Melbourne.- The Ian Potter Centre at National Gallery of Victoria is hosting “Victorian Gold” an online exhibition of art from the Australian gold rush. Many of these works are on paper and easily damaged if put on display, by exhibiting them onine, they can be enjoyed by everyone. In the early 1850s, the newly-formed colony of Victoria was gripped by gold fever. Victoria’s first official discovery of payable gold was made in June 1851 by James Esmond at Clunes. This was followed in July by a discovery by Louis John Michel and his party at Anderson’s Creek, Warrandyte.The announcement of these discoveries sparked the Victorian gold rush of the 1850s and was to transform the colony from a small pastoral settlement into the commercial and cultural centre of Australia.
In the first months of the rush, rich gold-fields were opened at Mount Alexander, Buninyong and Ballarat, Sandhurst, Beechworth and Yackandandah. Thousands of diggers flocked to these fields, following each new rush as it was announced. Initially they came from within Victoria and surrounding colonies, but as the news of the Victorian gold-fields spread, diggers arrived from Britain, Europe and America, all with the intention of making their fortunes. By the end of the gold rush decade, the population of Victoria had reached over 500,000 – a dramatic increase from 80,000 in 1851 – and over 25 million ounces of gold had been extracted from the Victorian fields, the equivalent of eleven billion dollars today. Over 150 years after the first official discoveries, Victorian Gold: The gold rush and its impact on cultural life celebrates this significant period in Victoria’s history. Through three themes – Life on the gold-fields, Significant arrivals and A city’s progress: Melbourne 1851–61 – the exhibition presents the work of artists of the gold-fields, surveys the contributions of these artists to the development of art in Victoria, and explores the growth of the City of Melbourne during the gold rush decade.
The lure of wealth drew hundreds of thousands of diggers to the gold-fields of Victoria in the early 1850s. Many were tempted by stories of riches that could literally be picked up from the ground, or by reports of the ostentatious behaviour of those who had struck it rich. Optimistic diggers abandoned their families, professions and countries for the gold-fields and the prospect of a new life. Few sectors of the community were immune to the lure of gold. Among those who travelled to the Victorian gold-fields were professionally trained artists such as William Strutt, ST Gill, Eugène von Guérard, Edward Roper, Cuthbert Clarke and George Rowe. While each of these artists travelled to the fields to dig for gold, many also utilised their artistic skills to record aspects of life on the diggings. The gold-fields and their inhabitants provided a wealth of subject matter for these artists: from the hazardous journey to the fields, to the daily activities of the miner, and the busy social and commercial life of the gold settlements. Few aspects of life went unrecorded.
The works produced during this time provide an invaluable record of Victoria’s gold rush period, and the gold-fields and their inhabitants provided a wealth of subject matter for artists. Subjects were as diverse as the characters on the fields. They included the labour-intensive work of diggers, their recreational activities and the daily operations of the gold-fields settlements. Law and order on the fields was also featured; from depictions of the Commissioner’s Camp, and the inspection of diggers’ licences to conflicts which arose from the enforcement of laws. Themes beyond the gold-fields included the transportation of gold to the cities by mounted escorts as well as bushranging activities. Few aspects of life during the gold rush went unrecorded. During the gold rush decade, Victoria received unprecedented numbers of educated and professional immigrants, able to afford unassisted passage to Australia and eager to participate in life on the diggings. Among these new arrivals were trained artists, who, like many others, hoped to defer their careers and make their fortunes on the gold-fields of Victoria. These artists soon discovered that the lifestyle of the digger was not as easy, or as prosperous, as they had been led to believe. Lack of success on the gold-fields left many with little option but to return to Melbourne to seek work in their former professions – a task which was made more difficult by the concentration of trained artists who had settled in the city and the limited art market that existed in the mid-1850s.
Significant arrivals presents the work of a small number of artists who travelled to the gold-fields of Victoria in the early 1850s and who, in various ways, were to contribute to the cultural life of the colony. Through the work of William Strutt, ST Gill, George Rowe, Eugène von Guérard and Nicholas Chevalier, Significant arrivals explores artistic themes beyond the gold-fields and the individual contributions of these artists to the development of art in Victoria. The City of Melbourne experienced great change and growth during Victoria’s gold rush decade. The wealth generated by the Victorian gold-fields and the large number of immigrants attracted to these fields contributed to the growth of Melbourne from pastoral settlement to Australia’s leading city by the mid-1850s. Buildings, roads and businesses were not all that developed in Melbourne during the gold rush: the cultural life of the city also expanded considerably. One of the most significant changes that occurred in Melbourne during this time was the increase in the number of professional artists practising in the city. This increase can, in part, be attributed to the return of many of the gold-fields artists to Melbourne after the first frenzied months of the gold rush.
By the mid-1850s, Melbourne could boast the presence of several professional artists, including Nicholas Chevalier, Eugène von Guérard, Ludwig Becker, Charles Summers, Thomas Clark and Henry Burn. While such a concentration of skilled artists may have placed a strain on a limited art market, it ensured that Melbourne was a culturally dynamic city in which art was created, exhibited, reviewed and discussed. Within years, artistic societies and cultural institutions emerged and contributed to the further cultural growth of the city. The city’s progress was recorded by many of the artists who resided in Melbourne and who contributed to its strengthening cultural status.
The National Gallery of Victoria (NGV) is an art gallery and museum in Melbourne, Australia. Founded in 1861, it is the oldest and the largest public art gallery in Australia. The main gallery is located in St Kilda Road, in the heart of the Melbourne Arts Precinct of Southbank, with a branch gallery at Federation Square. The St Kilda Road Gallery, designed by Sir Roy Grounds, opened in 1968 and was refubished and extended by Mario Bellini in 2003. In December 2003, the Ian Potter Centre at the NGV Australia at Federation Square, designed by LAB Architecture Studio opened to host the NGV’s collection of Australian art. At the time that the gallery opened, Victoria was an independent colony for just ten years, but in the wake of the Victorian gold rush, it was easily the richest part of Australia, and Melbourne the largest city. Generous gifts from wealthy citizens, notably industrialist Alfred Felton, made it possible for the National Gallery to start purchasing large collections of overseas works from both old and modern masters. It currently holds over 65,000 works of art.
The Ian Potter Centre at the NGV Australia is the world’s first major gallery dedicated exclusively to Australian art. It is a spectacular showcase comprising over 20 galleries housed within a landmark architectural complex. NGV Australia presents the history of Australian art from the Colonial period and the Heidelberg School through to contemporary art, and includes photography, prints and drawings, fashion and textiles, decorative arts, and a suite of galleries dedicated to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander art. With special exhibitions and educational programs and new perspectives of the city through its glass matrix, NGV Australia is more than a great place to view art, a completely fresh approach that encourages people from all walks of life to enjoy the world of art. Visit the museum’s website at … http://www.ngv.vic.gov.au