The S. H. Ervin Gallery is a major public art institution housed in the historic National Trust Centre in

Observatory Park, Sydney Observatory Park is a park located in the heart of the Sydney central business district, City of Sydney, New South Wales, Australia. It is near the Sydney Harbour Bridge, Harbour Bridge and is bounded by Kent Street, Sydney, Kent Street, Watson ...

.Official website
''About the Gallery''. Accessed 25 January 2020. ''"The gallery's exhibition programme is designed to explore the richness and diversity of Australian art, both historical and contemporary, and present it in new contexts."'' The gallery also encourages research and promotes the practice of appraising the work of Australian artists. It is named after Samuel Henry Ervin.

History

The gallery building, designed by Henry Robertson, was constructed in 1856. It provided classrooms for the Fort Street School. In 1916 the school became Fort Street Girls' School. The history of public education in Australia began when the

Governor of New South Wales The governor of New South Wales is the representative of the monarch, King Charles III, in the state of New South Wales. In an analogous way to the governor-general of Australia, Governor-General of Australia at the national level, the governor ...

Charles FitzRoy established a Board of National Education on 8 January 1848 to implement a national system of education throughout the Colony. The board decided to create two model schools, one for boys and one for girls. The site of Fort Street Model School was chosen as the old Military Hospital at Fort Phillip, on Sydney's Observatory Hill. The site is now the home for the S. H. Ervin Gallery. The co-educational

Fort Street High School Fort Street High School (FSHS) is a Education in Australia#Government schools, New South Wales government run, Mixed-sex school, co-educational, Selective school (New South Wales), academically selective, secondary school, secondary day school, ...

is now located in

Petersham, New South Wales Petersham is a suburb in the Inner West of Sydney, in New South Wales, Australia. Petersham is located 6 kilometres south-west of the Sydney central business district, in the local government area of Inner West Council. Petersham is known ...

. In the early 1970s S H Ervin, philanthropist and collector, offered a bequest for the establishment of a public art gallery for the display of Australian art. The

National Trust of Australia The National Trust of Australia, officially the Australian Council of National Trusts (ACNT), is the Australian national peak body for community-based, non-government non-profit organisations committed to promoting and conserving Australia's Ind ...

secured a lease of the then Fort Street Girls' School building from the New South Wales Department of Public works. The buildings were restored and the gallery opened May 1978, with an exhibition by

Conrad Martens Conrad Martens (21 March 1801 – 21 August 1878) was an English-born landscape painter active on second voyage of HMS Beagle, HMS ''Beagle'' from 1833 to 1834. He arrived in Australia in 1835 and painted there until his death in 1878. Life ...

Gallery activities

The gallery has presented of many artists, including,

Clarice Beckett Clarice Marjoribanks Beckett (21 March 1887 – 7 July 1935) was an Australian artist and a key member of the Australian Tonalism, Australian tonalist movement. Known for her subtle, misty landscapes of Melbourne and its suburbs, Beckett develop ...

Albert Tucker (artist) Albert Lee Tucker (29 December 1914 – 23 October 1999) was an Australian artist and member of the Heide Circle, a group of modernist artists and writers associated with Heide Museum of Modern Art, Heide, the Melbourne home of art patron ...

, Violet Teague, Kathleen O'Connor (painter), Margo Lewers,

Jean Bellette Jean Bellette (occasionally Jean Haefliger; 25 March 1908 – 16 March 1991) was an Australian artist. Born in Tasmania, she was educated in Hobart and at Julian Ashton's art school in Sydney, where one of her teachers was Thea Proctor. In ...

, William Robinson (painter), John Coburn (painter), Cressida Campbell, Nicholas Harding, Euan Macleod and

Wendy Sharpe Wendy Sharpe (born 24 February 1960) is an Australian artist who lives and works in Sydney and Paris. She has had many solo exhibitions nationally and internationally, been awarded many national awards and artist residencies for her work, an ...

. In early 2020 the exhibition "Margaret's Gift" acknowledged and celebrated the legacy of artist

Margaret Olley Margaret Hannah Olley (24 June 192326 July 2011) was an Australian painter. She held over ninety solo exhibitions during her lifetime. Early life Margaret Olley was born in Lismore, New South Wales. She was the eldest of three children of J ...

. The gallery is the venue for the

Salon des Refusés The Salon des Refusés, French for "exhibition of rejects" (), is generally known as an exhibition of works rejected by the jury of the official Paris Salon, but the term is most famously used to refer to the Salon des Refusés of 1863. Today, ...

, for portraits rejected by the

Archibald Prize The Archibald Prize is an Australian portraiture art prize for painting, generally seen as the most prestigious portrait prize in Australia. It was first awarded in 1921 after the receipt of a bequest from J. F. Archibald, J. F. Archib ...

and also for those rejected by the Portia Geach Memorial Award, a celebration of female Australian artists. Since 2018 it has administered the Evelyn Chapman Art Award.

References

External links

* Contemporary art galleries in Australia Art museums and galleries in Sydney National Trust of Australia (NSW) {{NewSouthWales-struct-stub