I have two friends in Denmark whom I have never met – Maria Holm and Henry Høgh. Maria posted some amazing shots from the Ordrupgaard Art museum in Charlottenlund, Denmark and I said I would show her a bit from the Ballarat Art Gallery.
Maria’s blog has the most gorgeous name From One Heart to Another and it’s all about Health, Baby Care Art Travelling and running Marathons. I’ll tell you about Henry another time but I always introduce the ladies first.
Anyway about the Ballarat Art Gallery:-
It is the oldest and largest gallery in regional Australia and was established in 1884. There was no established town here before 1851 when the gold rush occurred. So it took only about 30 years to get it on its way. The gallery is in a fine old building with a modern annex attached at the rear and is on two levels. Below is a random selection from the top level and depending upon interest I will show you the ground level. This is where special exhibitions are housed. The most recent that I visited was the Linda McCartney: Retrospective which was part of the last Ballarat International Foto Biennale. I had thought it would be of interest to Beatles’ fans but it was much much more than that.
But enough waffling about. The following photographs will be shown with very little in the way of commentary or attribution. However I would be delighted to run back down to find out about anything in particular.
The Main Gallery.
Early Australian scenes
and again mostly European and English painters.
Random Australian Art.
Aboriginal Art.
With my next effort I am happy to receive some suggestions. For example would you like to have the names of the painters and the dates? Would you like each shot to be separate of are you happy with mosaics or would you prefer slide shows? (Give me something to do with my time.) And I’ve just noticed as I preview this that the size of the Aboriginal Art should have been indicated. For instance the last one takes up most of a wall. I should have shown you that.
Paol Soren 
Thank you so much for dedicating this post to me. I am so honoured also by your kind comments on my blog.
I would love to have the names of the classical artists on this post; Henry and I would appreciate that a lot
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Thank You for that. I will take note in future.
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I was impressed by the Australian artists from that same period as those I showed in the Ordrupgaard selection and the Skagen painters. It must have been an incredibly productive period
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What a lovely visit, thanks it will save me going 🤷♀️
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Interesting trip to Ballarat’s museum. The interwar art was most fascinating. Humanity repeats the mistakes of war and the public pay a hefty price in terms of hunger, hardship and loss.
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I just had quick look at StPA. I’ll get back and poke around in all your cupboards and under the stairs but for now, Thanks for visiting and if there’s anything around Melbourne?Ballarat way you need to see to remind you of things then set me a task.
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I think I have only once been to Ballarat, when I was quite young. The history of the town does interest me though.
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Both Ballarat and Bendigo know how to offer great exhibitions.
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What a gorgeous museum! I think that you displayed the art wonderfully and I particularly enjoyed the Aboriginal art, I am sure it is stunning in person, especially given the scale. I wouldn’t mind seeing more of that 😊
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Does it ever get temporary exhibitions from Europe?
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Apart from the Linda McCartney exhibition the most recent was
Picasso: The Vollard Suite 23 February 2019 – 28 April 2019
Free entry
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Maria and Henry are wonderful people!!
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Thank you, {{{John}}} for that mini, vicarious visit to Ballarat’s museum. Since I can’t venture out to a museum myself today, this was just the cultural diversion I needed! You posted a lovely variety of the magnificent art. It was helpful to learn of the scale!
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I shall take you for another stroll soon.
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Thanks for my Virtual visit to Ballarat’s Art Gallery…some interesting works
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I was really pleased to see some aboriginal art, which looks so different from our own.
Having said that some of the “Early Australian scenes” fit beautifully into that famous description “How unlike the home life of our own dear queen!”
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I shall show some more. But the best way to have a look is on Leggy Peggy’s blog. She lives in Canberra when the Australian National Gallery is. Have a look on https://leggypeggy.com/2018/01/27/a-wonderful-look-at-aboriginal-art/
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Thank you John for this visit to the art gallery – two things, you make a fine ambassador, not just for Ballarat and Melbourne but also for our beautiful country and this makes me want to visit Ballarat. And speaking of making friends, when we were on our 10 day tour of Iceland, I became friends from a young lady in Denmark and I invited her to Australia. She has now booked tickets for a trip here in October!! She will stay a week with us in Sydney and then travel. She wants to go to Rottnest Island to see the Quokka and Perth because there are people ther of Danish descent!!
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I guess you could bang on about Eugene von Guérard and his landscapes documenting the goldfields. But I’d rather you’d do a survey on the ratio of female artists to male in a gallery of this providence 🙂
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Okay. I’ll give it a go.
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Provenance – not providence.
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Damnation to predictive texting
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