Director Karen Quinlan introduces the Bendigo Art Gallery, while Leanne Fitzgibbon, Senior Curator, shows us some key works in the Gallery's collections.

Agnes Noyes Goodsir was born in Portland, Victoria, in 1864. In the period 1889-99, she studied under Arthur T. Woodward at the Bendigo School of Mines. Woodward encouraged his students to study in Paris, and Goodsir took her teacher's advice, travelling to the French capital to continue her training.

Between 1908 and 1918, Goodsir lived in England, but moved back to Paris in 1921. The body of work produced during the next period of her career includes some of her finest paintings, among them Girl with Cigarette, c.1925.

This is a portrait of Rachel Dunn, the artist's long-term companion and the subject of numerous works from Goodsir's second Paris period. Wearing a boldly patterned shawl over a pullover, her outfit accessorized by a hat and fan, and with a cigarette in her hand, Cherry, as she was referred to by Goodsir, typifies the 1920s flapper - confident and independent in demeanour, relaxed and comfortable within the cafe environment.

In 1927, Goodsir visited Australia for two exhibitions, in Melbourne and Sydney, but she received minimal recognition, selling only a small number of works. She returned to Paris, where she remained until her death in 1939.

Agnes Goodsir - born Australia 1864, died France 1939

oil on canvas

100.0 x 81.0 cm

Bequest of Amy E. Bayne, 1945

The Drover, 1912, by Walter Withers, depicts a scene familiar in early Australian life - a drover guiding sheep, the dust rising from the dry earth around them, the scene conveying the intense light and heat of a summer's day.

Withers had his local butcher in Eltham, a township on the outskirts of Melbourne, pose for this work, which captures a feeling of national pride and an appreciation for the Australian bush.

Born in England in 1854, Withers was a nature lover from an early age. Upon his arrival in Australia in 1882, he immediately made his way into the countryside, keen to discover its beauty. Working as a travelling labourer, he was able to explore the great diversity of the landscape. When he eventually settled in Melbourne, he attended drawing classes and began producing small oil paintings of bush scenes. He also worked as an illustrator and draughtsman.

Withers is possibly best known for his involvement with the group of artists who belong to the 'Heidelberg School', among them Arthur Streeton, Tom Roberts and Charles Conder. Similar to the themes of Impressionism in France, the subject matter of the Heidelberg School painters often had local relevance: these artists were interested in capturing the quality of light - and the spirit - of the Australian landscape, painting in the open air in preference to the studio.

Withers became a most respected figure in the art world in Victoria, both as a teacher and for his extensive oeuvre.

Walter Withers -born Great Britain 1854, arrived Australia 1882, died 1914

oil on canvas

102.0 x 127.4 cm

David Whyte Bequest Fund, 1916

Early Bendigo was known as Sandhurst.

James Edwin Meadows - Great Britain 1828-1887

oil on canvas

On loan from the City of Greater Bendigo, 1994

Edward Hopley, who lived most of his life in Lewes, Sussex, had a relatively successful, mainstream career as a painter specializing in topical genre scenes, fairy paintings, and portraits, but in his day his work tended to receive greater popular approval than critical recognition.

With the passing of time, however, Hopley's images have gained prominence as they have come to be valued as fascinating social documents of an earlier age. Hopley was an artist keenly aware of the prevailing concerns of the nineteenth century, and his narrative paintings provide a potent insight into the Victorian mentality and way of life.

A Primrose from England, which was exhibited at the Royal Academy, London, in 1855, offers a richly layered narrative on the dual theme of immigration and colonization. Hopley was inspired by the reports of an actual event: the transportation, made possible by the invention of the so-called Wardian Case, of a primrose from the home country to Melbourne-to the profound excitement of the colonial populace.

The artist has used this subject as a vehicle for exploring the emotions associated with the emigrant experience. A Primrose from England communicates a strong sense of the nostalgia that emigrants felt for the ways of the old country, at the same time conveying the desire of the new arrivals to assimilate this culture into the colonial environment.

