Vew from the chair: Speeches of Richard WL Austin

nicely into our newly developed acquisitions policy, a policy which gives emphasis to works of the _twentieth century, which transcend national boundaries, and which are of outstanding merit in their own right. This painting by Soutine not only fulfils all these criteria, but also has the added attraction of being by an artist who is not represented in any other public collection in this country. In other words, this is a first for Queensland and, indeed, for Australia. Iwill say no more about the painting itself.-the Premier will do that in his usual elegant fashion. But before asking him to address us, I want to say a few words in favour of portraiture as an art form. Many critics today denigrate portrait painting and any effort to encourage it. They are only too ready to revile the Archibald Prize and some artists do likewise and enter the competition tongue in cheek, prepared, however, to accept happily the $20 000 prize should it fall to their lot. I am not talking about the dull, photographic, boardroom portrait, but about the portrait that delineates not only the sitter's physical features, but also his or her soul as well. This is not an easy goal to achieve and that, perhaps, is why it is such an unpopular one. In my support for portrait painting I have at least one famous ally, Dr Samuel Johnson, who had something intelligent and quotable to say about almost every subject. To his biographer, Boswell, on the occasion of a Gallery tour, he once said in no uncertain terms: 'Sir, I would rather see a portrait of a dog that I know than all the allegorical pictures you can show me in the whole world'. It would be hard to put it better than that. And now I have much pleasure in asking the Premier to address us and to unveil the Soutine portrait. 5 Speech at the presentation by Louis Vuitton Australia of Tlte de femme 1962 by Pablo Picasso, 20July 1993 It is a very great pleasure indeed for me to receive, on behalf of the Trustees of the Gallery, this splendid example of the generosity of Louis Vuitton Australia-a pleasure made even greater by the dinner that is accompanying the handing over of the work itself.-Picasso's lete de femme (head of a woman), purchased at Christie's in New York with funds donated by the Company. This work is one of the few linocuts by Picasso in an Australian public collection. As such it represents a very important addition to the Queensland Art Gallery's small but growing collection of 'Picassos', headed, of course, by the painting La Belle Hollandaise, now conservatively valued at some thirty million dollars. This is followed by the drypoint Les Saltimbanques; the pencil and watercolour study Tete d'homme (head of a man); the large etching Minotaure, buveur et femmes from the Minotaur series of 1933; the watercolour of the woman with a parasol on a beach, Femme au parasol couchee sur la plage; and, finally, Large pitcher with two faces 1951. These six works range in time from 1905 to 195 I. 53