Collection Online
The weald of Kent
Medium
oil on canvas
Measurements
123.0 × 183.8 cm
Inscription
inscribed in brown paint l.c.: Sam Bough / 1857
inscribed in pen and brown ink on paper label on reverse u.c.: The Weald of Kent. / Sam Bough ARSA
inscribed in pen and brown ink on paper label on reverse u.c.: 6344 / Captn (n underlined) Gourlay / Hobart Town / New South Wales
Accession Number
p.303.3-1
Department
International Painting
Credit Line
National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne
Purchased, 1871
This digital record has been made available on NGV Collection Online through the generous support of Digitisation Champion Ms Carol Grigor through Metal Manufactures Limited
Gallery location
Not on display
Subjects (general)
Human Figures Landscapes
Subjects (specific)
domestic sheep (species) horse (species) Kent (county) United Kingdom (nation) wagons (cargo vehicles) Weald, The (general region) windmills
Provenance
Exhibited Royal Scottish Academy, Edinburgh, 1858, no. 514, lent by the Association for the Promotion of the Fine Arts in Scotland; Exhibition of Scottish Art Union Pictures, rooms of Mr Walesby, no. 5 Waterloo Place, London, June 1858; Glasgow Art Union prize, 1859, won by Captain Gourlay; his collection, Hobart, 1859–71[1]; offered for sale through McMeckan, Blackwood & Co. (dealer), Melbourne, December 1871; from where purchased for the NGV, 1871.[2]

[1] Arrived Hobart, January 1859. See ‘The Fine Arts’, in The Courier, Hobart, Saturday 8 January 1859, p. 2, accessed http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article2466148


[2] See ‘Tuesday January 2 1872’, in The Argus, Melbourne, Tuesday 2 January 1872, p. 4–5, accessed http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article5858392

Exhibited: Royal Scottish Academy, Edinburgh, 1858, no. 514, lent by the Association for the Promotion of the Fine Arts in Scotland; Exhibition of Scottish Art Union Pictures, rooms of Mr Walesby, no. 5 Waterloo Place, London, June 1858; Exhibition of Art Treasures, Hobart, 1862, no. 197, lent by Captain Gourlay[1]; The First Fifty Years: Nineteenth Century British Art from the Gallery Archives, NGV, Melbourne, 1992; Hidden Treasures, David Jones Art Gallery, Sydney, 1992.


[1] See ‘Exhibition of Art Treasures’, in The Mercury, Hobart, Tuesday 23 December 1862, p. 5, accessed http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article8813855


Frame
Original, John Thallon, Melbourne, surface not original

Frame

The painting dates from 1857, it was acquired in 1871 and the frame dates from the early 1880s.  The series of dates outlined here offer an interesting perspective on some of the issues associated with framing of paintings in public collections. To date there is no record of the painting coming into the collection in a frame, though it is difficult to imagine it did not.  The early purchases were often framed when acquired but equally there are records of accounts for frames being provided to the gallery from the 1870s.  We should see this current framing as a re-framing by the gallery some ten years or more after purchase and reflective of the on-going challenge presented by this approach to the framing of paintings.

Framemaker
J. & T. Thallon
Melbourne
Date
1882-8
Materials

This neo classical fluted frame uses composition decoration on a wooden base.  It uses a laurel and berry torus ornament and a fluted inner scotia.  The working edge is made by the addition of a strip of timber to the base profile, which is the common construction method. The slip fits into a shallow rebate, commonly used to securely house glass, allowing the slip to form a space between the glass and the painting.  The overall section, when the slip is included, is broad for frames of this type.

Frame Condition

The surface of the frame is not original.  It has been re-gilded throughout.

Dimensions
175.0 x 235.5 x 14.0 cm; sight 121.5 x 181.5 cm