History

In August 1946, the Maldon Shire Council asked the National Gallery of Victoria to loan a selection of paintings to be exhibited at the Athenaeum. The Council was seeking to take part in a scheme by the Gallery’s director, Daryl Lindsay, to lend out to regional centres some of the many works of art unable to be displayed at its Swanston Street gallery. Daryl Lindsay agreed to lend a selection of paintings subject to the Council paying to insure them. 

At took over twelve months for details of the loan to be arranged and for the Athenaeum to prepare a suitable place to hang them. There were concerns about security at the Athenaeum. In particular there was no caretaker to prevent children from touching and damaging the valuable paintings. For this reason, new picture rails were installed so that they could be hung out of reach.

Finally in October 1947, the National Gallery released a list of seven works valued at over £1,200 that it proposed to loan. The two most valuable paintings were Helen and Jane by Philip Connard, a portrait of the artist’s young daughters, and Reverie, a nude by New Zealand-born Charles Wheeler.

When the paintings were eventually hung at the Athenaeum in February 1948, there was no official opening. The Tarrangower Times, however, made a special appeal for everyone using the buildings for meetings to ensure that all windows and doors were secured before they went home. Later in May the Melbourne painter and critic, Arnold Shore, presented a lecture on the pictures on loan.

The first group of National Gallery paintings remained on display until November 1949. They were then returned and were replaced by another seven works. The most important of the new paintings was The Black Hat (also known as Jessica) by Sir John Longstaff. The exchange of old paintings for new ones to be exhibited at the Athenaeum continued for the next decade, with the paintings remaining on display for varying lengths of time. Among the works exhibited during this time were Coleraine and a Waterpool by Louis Buvelot, Waratah by Margaret Preston, Hill End Ruins by Margaret Olley and Girl at a Window by Rupert Bunny.

The National Gallery paintings were not the only art works to be displayed at the Athenaeum at this time. In October 1948, the Australian Travelling Art Exhibition visited Maldon as part of a tour organized by a young Melbourne ex-serviceman artist Gerard Doube and his wife Isobel. Travelling for three months in a converted second-hand van, the pair took paintings by Australian artists – including Tom Roberts, Rupert Bunny and Donald Friend – to Victorian country centres. Their aim was to promote a deeper appreciation of Australian art, and provide an opportunity for the general public to purchase original works of art.

Gerard and Isobel Doube were accompanied by the war photographer Cliff Bottomley, who is best known for his iconic image of Sir Douglas Macarthur wading ashore on his return to the Philippines. While in Maldon, Bottomley took a series of photos of the exhibition and the town. These photos were used in overseas publications by the Commonwealth Department of Information.

Tony Kane 2026

A version of this vignette was originally published as ‘A Blast from the Past’ in The Tarrangower Times on 19 May 2017.

References

Correspondence held in the Maldon Athenaeum Archive Collection. For use within the library only.

Newspapers held at the Maldon Museum and Archives:

The Tarrangower Times, 6 August 1946.
The Tarrangower Times, 15 October 1946.
The Tarrangower Times, 7 October 1947.
The Tarrangower Times, 3 February 1948.
The Tarrangower Times, 2 March 1948.
The Tarrangower Times, 27 April 1948.
The Tarrangower Times, 19 October 1948.
The Tarrangower Times, 26 October 1948.
The Tarrangower Times, 9 November 1949.

National Library of Australia Digitised Newspapers − trove.nla.gov.au.

Smith’s Weekly (Sydney, NSW). January 8 1949.