Queensland Art Gallery Presscuttings Book 8 : Pressclippings, 1977-1981

1..,1ble to, the State ., uew Gallery now (J1 nplction in n11tJ ,11~ cnlargP.d and a Htlcrtakon 111 tom 111g, ,esea,ch and rv. c-.tahhshcd 1n 11<1 by tho D1H.. --ctor I Arl GalleryAct ol >v tht! Queensland " posiltons listed duly by 1st Juno, Urosbane by 26th R ns,ble to the 01ret · Curatorial lor the he Queensland Art n•is, sculpture and v.,tion Section also or•Works on Paper •111iy with 111,s pos1· vuloplng a prngram IOrlhCS for the COO· (;,,llery's Collection: 1:nrds, tor advice on )l)Oinlmenl ol stall: 11>llc as appropriate 1~• trainingol stall I 1c tertiary quahhca· 1cnce, Cons~ vah<>O, 11,es in lone Arts and . Proven e,pe,ience ,toration ol works of knowledge of VilflOUS .,n,lshes and other f production of cera• nservatlon and res• and various fabrics, 11tlal. SOIPAPEI ON PAl'llt will be rough the Assist.ant ·ervation and rostora• •s Collection of works e.veloping a program pr1orities; tor mainte• ir advice on purchase nt of staft; conserva• c public as appropri• 11,ctude the training of sonnet. iale tertiary qualilica• c1enco, Conservation, udies in Fine Arts and ,e. Proven tlxperience Sloration of works on utailed knowledge of , atments and the var• 1.c. watcrcolors, dray.· ,tial. AND DUW• AND DIIAWINU will ihrough the Assistant ullectlon ol prints and l Oirectoi - Curatonal lopmenl ol this Callee• conservation. Ho/She h1L>1tt00S, grle lectuJOS, tlectoon and w1th1n write mat()r catalogues . 11 Degree or Diploma 0 ; ol study in printmak· "' an /Iris Degree with a nl and m1tensivo pracll· 1•r.hnlquos. ot and ablhty in curato• 11 1-( to a major art callee• ito expcflencc 1n a,ts c of art history parhr.u• ~nowledge of /lustraltan e 111 art history, an ah1hty n ,n prints and dr~wm~s µr,nts ilnd draw,n~s· c1th· h specialists 1n particular 1•ritl Gallery operation 11 11ng of prints and draw• ,uttl G:1llery admintstra• ., 1, w,11 he appointed at rcnct 11 ,g on , 1 uaht1cations .......... $U,7MI-U,t71 6 ,.•......$1 I ,40t-$ U,I $16J2H11,121 .,· ..·.1;·5;~,.1,;ce w1lh lravol , reference num()j!r 142 V , ulars of name, address. 1th, ma,i1al status. <1uah• ,ciit employment ;md tur– w, and the names of two OLD Spindly Legs has company. The Art Gal– lery of NSW is not the only Australian public gallery that has been pur– suing a bent for eight– eenth-century English por• traits. The Queensland Art Gallery has plunged into the marliet and purchased a portrait of Major-General Alexander Mur– ray MacGregor as a Young Man by Sir Henry Raebum. , The purchase surely will be an immensely popular one. The unarrected ensign Mac– Gregor makes NSW's latest purchase, James, Sewnth Earl of Lauerdale, alias 'Spindly Legs,' by Sir Joshua Reynolds look a bit of a fop. · There is an immense differ– ence in importance between Reynolds and Raeburn but there WU aJso a big difference in prit'e between the two por– traits. NSW paid £stg55,000 fllf' its Reynolds at Oiristie'1,: London, in 1976. The Raebum, WU boqht at the Fine An Society, Bond Street for £$1&14,000 (SA22,7l6~ The Queensland 1allery'1 sudden interat in eiafiteenth• century British portraits - 'Pretty Boy' MIC.'Grqor ii not its only buy - ii a reminder ol the pllery'1 lc,r,g-held, and par– tially justiried, doncl Street pre– tensions. It, after all, is the only public collection in Australia with a Picasso paintina and the pi-. lery's eao hu )lst been liven a mqnif'K.'ellt boost by I request rrom the Museum ol Modern An, New Yon, to borrow the paintina, now valued at SA I million, for a forthcoming Pi• C1S10 exhibition. This won WU purchased in the late 19505 from the collec– tion ol Queensland pastoralist Major Harold de Vahl Rubin at Sotheby's. London press com• ments at the time queried if there was a wool boom in Australia. As president of the trustees of the Queensland gallery, the late Sir Leon Trout, always enjoyed calling in on Bond Street galleries and familiarising dealers with its interest in non– Australian art. Arter meeting the self-impor• tant Sir Leon, the Bond Street dealers were not impressed to Review F'eb l ~th, 79 QUEENSLAND ART GALLERY 61h :.0E1,n£r,.r;.,i,.Gs o,ti'ari,W"· c roslnq 28 Fsbrmu y . "LION RUGS FROM FARS" Opening 2B February: Ao Eahibu,on of trad11ional wo\/en rugs from tht nomadic tnbes of the f.,• di1t1ict of Iran. 11 TREASURES OF THE COLLECTIONH AUSTRALIAN PAINTING - c/01ing 11 M•rch. FILMS: Art Mm a,e screened on the 1Rt 1nd 3rd ~',gn~.