19th-century Australian art

Louis Buvelot, On the Woods Point Road, 1872

Frederick McCubbin, A bush burial, 1890

Julian Rossi Ashton, Portrait of Louis Buvelot, 1880

Bertram MacKennal, Salome, c1897

The Geelong Gallery's colonial Australian collection is notable for its wide scope, with works dating from 1840 and incorporating paintings, works on paper, sculpture and the decorative arts. The majority of these were donated to the Gallery, while those that were purchased were proposed to the committee rather than actively sought. The first acquisition, Frederick McCubbin's A bush burial 1890, was loaned to the Gallery prior to its purchase through public subscription. The next work to be purchased by the committee was Arthur Loureiro's depiction of resting tigers, At home 1897, with the Gallery's own funds, upon the recommendation of the artist Walter Withers. It was another 38 years before the next purchases of colonial art were made, these being sketches from the 1850s by local artist, Charles Mackin on offer to the Gallery by his daughter. In 1949 and 1950, the significant acquisitions of Louis Buvelot's On the Woods Point Road 1872 and Julian Ashton's complementary painting Portrait of Louis Buvelot 1880 were made. These works had been on loan to the Gallery for twenty years from the collection of Mrs G.C. Neave and, upon her death, were bought by the Gallery.

The first truly proactive purchase of a nineteenth-century work took place in 1957, when Geelong Gallery President, F.E. Richardson, bought two works by Charles Conder while visiting a commercial gallery in London, one of which he donated to the Gallery and successfully urged the purchase of the second (Babies and swans through archway 1890s). Over the past two decades, further purchases of colonial art were made specifically to enhance the collection, these works comprising works on paper.

This eclectic mode of collecting has resulted in a wide-ranging body of works that includes examples of work by artists whose reputations have increased over time, such as Frederick McCubbin and other artists of the Heidelberg School as well as those whose efforts have received only cursory attention but who were highly regarded during their heyday, including Charles Rolando, who taught many turn-of-the-century artists. A variety of subject matter is also represented including views of Geelong and Western District, landscapes further afield such as Eugene von Guerard's New South Wales' paintings, The Weatherboard Falls 1863, history paintings including Frederick McCubbin's A bush burial, which endeavoured to recapture and idealise the less urbanised period of early settlement and the gold rush, animal paintings, and portraits.

The colonial Australian art collection provides an excellent overview of the development of Australian art. It captures the changing perspectives of artists from those who viewed the strange land through European eyes to a new generation who sought to capture a familiar environment through a distinctly Australian idiom.