Vew from the chair: Speeches of Richard WL Austin

I fear I have not done full justice to a varied and brilliant career, but I hope I have said enough to suggest to you that we could not have found a more appropriate person to open this great exhibition than the Hon. Edward Gough Whidam, Companion of the Order of Australia and Queen's Counsel. I I Speech on the occasion of the dinner following the opening of 'Toulouse-Lautrec: Prints and Posters from the Bibliotheque Nationale, Paris', 20 August 1991 I think you will agree that we have had enough speeches for one evening. You must therefore forgive me for being on my feet again, but I simply want to welcome all of you, on behalf of the Trustees of the Gallery, most warmly to this dinner which is being held so that we can, in a small way, express our appreciation to the exhibition's sponsors and supporters and, indeed, to all those others who have helped to make tonight's opening such a success. I particularly want to welcome the representatives of the Bibliotheque Nationale for, without the generosity of that great institution, there would be no exhibition to enjoy. Oscar Wilde once said that the only thing that distinguished civilisation from barbarism was the constant repetition of the words 'thank you', and the Gallery is concerned to maintain its place among the ranks of the civilised. Julia King has very kindly spoken on behalf of the sponsors, and her presence here this evening reminds me that the civilised traveller, in addition to keeping Oscar Wilde's advice in mind, will certainly be equipped with a full set of Louis Vuitton luggage and accessories. Our civilised traveller will also have in one pocket aJapan Airlines ticket to Paris via Tokyo where he will pay his respects to the six Japanese supporters of the Exhibitions Development Fund-Idemitsu, Nomura, Nikko, Meiji, Japan Travel Bureau, and Hitachi. In another pocket our traveller will have an Australian Airlines ticket to Melbourne for the subsidiary-I hope James Mollison will forgive me-of this exhibition opening there at the National Gallery of Victoria. Both tickets, of course, will have been purchased from Myer, and he or she will carry under the arm a carefully folded copy of the Courier-Mail. Our civilised traveller will have a booking at the Hilton Hotel in all three cities and, after returning home, will dash to the television to turn on Channel I O to find out what has really been happening in the world and at Eagle Farm; or, if living in the far north, QTV to listen to the Cairns Races. A bottle of Domaine Chandon will be within easy reach. If all these things happen, and I have no doubt they will, our sponsors should be as happy for providing sponsorship as the Gallery is for receiving it. Those of you who follow racing will know that the main race at the Toulouse– Lautrec meeting at Eagle Farm last Saturday, the Queensland Art Gallery Welter, was, by a happy coincidence, won by a horse called Whale of a Knight. The horse is not present this evening, but we do have a whale of a knight here, namely 74