Art Bulletin of Victoria 39 encompasses essays discussing works from a variety of areas of the NGV’s collection.
Michelle Bonollo discusses the English and Australian responses to Lawrence Alma-Tadema’s The vintage festival, drawing attention to the painting’s Dionysian themes and Alma-Tadema’s conservative approach to depicting Bacchanal ritual; Michael Watson explores the meaning behind, and iconography of an Attic owl-skyphoi, fifth century BC; Jennifer Jones-O’Neill studies the new expressive vocabulary developed by George Romney and his sketches of literary figures, notably the character Maria from Laurence Sterne; Nancy Sturgess introduces the watercolours and painting of Julian Rossi Ashton in the NGV’S collection, remarking on his preoccupation with contemporary world beauty; and Geoffrey Smith summarises Fred Williams’s Treescape, one of the Gallery’s most recent acquisitions.
We are also pleased to include two essays focusing on the wonderful Horses bathing in the sea by Lucy Kemp-Welch: one, a foray into the painting’s genesis by Laura Wortley, and the other a close examination of the painting by Linda Waters.
We trust you will enjoy the articles and appreciate the breadth and depth of the contributors’ research and scholarship in this edition.
Sonia Dean, Literary Editor