~~~rn ~~;hG~,~~~ ;ie!~el?e. p.in. • nd HOURS: Monday• aturday 10 1,m.-S p,m. Sund1v 2 .rn - Making the NSWG~l/ery's Reynolds look a bit ofa fop, this unaffected young ensign painted by Sir Henry Raeburn (1758-1823) became II M11jor•Gen– er11I in the 90th Regiment which later formed part of the Cameronians. The price paid for this 89cm by 27cm oil on canvas, however, 'is indicative of the hard times Scottish lairds have fallen upon. Saleroom has a certain quality of fresh– ness and spontaneity, although how far this derives simply from the failure: of Raebum's studio to block in the back– ground is not easily d1:ftned. Queensland captures a 'major' Raehurn learn how much the gallery in• tended to spend. If, in their heavy dress, the eighteenth century portraits seem a little unsuited to Queensland, and Raebum a far distance from Picasso, at least 1he gallery has not fallen into the rut of so many Australian public galleries when buying "intematiorlll.'' of buying into fashion. fl.aeburn's Scottish lairds have hardly ever been so down on their luck. When Duveen was estab– lishing an "instant ancestor" market for American million• airc:s in the 1920s, the Na1ional Gallery of Victoria allowed a sim• 1 ar sum, £14,000 exactly, for its London advisers to come up with a Racbum. This was no1 a generous allowance, for Duveen paid £50,000 for Raebum's portrait of McNab, famous as a whisky advertisement. Ensign MacGregor is refreshingly unlike a whisky ad• venisement, although the pallid complexion suggesls that he has not been eating his Scotts Porridge Oats either. Racbum had such a plain lot of sitters - and being a Scot he tended to pain1 them no less so - that it is a relief to find one so dashing and so colourful. Robert Haines, consultant to David Jones' An Gallery, in– spected the painting for the Queensland gallery before pur– chase and noted a particularly valuable quality for British painting of 1he period, a lack or bituminous build•up. The bitu– minous paint mixtures favoured by portra it painters of the period have eaten away many a masterpiece. The Queensland Art Gallery has been shopping around in Bond Street for companions for Ensign MacGregor and came up with a Racbum ponrail of a woman many times his age, Lady Campbell , purchased from P and D Colnaghi, for £stg3,000 (SA • ,904). This loosely painted portrait (73 by 60.2 cm) of a woman in a mob cap in her late fifties, re• quires a second viewing before i a rcciatcd full . It From Agnew's, the gallery has also purchased the work of another artist from the heather who found fame rnd fortune south of the Scottish border, Allan Ramsey. His Portrait of William Foster (125.7 by 95.6 cm) was secured for £stg5,IOO ($A8,995}. The quality of the fourth pur– chase is probably evident in the price paid, the acquisition, no doubt like the second Raebum and the Ramsay, made to pro– vide Ensign MacGregor wi1h an entourage. Whereas Spindly Legs cost NSW £slg5S,OOO, Portrait ol Aneas Mackay ol Ravenshead House (90 by 70 cm) by the same master was purchased by Queensland at Sotheby's, Lon– don, for a mere £stg3,8SO. The Art Gallery of NSW was left a sum of money to COYer its purchase of an eight• ecnth century portrait (The Farnsworth Bequest). The Queensland pllcty is pursuing them on its own initiati\'e, u it were, seizing on low prices to aive that State a bit ol ancestry Only the emphuil on Scottish lairdry seems peculiar - one mlaht have expected it of South Australia, with its strong Cale– donia Society, or of New l.ea – land perhaps.