Stories behind the frames

Art collectors once tended to be more concerned with a frame’s capacity to blend in with the furniture. However, today’s museum attitudes to framing favour authenticity, with the painting and its frame forming a harmonious marriage in the same historical style.

In the past, numerous paintings in the Art Gallery of NSW collection were removed from their original frames, with the result that many of the separated frames were destroyed. At present, the restoration of original frames, as well as the design and creation of appropriate reproduction frames, are major activities of the conservation department. A thorough investigation of the artist, the period and the artwork precedes each reframing project. Photographs from the Gallery’s archive are often of outstanding value for research.

Here are the stories behind just some of the Gallery’s frames.

AGNSW collection Louis Buvelot At Lilydale 1870

https://www.artgallery.nsw.gov.au/collection/works/244.1990/

AGNSW collection Julian Ashton The prospector 1889

https://www.artgallery.nsw.gov.au/collection/works/4554/

AGNSW collection Rupert Bunny Summer time circa 1907

https://www.artgallery.nsw.gov.au/collection/works/540/

AGNSW collection Rupert Bunny A summer morning circa 1908

https://www.artgallery.nsw.gov.au/collection/works/666/

AGNSW collection Maurice Felton Portrait of Mrs Alexander Spark 1840

https://www.artgallery.nsw.gov.au/collection/works/117.1974/

AGNSW collection E Phillips Fox Art students 1895

https://www.artgallery.nsw.gov.au/collection/works/7319/

AGNSW collection Elioth Gruner Spring frost 1919

https://www.artgallery.nsw.gov.au/collection/works/6925/

AGNSW collection George Lambert Holiday in Essex 1910

https://www.artgallery.nsw.gov.au/collection/works/157.1981/

AGNSW collection Sydney Long By tranquil waters 1894

https://www.artgallery.nsw.gov.au/collection/works/689/

AGNSW collection Sydney Long Pan 1898

https://www.artgallery.nsw.gov.au/collection/works/9017/

AGNSW collection Frederick McCubbin On the wallaby track 1896

https://www.artgallery.nsw.gov.au/collection/works/572/

AGNSW collection Arthur Streeton Fire's on 1891

https://www.artgallery.nsw.gov.au/collection/works/832/

AGNSW collection Arthur Streeton Villers-Bretonneux 1918

https://www.artgallery.nsw.gov.au/collection/works/538/

AGNSW collection John Webber A view in Otaheite Peha 1785

https://www.artgallery.nsw.gov.au/collection/works/4.1976/

AGNSW collection Anglo-Netherlandish workshop King Henry VIII circa 1535-circa 1540

https://www.artgallery.nsw.gov.au/collection/works/OB4.1962/

AGNSW collection Sano di Pietro Madonna and Child with Saints Jerome, John the Baptist, Bernardino and Bartholomew 1450-1481

https://www.artgallery.nsw.gov.au/collection/works/151.1971/

AGNSW collection Nicolò dell'Abate Portrait of a gentleman with a falcon circa 1548-circa 1550

https://www.artgallery.nsw.gov.au/collection/works/167.1991/

AGNSW collection Sir Joshua Reynolds James Maitland, 7th Earl of Lauderdale 1759-1760

https://www.artgallery.nsw.gov.au/collection/works/8.1977/

AGNSW collection William Hogarth Dr Benjamin Hoadly MD early 1740s

https://www.artgallery.nsw.gov.au/collection/works/8586/

AGNSW collection William Henry Margetson The sea hath its pearls 1897

https://www.artgallery.nsw.gov.au/collection/works/705/

AGNSW collection Ford Madox Brown Chaucer at the court of Edward III 1847-1851

https://www.artgallery.nsw.gov.au/collection/works/703/

AGNSW collection Sir Edward John Poynter The visit of the Queen of Sheba to King Solomon 1881-1890

https://www.artgallery.nsw.gov.au/collection/works/898/

AGNSW collection Sir Lawrence Alma-Tadema Cleopatra 1875

https://www.artgallery.nsw.gov.au/collection/works/657/

https://www.artgallery.nsw.gov.au

AGNSW collection Frank Wright Bourdillon On Bideford Sands 1889

https://www.artgallery.nsw.gov.au/collection/works/726/

AGNSW collection Nasreddine Dinet The snake charmer 1889

https://www.artgallery.nsw.gov.au/collection/works/799/

AGNSW collection Richard Wilson St Peter's and the Vatican from the Janiculum, Rome 1757-1764

https://www.artgallery.nsw.gov.au/collection/works/25.1971/

AGNSW collection Camille Pissarro Peasants' houses, Éragny 1887

https://www.artgallery.nsw.gov.au/collection/works/6326/

AGNSW collection Frank Hinder Tram kaleidoscope 1948

https://www.artgallery.nsw.gov.au/collection/works/195.2013/

Stories behind the frames

By the Art Gallery of NSW