Edward Hopley - Great Britain 1816-1869

oil on canvas

151.0 x 201.0 cm

Gift of Mr and Mrs Leonard Lansell, 1964

Carl Hoff was well known in Germany in the late nineteenth century, as a painter of genre and narrative subjects. He studied at Karlsruhe and Düsseldorf before travelling to France in 1862.

In Paris he was strongly influenced by Ernest Meissonier (1815-1891), one of the most popular narrative painters of the century. Like Meissonier, Hoff specialized in historical pieces based on sixteenth-and seventeenth-century subjects. The Frenchman's influence can clearly be seen in a work such as The Golden Wedding, 1883, with its period setting and close attention ot the details of costumes and surfaces.

The Golden Wedding was the centrepiece of the collection of Mr and Mrs Robert Hill Kinnear and hung on the wall of the drawing room in their home, Brookong House, in the Melbourne suburb of Toorak.

The Kinnears had strong family ties with Germany and commissioned a number of paintings, including The Golden Wedding, directly from German artists. The narrative in Hoff's painting is set in the seventeenth century and, as the title suggests, the scene represented is the golden anniversary of a prosperous couple. Numerous contemporary accounts of the work tell us that the artist included a portrait of Robert Hill Kinnear and his wife among the guests.

Carl Hoff - Germany 1838-1890

oil on canvas

185.9 x 317.4 cm

Purchased 1908

A popular artist of the late nineteenth century, Herbert Schmalz (known as Herbert Carmichael after 1918) generally painted portraits and large scale narrative works, often depicting religious or historical subjects. Too Late, c. 1884-86, is set against the aftermath of the fall of a Roman stronghold to Christianised barbarians.

A young barbarian chieftain returns from battle; he is too late, however, to be welcomed by his betrothed, who lies dead surrounded by mourners. The room is filled with Christian and barbarian symbols.

Death is represented by the irises and by the extinguished flame on one side of the altar, while the promise of eventual reunion is symbolised by the two stars high in the background.

Too Late was shown at the Royal Academy, London, in 1884 and was subsequently included in the Grosvenor Gallery Intercolonial Exhibition which traveled to Melbourne in 1887. The painting, which carries the date 1886, was presumably begun in or around 1884 but was perhaps not completed and signed until two years later.

Herbert Schmalz - Great Britain 1856-1935

oil on canvas

156.4 x 255.0 cm

Purchased 1890

English artist Thomas Kennington studied at both the Royal College of Art in London and the Academie Julian in Paris.

Although he exhibited regularly at the Royal Academy in his early years, Kennington was one of the founding members of the New English Art Club, whose purpose was to provide opportunities to exhibit for artists dissatisfied with the dominance of the Royal Academy.

Homeless, 1890, is one of a series of works in which Kennington depicts the plight of women and children who were impoverished or destitute. Subjects such as these gained popularity during the 1870s and 1880s, partly as a result of the increasing influence of illustrated journals, which regularly commissioned artists to provide images of 'real' life.

Homeless was exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1890, and in Melbourne in the Anglo-Australian Exhibition of 1892. Similar works by Thomas Kennington include Orphans, 1885 (Tate Britain, London), and The Pinch of Poverty, 1889 (Art Gallery of South Australia, Adelaide).

In Homeless, the square-brush technique used by Kennington in painting the wet pavement and the river, and his focus on subtle tonal variations rather than on colour - as in the soft grey light illuminating this scene - were among the characteristics adapted by British artists from French sources at the time.

Thomas Kennington - Great Britain 1856-1916

oil on canvas

170.0 x 152.0 cm

Purchased 1906

Arthur Streeton began his formal training in art when he enrolled in drawing classes at the National Gallery School of Design, Melbourne, in 1882.

In the late 1880s, Streeton was one of a small group of painters who established an artists' camp at semi-rural Heidelberg - the beginnings of the movement that later came to be known as the 'Heidelberg School'.

