James Meadows
This painting is one of the most important images of Ballarat in the glory days of the 1880’s. It was commissioned by the Colonial Government of Victoria (along with images of Bendigo and Geelong) to be displayed in the Colonial and Indian Exhibition in London in 1886/7. The paintings were intended to signify the progress that had been made in the furthest regions of the British Empire. The ‘sub-text’ of these images was that they depicted burgeoning cities in places where a mere thirty years previously, there had been virtually no settlement.
The painting itself has recently been restored. The frame, on the other hand, is in very poor condition. Not only has it been covered with unsightly gold house paint, the plaster of the elaborate moulding is extremely brittle and fractured. It has already suffered numerous losses, and the entire moulding needs to be consolidated before the frame’s surface can be fully restored.
This work is a centrepiece of the Art Gallery of Ballarat’s ‘Ballarat in pictures’ installation, and it is one of the most popular works in the collection. It deserves to be presented in the same way as when it was first put proudly on display in London in 1886.
Conservation Needs
Frame $19,000
Examine, document and photograph, stabilize frame, remove bronze paint, rebuild gesso ground, mould sections and cast replacement sections, attach these replacement sections, apply bole where necessary, apply shellac to entire frame, oil gild overall with gold leaf, distress and tone.
