Jacopo Amigoni (Italy, circa 1685 - 21 Aug 1752), Bacchus and Ariadne, c. 1740-42. Art Gallery of New South Wales, Gift of James Fairfax  AC 1993. Photo: AGNSW, Diana Panuccio

SYDNEY.- For the first time in more than 30 years, 27 magnificent works by some of the leading Italian, French and British artists of the High Renaissance, Baroque, Rococo and Romantic periods left the walls of the Art Gallery of New South Wales for an exhibition at Hazelhurst Regional Gallery, European Old Masters: 16th – 19th Century. 

Dr Michael Brand, Director of the Art Gallery of New South Wales said while we will miss those 27 works as they have been on the walls of the gallery for more than 3 decades, we are delighted to collaborate with Hazelhurst Regional Gallery to give people an opportunity to see some of the finest works in our European collection.  

Jan van Bijlert (Netherlands, 1597 or 1598 - buried 12 November 1671), Girl with a flute, circa 1630, Art Gallery of New South Wales, Purchased 1967, OO3.1967. Photo: AGNSW.

This exhibition is the first occasion these important European paintings have been shown together outside their permanent home said Belinda Hanrahan, Director, Hazelhurst Regional Gallery. We are thrilled the Art Gallery of New South Wales has given us this opportunity for people to see the works by some of the greatest artists in Europe at the time like William Hogarth, Sir Joshua Reynolds, Thomas Gainsborough, Bernardo Strozzi and Frans Snyders. 

The Art Gallery of New South Wales did not embark upon collecting old masters until the 1950s, some 80 years after its foundation. Previously, the great masters of the past could only be experienced through copies intended for educational purposes. The focus of the Gallery’s acquisitions policy since the late 19th century had been primarily on works by living artists – initially British, later Australian and European.  

Luca Cambiaso (Italy, 18 Oct 1527 - 06 Sep 1585), Holy Family with St John the Baptist, circa 1578, Art Gallery of New South Wales, Gift of Mrs Dorothy Spry in memory of Charles Eckersley Forrest 1992, 25.1992. Photo: AGNSW.

Between 1951 and 1976, the Gallery acquired an outstanding group of English 18th-century portraits, including works by three of the leading painters of the age: William Hogarth, Thomas Gainsborough and Joshua Reynolds. During these years the Gallery also purchased landscapes and subject pictures representative of British Neo-Classicism and Romanticism by artists such as Richard Wilson, John Glover, Richard Westall, William Hamilton and Francis Danby. Although accessions of non-British painting were rare, three powerful and imposing figural compositions by the Baroque painters Bernardo Strozzi, Jan van Bijlert and Matthias Stomer expanded the scope and ambition of the collection. 

The extraordinary donation by James Fairfax AC during the 1990s significantly enriched the Gallery’s holdings of European old masters, particularly in the area of 18th-century French and Italian art such as the works by Nicolas de Largillierre and Canaletto. The collection has continued to develop with the acquisition of major Italian Renaissance and Baroque works such as the work of Giulio Cesare Procaccini. 

The works in European Old Masters: 16th – 19th Century offers an insight into ages and cultures so different from our own.

28 September - 3 December 2017

Canaletto (Italy, 17 Oct 1697 - 10 Apr 1768), The Piazza San Marco, Venice, 1742-1746, Art Gallery of New South Wales, Gift of Mrs Dorothy Spry in memory of Charles Eckersley Forrest 1992, 25.1992. Photo: AGNSW.

Francis Danby (Ireland, England, 16 Nov 1793 - 09 Feb 1861), The three sisters of Phaethon weeping over the tomb of their brother, 1841-1845, Art Gallery of New South Wales, Purchased 1970, 31.1971. Photo: AGNSW.

Nicolas de Largillierre (France, 10 Oct 1656 - 20 Mar 1746), Portrait of an officer, circa 1714-circa 1715, Art Gallery of New South Wales, Gift of James Fairfax AC 1995, 176.1995. Photo: AGNSW.

Nicolò dell'Abate (Italy, France, between 1509 and 1512 - 1571), Portrait of a gentleman with a falcon, circa 1548-circa 1550, Art Gallery of New South Wales, Gift of James Fairfax AC 1995, 176.1995. Photo: AGNSW.

Sir Charles Lock Eastlake (England, 17 Nov 1793 - 24 Dec 1865), An antique rural scene, 1823-1824, Art Gallery of New South Wales, Bequest of Amy Alfreda Vickery 1942, 7262. Photo: AGNSW.

