Study for Treasury Gardens

Details

Artist

Abram Louis Buvelot

Title

Study for Treasury Gardens

Year

1865

Medium

pencil on paper

Size

30 x 23 cm

Stock Number

213071

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Literature

See 19th Century Australian Art, M.J.M. Carter Collection, Art Gallery of South Australia, 1993, p. 47, col. illus. of Treasury Gardens painting 1865

Further Information

Study for Treasury Gardens is a preparatory study for the painting in the Art Gallery of South Australia (Treasury Gardens 1865, oil on canvas, 40.9 x 50.9 cm), perhaps the earliest painting Buvelot completed in Melbourne. The Treasury Gardens in Melbourne were established in the 1860s and, at the time, were decorated with plaster and cement copies of Greek and Roman marble statues.

“Buvelot appears here to be grappling with the Australian vegetation. At the centre of the painting is a classical European statue, set in European-style gardens, while in the background we glimpse the Renaissance-style Treasury Building.  Buvelot tries to come to grips with the straggly Australian eucalypts seen outside the enclosed garden surrounding the marble statue.”¹

¹. Australian Colonial Art 1800 – 1900, Art Gallery of South Australia, Adelaide, 1995, p.92