Working en plein air - painting out of doors, directly from nature, rather than relying on sketches in the studio - Streeton and his companions focused on capturing the true light and character of the Australian landscape. As with many of the artist's Sydney Harbour panels, Manly Beach, 1895, is a spontaneous study of a sun-drenched stretch of Australian coastline. The composition's elevated vantage point allows an expanse of cliffs, beach and water to be included in the view.

Streeton initially applied a warm base layer, over which he blocked in the main features of the landscape, a method of working that served to heighten the richness of the colours added in subsequent layers. His deft, direct brushstrokes summarize forms, leaving the composition open and seemingly transparent, shimmering in light.

Arthur Streeton 1867-1943

oil on plywood

20.5 x 28.0 cm

Gift of Mr Bert Levy, 1900

British and French art audiences of the late nineteenth century appreciated subjects inspired by the nomadic Bedouins, such as those in Thomas Sheard's The Arab Blacksmith, c.1900.

Images like this were seen to be related to a biblical past, as the costumes and lifestyles of the people depicted had not greatly changed since the time of Christ.

Little is known about Thomas Sheard, but it is possible that The Arab Blacksmith was painted at an oasis town in north-central Algeria, perhaps Bou Saâda.

The blacksmith is shown repairing an item while two clients look on; one man lights a cigarette with an ember held in the blacksmith's pincers. Contemporary viewers would presumably have been drawn into making a comparison between the technologies being utilized in this scene, and the methods of production employed in the West.

Thomas Sheard - Great Britain 1866-1921

oil on canvas

115.0 x 163.0 cm

Purchased 1903

The Meissen Porcelain Factory, located near Dresden in Germany, was founded by Frederick Augustus I, Elector of Saxony, in 1710 and set a standard for porcelain production that factories throughout Europe would seek to emulate.

This vase, dating from c.1840, was initially owned by Tsar Alexander III of Russia, who in 1890 presented it, in exchange for a collection of rare plant specimens, to Baron Ferdinand von Mueller (1825-1896), the renowned botanist and the first director of the Royal Botanic Gardens in Melbourne.

In 1896, at an auction after the death of Baron von Mueller, Bendigo artist and teacher Arthur T. Woodward acquired the vase, later loaning it to Bendigo Art Gallery for the citizens of the area to enjoy. The Gallery purchased the vase from Woodward in 1926, after it had been on permanent display for many years.

The piece has been cast in three sections: base, vase and cover. The intricate details of the hand-formed flowers, and the cupids (on the reverse), would have made the creation of this work a slow process, with additions being required at several different stages of the firing process. Aspects of the eighteenth-century rococo style, which was resurrected in the 1830s, are apparent in the gilded scrolls and the lively lines of decoration.

Meissen Porcelain Factory - Meissen, Germany est. 1710

porcelain

86.4 x 44.0 cm (diameter)

Purchased 1926

Born in St Kilda, Melbourne, in 1864, the young Rupert Bunny explored the fields of civil engineering and acting, but ultimately enrolled at the National Gallery School of Design. He later studied painting in London and in Paris, where he would live until 1933.

As was the case for many artists of his generation, his years abroad were to have a significant impact on his work. In 1901, Bunny began to move away from large, idealized subjects drawn from the Bible and classical mythology, turning his focus to landscapes, portraiture, and paintings of unidentified women, often posed languidly in idyllic settings. He excelled in expressing femininity in all its charm and elegant beauty, and this new direction in his work brought him considerable public acclaim.

The Sun Bath, c.1913, was executed at the height of Bunny's popularity. The scene depicted in this large-scale painting evokes the popular theme of women and nature in a harmonious union.

The composition also demonstrates the artist's interest in two significant trends occurring in European art at the time: Orientalism (suggested by the inclusion of a decorative Asian screen) and Impressionism (evident, in particular, in the treatment of the landscape to the left of the figures). Bunny has utilized a strong natural light to illuminate the pale bodies of the women.