Thomas Gainsborough (England, baptised 14 May 1727 - 02 Aug 1788), Samuel Kilderbee, circa 1758, partially repainted circa 1783, Art Gallery of New South Wales, Purchased 1966, OB3.1967. Photo: AGNSW.

John Glover (England, Australia, 18 Feb 1767 - 09 Dec 1849), Ullswater, early morning, circa 1824, Art Gallery of New South Wales, Purchased 1979, 164.1979. Photo: AGNSW.

William Hamilton (England, 1751 - 02 Dec 1801), Christ and the woman of Samaria, 1792, Art Gallery of New South Wales, Purchased 1970, 28.1971. Photo: AGNSW.

William Hogarth (England, 10 Nov 1697 - 25 or 26 October 1764), Dr Benjamin Hoadly MD, early 1740s, Art Gallery of New South Wales, Purchased 1951, 8586. Photo: AGNSW.

Philippe Jacques de Loutherbourg (France, England, 31 Oct 1740 - 11 Mar 1812), A shipwreck off a rocky coast, 1760s, Art Gallery of New South Wales, Purchased with funds provided by the Art Gallery Society of New South Wales 2002, 11.2002. Photo: AGNSW.

Jean-Marc Nattier (France, 17 Mar 1685 - 07 Nov 1766), Madame de La Porte, 1754, Art Gallery of New South Wales, Gift of William Bowmore OBE 1992, 119.1992. Photo: AGNSW.

Johann Georg Platzer (Austria, 24 Jun 1704 - 10 Dec 1761), The sculptor's studio, 1730, Art Gallery of New South Wales, Gift of Howard Hinton 1923, 696. Photo: AGNSW.

Giulio Cesare Procaccini (Italy, 30 May 1574 - 14 Nov 1625), The dead Christ on the cross with Sts Mary Magdalene, Augustine and Jerome, and angels, circa 1618, Art Gallery of New South Wales, Purchased with funds from the estate of Mr Walter Hartwig through the Art Gallery of New South Wales Foundation 2005, 249.2005. Photo: AGNSW.

Sir Henry Raeburn (Scotland, 04 Mar 1756 - 08 Jul 1823), John Spottiswoode of Spottiswoode, circa 1820, Art Gallery of New South Wales, Purchased with the William and Mary Farnsworth gift fund 1971, 54.1971. Photo: AGNSW.

Sir Joshua Reynolds (England, 16 Jul 1723 - 23 Feb 1792), James Maitland, 7th Earl of Lauderdale, 1759-1760, Art Gallery of New South Wales, Purchased with an anonymous gift fund for an 18th century portrait 1976, 8.1977. Photo: AGNSW.

Sir Joshua Reynolds (England, 16 Jul 1723 - 23 Feb 1792), Stephen Croft, 1760, Art Gallery of New South Wales, Purchased 1965, OB1.1966. Photo: AGNSW.

David Roberts (Scotland, 24 Oct 1796 - 25 Nov 1864), Edinburgh from the Calton Hill, 1858, Art Gallery of New South Wales, Purchased 1890, 662. Photo: AGNSW.

Frans Snyders (Belgium, baptised 11 November 1579 - 19 Aug 1657), The boar hunt, circa 1650s, Art Gallery of New South Wales, Gift of Charles Davies-Scourfield 2005, 239.2005. Photo: AGNSW.

Matthias Stomer (Netherlands, Italy, circa 1600 - post 1650), Mucius Scaevola in the presence of Lars Porsenna, early 1640s, Art Gallery of New South Wales, Purchased 1970, OO4.1970. Photo: AGNSW.

Bernardo Strozzi (Italy, 1581 - 02 Sep 1644), The release of St Peter, circa 1635, Art Gallery of New South Wales, Purchased 1965, OO1.1966. Photo: AGNSW. 

 Giovanni Domenico Tiepolo (Italy, 30 Aug 1727 - 03 Mar 1804), The apotheosis of a pope and martyr, circa 1780-1785, Art Gallery of New South Wales, Gift of James Fairfax AC 1995, 178.1995. Photo: AGNSW.

Richard Westall (England, 1765 - 04 Dec 1836), Landscape – solitude, 1811, Art Gallery of New South Wales, Purchased 1970, 27.1971. Photo: AGNSW. 

Richard Wilson (Wales, 1713 or 1714 - 11 May 1782), St Peter's and the Vatican from the Janiculum, Rome, 1757-1764, Art Gallery of New South Wales, Purchased 1970, 25.1971. Photo: AGNSW. 

Joseph Wright of Derby (England, 03 Sep 1734 - 29 Aug 1797), Margaret Oxenden, circa 1757-circa 1759, Art Gallery of New South Wales, Purchased 1952, 8698. Photo: AGNSW.