Michael's curatorial work on the Cowen Gallery project was intensive, involving detailed investigative research. He had no information about a mysterious female painter Madame Phillippson, whose portrait of 'Tasma', an Australian female writer, is featured in the Cowen Gallery. His investigation led him to a website using the surname of the painter, and he received acknowledgement from the President of a Belgium bank thanking him for information about the work of his great grandmother!
Michael is passionate about the works he has selected for the new gallery. ‘We hope to stop people in their tracks, to make them look and contemplate our history, and who we are. Some of these works have remained hidden for more than 70 years. Personally speaking, this has been a heaven-sent opportunity.’
In order to maximise the number of works on display, Michael selected a Victorian era ‘salon-style' hang, with works tiered along the walls. Thirteen marble busts, including British Prime Minister Lord Melbourne - after whom the city was named - and English actor Gustavus Vaughan Brooke, are also on display.
The gallery comprises two octagonal rooms linked with a long main hall, which forms a thoroughfare to the large and light-filled Redmond Barry Reading Room, which has also just opened.
The North Rotunda is painted a dramatic red colour and features 19th-century portraits and busts of 19th-century pioneers and prominent people who made a key contribution to Victoria. These include former Chief Justice Sir Redmond Barry, former Governor Sir Henry Barkly, and Premier, Sir John O’Shannassy.
The South Rotunda is painted blue to reflect the original room’s colour scheme, and displays mainly paintings of 20th-century artists, musicians, writers and contributors to the Library’s collection. The South Rotunda leads into the new Heritage Collections Reading Room.
Other gallery highlights are significant works about the European exploration and settlement of Australia, including the Burke and Wills expedition. On permanent display is one of the most important colonial paintings in Australia, William Strutt’s Black Thursday, February 6th, 1851, which shows the devastation caused by the disastrous bushfire that broke out in Victoria days before gold was discovered. Many people died in the fire and the city was filled with dust, smoke and a rain of cinders, the glow of which could be seen from far out at sea.
Strutt completed the massive narrative painting in London during 1864. It was subsequently purchased by an Adelaide art dealer, brought back to Australia, and toured extensively throughout the 19th century. While the painting was offered for sale to many public institutions, it was rejected partly because colonial art had become unfashionable. The Library eventually bought the work in 1954, and it is now on display at the Library for the first time in ten years.
Another well-known work featured is Marco Polo by Thomas Robertson, a painting of the famous immigrant ship of the 1850s. Michael Galimany describes this work as 'a painting people ask about all the time.'
The 150 works featured in the Cowen Gallery form a link to the Library’s 150th anniversary celebrations in 2004. Michael Galimany hopes the new gallery, 'will whet people’s appetites, and they will want to dig up more information about the works on display. This is the perfect place to do that.'
The Cowen Gallery is open to the public during Library hours and is located on Level 2A. Entry is free.
Illustrations
Top left: The Cowen Gallery features a Victorian salon-style hang which maximises the number of works on display.
Top right: The South Rotunda is painted blue to reflect the original room's colour scheme.
Below left: Thomas Robertson, Marco Polo, well known immigrant ship of the fifties, 1859
Below right: Jacques Francois Carabain, Melbourne Town Hall and Swanston Street, 1889 |