Rupert Bunny 1864-1947

oil on canvas

181.2 x 210.7 cm

Purchased 1949

Internationally renowned Australian artist Robert Jacks lives and works in central Victoria.

Jacks's work can be understood in relation to the development of abstraction during the 1960s and 1970s in Australia, a period that also witnessed the abstractionist investigations of artists such as David Aspden, Janet Dawson, Robert Hunter and John Firth-Smith. Despite frequent revolutions in public taste and ideology, Jacks's dedication to exploring the possibilities of abstraction has continued.

Ringing in the Changes, 1989, and other works from the artist's series of 'wedge' paintings, draw on Jacks's experiences while living in Cornwall, where he lectured at the Cornwall School of Art. During this period, he often watched the sailing boats that skimmed the waters of the Atlantic, an experience evoked by Ringing in the Changes.

The blue of the sky in this work has a startling clarity, heightened by the use of contrasting dark reds. The sails, if indeed they can be called that, move in opposite directions, catching different winds as it were, and so - metaphorically - signalling that there are 'changes in the wind'.

Robert Jacks - born 1943

oil on linen

168.0 x 251.0 cm

Gift of the Bank of Melbourne, 1997

In this painting, British-born Australian painter, John Wolseley examines Wallace's Line, named after Alfred Russel Wallace, who pioneered work in animal geography, and marked the channel between Bali and Lombok as a divide between two great zoogeographic regions, the Oriental and Australian.

John Wolseley - born Great Britain 1938, arrived Australia 1976

watercolour, graphite

R.H.S. Abbott Bequest Fund, 2001

Emily Floyd - Australia 1972

wood, silver, steel, acrylic and enamel paint

R.H.S. Abbott Bequest Fund, 2005

Fiona Hall is an internationally regarded artist. She has exhibited widely in Australia and overseas and is represented in major museum collections throughout this country.

Initially trained and recognized as a photographer, Hall began to work with sculpture in the 1980s. Her body of sculptural work is characterized by the use of varied materials such as soap, cardboard boxes, sardine tins, Coca-Cola cans, beading and knitting. Her practice has also included installations and sculptural garden design.

Hall was one of twenty-four artists commissioned to make works documenting the new Parliament House in Canberra in 1988. For the tenth anniversary of the opening of Parliament House, Hall was invited to create a work for the exhibition Archives and Everyday, which focused on the important archival and historical objects and records held in Canberra.

The work Hall made for the exhibition was Incontinent, a metaphorical, layered piece focusing on the Commission of Assent signed by Queen Victoria, on her personal writing table in Windsor Castle, on 9 July 1900. This document allowed Australia its own constitution and acknowledged the new nation as a federation of states.

The desk, inkwell and pen used by Queen Victoria as she put her signature to the Commission of Assent are today part of Australia's national collections. Hall's interpretation plays on the notion of the decline of the British Empire, the Queen and the Victorian era.

Fiona Hall - born 1953

Laminex, metal, wood,

PVC, rubber, glass

140.0 x 163.0 x 103.0 cm (irreg. variable)

R.H.S. Abbott Bequest Fund, 1999

Tracey Moffatt - Australia 1960

photo silkscreen

R.H.S Abbott Bequest Fund, 2001

Tracey Moffatt - Australia 1960

photo silkscreen

R.H.S. Abbott Bequest Fund, 2001

Jan Nelson is a Melbourne artist who moves between painting, photography, video, sculpture and installation. The Walking in Tall Grass series revolved around photographic images of youth.

Jan Nelson - Australia 1955

Enamel on linen, fibreglass, oil paint, rock

R.H.S. Abbott Bequest Fund, 2004

Jan Nelson - Australia 1955

Enamel on linen, fibreglass, oil paint, rock

R.H.S. Abbott Bequest Fund, 2004

Donna Bailey lives in Kangaroo Flat, near Bendigo in regional Victoria. She often uses her own and friend's children as subjects for her strong photographic images.

Donna Bailey - Australia 1963

Type C photograph

R.H.S. Abbott Bequest Fund, 2004