The exhibition was an opportunity to revisit one of the founding gifts to the University of Melbourne’s Art Collection: Dr Samuel Arthur Ewing’s 1938 gift of 56 paintings was the first major donation of art to the University. A qualified pharmaceutical chemist and surgeon, Dr Ewing studied medicine at the University of Melbourne. He was also an art patron and collector of considerable vision.
Dr Ewing began acquiring art in 1908, when artists and writers sought to create a distinctive national identity through painting and literature. At the same time public art galleries were established across the country, and major bequests made to enrich their collections.
Dr Ewing believed his collection of landscapes, portraits and figure studies would play a role in fostering a love of country and the formation of Australia’s national identity. Today, it may be viewed by contemporary audiences as reflective of an altogether different era. Current debates about the colonisation of Australia, the lack of Indigenous presence in the landscapes and the representation of gender encourage reflection on changes in our values and beliefs, and shifts in the interpretation of Australian art.
- Banner Image: Blamire Young, The Pasture Stance c.1911–12, watercolour on paper, 38.2 x 50.9 cm