Call for Papers | Conference: ‘Human Kind: Transforming Identity in British and Australian Portraits, 1700-1914’

Inspired by the outstanding collection of the National Gallery of Victoria, this interdisciplinary conference will be the largest gathering of international and Australian scholars to focus on portraits. It will provide a unique opportunity to explore both British and Australian portraits through a dynamic interchange between academics and curators.

September 8-11 2016, University of Melbourne and National Gallery of Victoria

Melbourne Portrait Group Seminar | Emily Wubben: ‘Artistic Souls: Baronne Madeleine Deslandes and her portrait by Edward Burne-Jones’

Edward Burne-Jones, Portrait of Baronne Madeleine Deslandes, 1895-96. National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne.

Emily Wubben, ‘Artistic Souls: Baronne Madeleine Deslandes and her portrait by Edward Burne-Jones’

Monday 1 December, 6:30pm.

Melbourne Portrait Group Seminar | Alison Inglis: Portraiture and the Colonial Collection

‘Additions to the Public Library buildings’, Australasian Sketcher, 18 April 1889 State Library of Victoria)

Associate Professor Alison Inglis, ‘Portraiture and the Colonial Collection: Searching for Portraits in the National Gallery of Victoria in the Nineteenth Century

Monday 10 November, 6:30pm.

Melbourne Portrait Group Seminar | Mark Shepheard

Anton Raphael Mengs, ‘Portrait of Don Luis de Borbon’ (c. 1774-77.). National Gallery of Victoria.

Mark Shepheard, ‘A tale of two portraits: Mengs and Don Luis de Borbón’.

The National Gallery of Victoria has recently acquired a superb portrait by Anton Raphael Mengs (1728-79), one of the eighteenth century’s greatest portrait painters. The sitter is the Infante Don Luis de Borbón (1727-85), brother of the Spanish king, Carlos III. Don Luis was a major patron of the arts, employing the cellist and composer Luigi Boccherini, as well as being an early supporter of the young Goya.

Melbourne Portrait Group Seminar: Vivien Gaston

Johann Zoffany, ‘Elizabeth Farren as Hermione in The Winter’s Tale'(c. 1780). National Gallery of Victoria, Everard Studley Miller Bequest.

Vivien Gaston, ‘Staying Alive: Johann Zoffany’s Portrait of Elizabeth Farren as Hermione in Shakespeare’s ‘A Winter’s Tale’, c. 1780’.

Johan Zoffany’s portrait of Elizabeth Farren as Hermione in Shakespeare’s A Winter’s Tale represents one of the most striking, controversial and memorable scenes in all of Shakespeare’s plays. It is also a portrait of an actress whose private and public lives were equally intriguing, one of a few highly successful women whose celebrity status enabled their radical upward mobility.

Portrait News

Georges Seurat, ‘Young woman powdering herself’, 1889-90. Courtauld Gallery, London.

A hidden self-portrait by Seurat rediscovered

An article by Aviva Burnstock (Head of the Department of Conservation & Technology, Courtauld Institute, London) and Karen Serres (Schroder Foundation Curator of Paintings, Courtauld Institute) in the April edition of The Burlington Magazine reveals a hidden self-portrait by Georges Seurat (1859-91) in his painting Young woman powdering herself of 1889-90.

Joseph Wright of Derby’s self-portrait in the NGV | Vivien Gaston

Joseph Wright of Derby, Self-portrait (1765-68). Oil on canvas on canvas, 69.8 x 58 cm (image) 70.2 x 58.7 cm (canvas). National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne. Gift of Alina Cade in memory of her husband Joseph Wright Cade, 2009.

In late 2009 curator Laurie Benson answered a telephone call informing him of two portraits in a Melbourne home that might be of interest to the National Gallery of Victoria. After undertaking preliminary research, Benson set off for the caller’s home with great curiosity. On arrival he found, hanging above the fireplace in its original frame, a long-lost self-portrait by one of Britain’s greatest artists, Joseph Wright of Derby.