London's National Gallery last week hung the first Australian painting to enter its prestigious collection, but secrecy surrounded the identity of the owner of the work, Blue Pacific by Arthur Streeton.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
The gallery approached collectors including Swiss financier Urs Schwarzenbach and television impresario Reg Grundy in search of a late 19th-century Australian landscape, but they were unwilling to part with their paintings.
Fairfax Media can reveal that the $2.5 million work came from Port Stephens business identity Jeff d'Albora, who has a long history in the marina industry. Mr d'Albora has agreed to a long-term loan of two years, after which the gallery may look to extend the agreement.
[Blue Pacificby Arthur Streeton, on long-term loan to the National Gallery in London.]
Blue Pacific by Arthur Streeton, on long-term loan to the National Gallery in London. Photo: National Gallery
Not even the Australian art dealer Michael Carr, who searched on the National Gallery's behalf for almost three years to find the work, knew the owner's identity. He communicated with the owner's representative, art consultant Kathie Sutherland.
Mr Carr estimates that the inclusion of the work in the National Gallery's collection could increase its value by as much as $1 million. It was a surprise that it was so difficult to find a collector willing to give up a work. "If the National Gallery asks for a painting, people fall over themselves," said Mr Carr. "What this reflects is that there are so few paintings from this period in private hands available for aquisition. Most are in public galleries."
The Streeton painting is the second work to be displayed as part of the gallery's changes to a 191-year-old policy to display only works by Western European artists. The first was American artist George Bellows' 1912 painting Men of the Docks. The aim is to show how artists around the world felt the impact of European avant-garde art in the late 19th century.
The gallery's curator of post-1800 paintings, Chris Riopelle, said it made sense to look to Australia in general and Streeton in particular. "How do you adapt or alter what you know about painting to deal with that different reality [of a non-European landscape]?" he said. "Streeton is very interesting in that regard because he got very adventurous in his painting, very young."
Riopelle points to Streeton's use of brilliant colour as an example of how the artist was influenced by European painters such as Renoir. Nevertheless, the blue of the ocean and the rugged rocks of the cliffs will be instantly familiar to Australian viewers.
Streeton painted the work from a headland at the northern end of Coogee. It was among the first of his Sydney paintings – the beginning of a lifelong love affair with Sydney Harbour. "Coogee is a very jolly place," he wrote to fellow artist Walter Withers. "On warm days the place (which is like a nest) is filled with smiles and sweet humanity. I'll come here to die I think."
Sydney Morning Herald
