Joseph Brown Collection
Encyclopedia
The Joseph Brown Collection comprises works of art donated to the National Gallery of Victoria
in 2004 by the collector and art dealer Joseph Brown
. The collection is displayed in the Ian Potter Centre
, part of the NGV. More than 150 works are on display at the centre.
The collection comprises varied Australian art from different periods, including portraits painted by many well-known artists. The display gives a history of Australian art. It includes engravings from the first days of the colony and early European looking landscapes of Australia, and Heidelberg
era paintings from the late 19th century, and post impressionist works of the early 20th century. The Melbourne
'Angry Penguins
' school of the 1940s is represented, as are colour field and abstract painting. Many modern
and post-modern Australian painters of the later 20th century are also on display. A few works by Australian Aboriginal artists are also included.
National Gallery of Victoria
The National Gallery of Victoria is an art gallery and museum in Melbourne, Australia. Founded in 1861, it is the oldest and the largest public art gallery in Australia. Since December 2003, NGV has operated across two sites...
in 2004 by the collector and art dealer Joseph Brown
Joseph Brown (artist)
Joseph Brown, AO, OBE was an Australian artist and art collector.Brown was born in Poland in 1918 and migrated to Australia in 1933 at the age of fifteen, settling in Melbourne. He trained initially as an artist but after returning from war service in 1945 became increasingly involved in the...
. The collection is displayed in the Ian Potter Centre
Ian Potter Centre
The Ian Potter Centre houses the Australian part of the art collection of the National Gallery of Victoria , and is located at Federation Square in Melbourne, Australia...
, part of the NGV. More than 150 works are on display at the centre.
The collection comprises varied Australian art from different periods, including portraits painted by many well-known artists. The display gives a history of Australian art. It includes engravings from the first days of the colony and early European looking landscapes of Australia, and Heidelberg
Heidelberg
-Early history:Between 600,000 and 200,000 years ago, "Heidelberg Man" died at nearby Mauer. His jaw bone was discovered in 1907; with scientific dating, his remains were determined to be the earliest evidence of human life in Europe. In the 5th century BC, a Celtic fortress of refuge and place of...
era paintings from the late 19th century, and post impressionist works of the early 20th century. The Melbourne
Melbourne
Melbourne is the capital and most populous city in the state of Victoria, and the second most populous city in Australia. The Melbourne City Centre is the hub of the greater metropolitan area and the Census statistical division—of which "Melbourne" is the common name. As of June 2009, the greater...
'Angry Penguins
Angry Penguins
Angry Penguins was an Australian literary and artistic avant-garde movement of the 1940s. The movement was stimulated by a modernist magazine of the same name published by the surrealist poet Max Harris, who founded the magazine in 1940, at the age of 18....
' school of the 1940s is represented, as are colour field and abstract painting. Many modern
Modernism
Modernism, in its broadest definition, is modern thought, character, or practice. More specifically, the term describes the modernist movement, its set of cultural tendencies and array of associated cultural movements, originally arising from wide-scale and far-reaching changes to Western society...
and post-modern Australian painters of the later 20th century are also on display. A few works by Australian Aboriginal artists are also included.
Artists included
The collection includes the following artists:The Australian - Joseph Brown: Mentor and collector who made a difference- Wes WaltersWes WaltersWes Walters, Australian artist who won the Archibald Prize.Born Mildura, Victoria, 1928. He was a realist portrait painter and abstract artist. He painted nearly 200 portraits of leading Australians, especially academics, businessmen, artists, and musicians. Awarded Minnie Crouch Prize in 1953 and...
- Eugene von GuerardEugene von GuerardJohann Joseph Eugene von GuérardHis first name is variously spelled "Eugen", "Eugene", "Eugène", one source mentions "Jean" ; his surname is spelled "Guerard" or "Guérard". The most frequent combination is that used by the National Gallery of Australia: "Eugene von Guérard"...
- Yalla-Y-Poora - Tom RobertsTom RobertsThomas William Roberts , usually known simply as Tom, was a prominent Australian artist and a key member of the Heidelberg School.-Life:...
- Frederick McCubbinFrederick McCubbinFrederick McCubbin was an Australian painter who was prominent in the Heidelberg School, one of the more important periods in Australia's visual arts history....
- Autumn Memories - E. M. Boyd
- E. Phillips FoxE. Phillips Fox- Education :Fox was born on 12 March 1865 to Alexander Fox and Rosetta Phillips at 12 Victoria Parade in Fitzroy, Melbourne, into a legal family whose firm, DLA Phillips Fox, still exists. He studied art at the National Gallery School in Melbourne from 1878 until 1886 under G. F...
- Roger KempRoger KempFrancis Roderick Kemp OBE , known as Roger, was one of Australia's foremost practitioners of transcendental abstraction...
- John OlsenJohn Olsen (artist)John Henry Olsen, AO, OBE is an Australian artist. Olsen's primary subject of work is landscape.-Biography:John Olsen was born in Newcastle on 21 January 1928 and moved to Bondi Beach with his family in 1935, which began his lifelong fascination with Sydney Harbour...
- Margaret PrestonMargaret PrestonMargaret Preston was a well-known Australian artist. She was highly influential during the 1920s to 1940s for her modernist works as a painter and printmaker and for introducing Aboriginal motifs into contemporary art.-Early life:...
- John PercevalJohn PercevalJohn de Burgh Perceval AO was a well-known Australian artist. Perceval was the last surviving member of a group known as the Angry Penguins who redefined Australian art in the 1940s...
- Floating Dock and Tugboats - John BrackJohn BrackJohn Brack was an Australian painter, and a member of the Antipodeans group.-Life:...
- Nude With Dressing Gown - Peter BoothPeter BoothPeter Booth is an Australian figurative and a surrealist painter, and one of the key late-20th century Australian artists. His work is characterised by an intense emotional power of often dark narratives, and esoteric symbolism.-Life:Born the son of a steelworker, the industrial surrounds of...
- Grace Cossington SmithGrace Cossington SmithGrace Cossington Smith AO OBE was an Australian artist and pioneer of modernist painting in Australia and was instrumental in introducing Post-Impressionism to her home country...
- Peter Purves SmithPeter Purves SmithPeter Purves Smith , born Charles Roderick Purves Smith, was an Australian painter. Born in Melbourne, Purves Smith studied at the Grosvenor School of Modern Art in London and under progressive art teacher George Bell in Melbourne.In his student years, Purves Smith emerged as a uniquely confident...
- Arthur BoydArthur BoydArthur Merric Bloomfield Boyd, AC, OBE was one of the leading Australian painters of the late 20th Century. A member of the prominent Boyd artistic dynasty in Australia, his relatives included painters, sculptors, architects or other arts professionals. His sister Mary Boyd married John Perceval,...
- Bride and Groom by the Creek - John Peter RussellJohn Peter RussellJohn Peter Russell was an Australian impressionist painter.-Life and work:John Peter Russell was born at the Sydney suburb of Darlinghurst, the eldest of four children of John Russell, a Scottish engineer, his wife Charlotte Elizabeth, née Nicholl, from London. J. P. Russell was a nephew of Sir...
- Almond Tree and Blossom and Rough Seas - Brett WhiteleyBrett WhiteleyBrett Whiteley, AO was an Australian artist. He is represented in the collections of all the large Australian galleries, and was twice winner of the Archibald Prize...
- Fred WilliamsFred WilliamsFrederick Ronald Williams OBE was an Australian painter and printmaker. He was one of Australia’s most important artists, and one of the twentieth century’s major painters of the landscape...
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