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History of the Art Gallery of New South Wales
1870 was a year of violent unrest in Europe. It saw the start of the
Franco-Prussian War and a revolution in Paris which lead to the proclamation of the Third
Republic. Italian troops occupied Papal Rome, making the ageing Pius IX a prisoner of the
Vatican. These turbulent events set off a ripple of sensation even in far away Australia.
At the first 'Conversazione' or artistic soirée of the New South Wales Academy of Art on the
7th of August 1871, much of the talk was of recent European turmoil. The Louvre, used for a
time as an arsenal, had suffered a dreadful fire. Eliezer Montefiore, a founding member of the
Academy, passed around photographs of the shattered ruins of its buildings on the evening of
the Conversazione. The animated rhetoric of the night touched on the possibility of a young
Australia having to carry the torch of culture, even as Europe degenerated into chaos. It is a
theme which has been rehashed throughout Australian history. These events fuelled a budding
local resolve to establish an Academy of Art "for the purpose of promoting the fine arts
through lectures, art classes and regular exhibitions." Yet cultural idealism was only
one contributing factor to the series of events which lead to the foundation of the Art
Gallery of New South Wales.
|  | This building was erected with great speed between August and November 1879. It was designed
to house the state collection of art during the International Exhibition of 1879 and stood
roughly where the glass pyramid in the Botanic Gardens now stands. The exhibition's Advisory
Committee on art did not want the national art collection to be displayed in the enormous
Crystal Palace built for the occasion, so a last minute 'Fine Arts Annexe' was erected to a
design by William Wardell. It was built of iron and timber and contained nine moderately sized
galleries. On the 20th September, after the close of the Sydney International Exhibition, the
Annexe was opened officially by Lord Loftus as the 'Art Gallery of New South Wales'.
The building suffered from damp and in 1883 was found to be infested with termites. Constant
lobbying by the Trustees and a fire which destroyed the Crystal Palace eventually convinced the
government that the building was not an appropriate permanent home for the national collection
of art. |
Traditional rivalry between Sydney and Melbourne was just as important. The fact that
Melbourne had established an art gallery in 1861 riled Sydneysiders, who believed that their
city should possess a collection of art worthy of the Mother Colony of Australia. Yet few of
Sydney's affluent citizens seemed willing to support such a project. All but a hundred years of
British colonisation had brought to the city a degree of economic prosperity, but little
cultural wealth. The ten men appointed officers of the new Academy of Art thought it time to
re-invest some of the national resources in civilising endeavours like art. They hoped that the
foundation of an Art Academy would elevate the city beyond bucolic and mercantile pursuits.
Sydney Punch reviewed the formation of the Academy under the legend 'Emollit mores nec sinit
esse ferus', Ovid's assertion that the study of the liberal arts 'humanises character and
permits it not to be cruel.' Robert Hughes in The Fatal Shore has described the crude and
insecure social face of Sydney at the time. The founders of the Gallery were all men who
genuinely believed in the ennobling power of art. They freely gave their time and money in
support of this belief. Most were businessmen or public figures who served the interests of a
variety of cultural, religious and educational institutions in the colony.
|   | Sydney's art collection was housed from 1875 in a building on Elizabeth Street where
dancing had been taught, known as ‘Clark’s Assembly Rooms.’ The building, now demolished,
was a few doors down from Hunter Street, where the 1970s Air New Zealand Office now stands.
It had a ball-room on the first floor ‘being fifty-five feet long by twenty-five feet wide,
and about the same in height.’ This space was sufficient for art classes and for hanging a
small number of pictures. This illustration is taken from a wood engraving in The Illustrated
Sydney News 23 March 1878. |
The precise date on which the Art Gallery was founded is debatable. Which event constitutes a formal foundation? The birth of an art society from whose activities and members the Gallery emerged, the Government vote of funds towards the formation of a public collection or the provision of a physical home for this collection? Each of these events occurred quite separately. Administratively, however, the Gallery owes its genesis to the New South Wales Academy of Art.
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