plans and elevations of the Louvre 1676/78 {1879} NGV [PR]
Martini after Ramberg The Royal Academy 1787 {1900} NGV [PR]
Masson after Titian Christ at Emmaus {1879} NGV [PR]
* Meunier after Madou L’Arquebusier {1868?} Loc? [PR]
Michiels after Dyckmans The Blind man {1868} NGV [PR]
* Milster William I, King of Prussia {by 1871?} Loc? [PR]
* Moffitt Billy Blue’s Cottage {1891} Loc? [PR]
* Montefiore Environs of Sydney {by 1894} Loc? [PR]
Montefiore The Rip – Port Phillip Heads 1868 {by 1894} SLV [PR]
* Montefiore after Chevalier Crossing a Creek, N.Z. {by 1894} Loc? [PR]
* Montefiore after Chevalier Pigeon Point, Banks’ Peninsula, N.Z. {by 1894} Loc? [PR]
* Morghen after Leonardo Last Supper 1800 {1872} Loc? [PR]

Nolin after Hardouin-Mansart L’Orangerie de Versailles 1688 {1879} NGV [PR]
Nuttall [after] First Commonwealth Parliament of Australia 1902 {1903} SLV [PR]

Sadd Catholic hierarchy in Australia 1869 {1870} SLV [PR]
* Sadeler after Heintz Diana surprised in the Bath {1899} Loc? [PR]
Schäffer & Belloli after Giotto The Pietà from the Arena Chapel {1860} NGV [PR]
* Schiavonetti after Phillips William Blake {by 1894} Loc? [PR]
Schoenfeld after Michelangelo The Crucifixion 1860 {1868} NGV [PR]
Scotin after Turchi Mystic Marriage of St Catherine 1679 {1879} NGV [PR]
* Sharpe after Maclise Death of Nelson {1878} Loc? [PR]
Shepherd Wesley Church, Melbourne {by 1870} SLV [PR]
Silvestre Les Plaisirs de l’Isle enchantée 1673 {1879} NGV [PR]
Silvestre Plans, elevations and views of Versailles {1879} NGV [PR]
Silvestre Views and Elevations of the Tuileries {1879} NGV [PR]
* Simmons after Maclise Noah’s Sacrifice 1857 {by 1894} Loc? [PR]
Simonneau after Le Brun Franche Comté reconquered 1688 {1879} NGV [PR]
Smith (J.) after Reynolds Madona col bambino 1791 {1868} NGV [PR]
Stacpoole after Rivière All that was left of the ‘Homeward Bound’ {1876} NGV [PR]
Stacpoole after Rivière Charity {1876} NGV [PR]
Stacpoole after Rivière Circe and the Friends of Ulysses {1876} NGV [PR]
* Stocks after Maclise Wellington and Blücher {1878} Loc? [PR]
Strange after Cortona Caesar putting away Pompeia {by 1868} NGV [PR]
Strange after Cortona Romulus and Remus {by 1868?} NGV [PR]
Strutt View of the Golden Point – Ballarat {by 1865?} SLV [PR]

Taylor Part of the Harbour of Port Jackson 1823 {1901} SLV [PR]
Tegazzo after Siemiradzki Les Torches vivantes de Neron 1878 {1879} NGV [PR]
Thomassin after Raphael Transfiguration of Christ 1680 {1879} NGV [PR]
* Turner (C.) after Raeburn The Honble David Hume {by 1865} Loc? [PR]

Van Loo after Alma-Tadema Frédégonde et Prétextat {1868} NGV [PR]
Vintner after Pearce Admiral John Lort Stokes {1881} SLV [PR]
Visscher after Muller Virgin & Child {1900} NGV [PR]
* Volpato after Raphael Deliverance of St Peter {by 1865} Loc? [PR]
* Volpato after Raphael The School of Athens {by 1865} Loc? [PR] and * Volpato after Raphael The School of Athens (c.2) {1868?} Loc? [PR]

* Walker (E.) after Gilfillan Interior of a Native Village {by 1871} Loc? [PR]
Walker (W.) after Pickersgill Sir Roderick Murchison 1851 {1894} SLV [PR]
Walton (C.) & Co. J.Cashel Hoey {1892} SLV [PR]
* Warnots (?) after Ghémar & Severin Léopold I, roi des belges 1856 {by 1894} Loc? [PR]
* Willmore (A.) after Gill Collegiate Grammar School {by 1865} Loc? [PR]
* Willmore (A.) after Gill Wesleyan Church, Melbourne {by 1865} Loc? [PR]
Willmore (J.) after Leitch Villa of Lucullus at Misenum 1851 {1868} NGV [PR]
* Willmore (J.) after Turner (J.M.W.) Italian Landscape {1868} NGV [PR]
* Woollett after van Dyck Rubens {by 1894} Loc? [PR]

* Unknown after Carew The Death of Nelson {1871} Loc? [PR]
Unknown after Dawe Duke of Wellington 1842 {1875} NGV [PR]
* Unknown after Ghémar Frères Léopold II & Marie-Henriette of Belgium {by 1894} Loc? [PR]
Unknown after Lake Price Brace of Birds {1868} NGV [PR]
* Unknown after Michelangelo Battle of Pisa {by 1905} Loc? [PR]
Unknown after Nanteuil Pierre-Armand de Cambout {1879} NGV [PR]
Unknown after Rubens Descent from the Cross {1868} NGV [PR]
Unknown Emmerick {1879} NGV [PR]
* Unknown Exhibition Building, Sussex Vale 1861 {1868} Loc? [PR]
Unknown A Lancashire witch {1868} NGV [PR]
* Unknown Sydney with the Entrance to Port Jackson 1800 {by 1894} Loc? [PR]
* Unknown Wooloomooloo from Domain Road {1891} Loc? [PR]
* Unknown Sir George Back {1875} Loc? [PR]
* Unknown Marshal Blucher {1871} Loc? [PR]
* Unknown Rev.F.T.C.Russell, LL.D. {1878} Loc? [PR]
Unknown Tableau Synoptique des Papes {1882} NGV [PR]
* Unknown 18 plates from L’Art {1879} Loc? [PR]