History Gallery

Context: Albert Namatjira (1902-1959) was perhaps the best known Aboriginal painter, and one of Australia’s great artists. He blended traditional use of colour with Western-style landscapes, which brought him fame and Australian citizenship – a first in a time when Aboriginal people had few rights. Namatjira’s intricately detailed watercolours of the Australian outback gave rise to the Hermannsburg School of Aboriginal art. His early works transmitted the same spiritual connection with the land as more traditional Aboriginal art, and he represented his love of trees through lovingly rendered portrait-like paintings. Unfortunately, the tragedy of racial injustice destroyed Namatjira’s career and life. He was imprisoned for allegedly supplying alcohol to Aboriginal people, and by the time he was released had lost his desire to paint and enthusiasm for life: he died the following year, aged only 57.

Context: This painting, inspired by Charles Montesquieu’s Persian Letters (published in 1721), depicts a eunuch who wanted to marry a harem slave. He experienced a vision of her while smoking his opium pipe, but her little companion holding a knife dripping with blood reminds us that the eunuch’s anatomy precludes the fulfillment of his dream. The outline of a hand next to the signature is a khamsa, a symbol used to ward off evil.

Context: The Heidelberg School was an Australian art movement of the late 19th century. It has been described as Australian impressionism. The term has since evolved to cover these and other painters who worked together at “artists’ camps” around Melbourne and Sydney in the 1880s and 1890s. Drawing on naturalist and impressionist ideas, they sought to capture Australian life, the bush, and the harsh sunlight that typifies the country.

Context: Henry Louis Stephens was a well known caricaturist, spending his lifetime contributing illustrations to books and magazines.

Context: Maximilian was Holy Roman Emperor, who formed the Landsknecht after witnessing the ability of the Swiss Reisläufer pikemen, whom France had a monopoly over their service. These early standing armies under the leadership of generals such as Georg von Frundsberg achieved many military successes, although their reputation declined after the death of Frundsberg.

Context: Saint Bernard and the Virgin is an oil painting by Spanish artist Alonso Cano (c. 1645–1652), depicting the Lactatio Bernardi miracle in which Bernard of Clairvaux receives milk from the Virgin Mary as a reward for his theological work. The painting is now held in the Museo del Prado in Madrid.

The "Sappho" fresco is a 1st-century AD painting from Pompeii depicting a young woman holding a writing tablet and stylus, symbols of literacy and education in Roman society. Though 19th-century scholars speculated it portrayed the Greek poet Sappho, modern scholars believe it’s simply an upper-class Pompeiian woman. Discovered in 1760, the fresco is now housed at the National Archaeological Museum in Naples and notably inspired Chinese poet Shao Xunmei to take up poetry after he saw it in the early 1920s.

Context: This is one of five pieces, this particular tapestry is showing Spanish troops attacking the French cavalry during the Battle of Pavia.