(Landscape with rainbow)
(c. 1889)

• Charles ROLANDO

This work retains the original glass, along with the original strawboard backing. The painting is in exceptionally good condition because of these simple protective measures. The frame is one of a number of essentially classical revival-style frames made by Thallon at this time, this one taking the name of the artist and becoming known as the ‘Rolando’ frame. The representation here is a rare example of one of the artist’s paintings in the frame that carries his name.³ There are at least 133 frames listed for Rolando in Thallon’s ledger for 1888–1903, seven for 1888–89 with the dimensions (24 ins. x 41 ins.) of this painting, and annotated as ‘Rolando’.

Notes

1 Hilary Maddocks, ‘Picture Framemakers in Melbourne c. 1860–1930’ in vol. 1, Frames, Melbourne Journal of Technical Studies in Art, University of Melbourne Conservation Service, 1999.

2 The frame came to the collection with the glass intact. The shallow rebate which houses the glass is a feature of many nineteenth-century frame profiles and appeared in frames around the same time as the slip became a feature. Both elements relate to the availability of sheet glass and the use of the glass for the protection of paintings.

3 Another example is found in the collection of the Bendigo Art Gallery, on Charles Rolando’s Fern Gully, c. 1885, Bequest of Sir William Zeal, 1912.

The frame is made up of composition ornaments on a wooden chassis. The basic section is mitred at the corners. The working edge is formed by the addition of wooden battens that in turn provide the shelf for the ornament along the back edge. The shallow rebate at the leading edge, which houses the slip, is used to accommodate the glass, a feature that is noted on a number of frame profiles.² The surface is water gilded, the taenia is burnished. The sanded section has been toned dark.

All surfaces are original. Losses to composition ornaments and gesso were restored in 2004. The bond between the ornaments, the gesso and the chassis is brittle.