take a virtual reality tour inside    browse the collection

Hamilton Art Gallery

Address:
107 Brown Street, Hamilton, Victoria
Postal Address: Locked Bag 685 Hamilton Vic 3300
Telephone: 03 5573 0460
Facsimile: 03 5572 2910
Email: hamilton_gallery@ sthgrampians.mav.asn.au
Website: http://www.hamilton gallery.org

Admission Charges:
Free

Opening Hours:
10am-5pm Monday-Friday
10am-12 noon and 2-5 pm Saturday
2-5pm Sunday

Hamilton Art Gallery was established in 1961 following the bequest of an outstanding collection of art works left to the City of Hamilton by Herbert Buchanan Shaw (1882-1957). Herbert and his wife May had amassed a collection of over 750 objects during their lifetime on their extensive travels.

The Herbert and May Shaw Bequest includes an extensive range of Chinese ceramics, English and German porcelain, English glass, miniatures and silver and Continental silver-gilt, and hardstone carvings and bronzes of Chinese origin. It also includes a tapestry, 'The Triumphal Entry of Alexander into Babylon', designed by Charles le Brun (1619-1690). The tapestry is from the early 1700s and is probably of Belgian manufacture. The Shaws also collected Roman glass and early Mediterranean artefacts.

In 1972 when the State Government of Victoria purchased a collection of works by English watercolourist Paul Sandby  (1731-1809) for the Gallery, extensions were built to accommodate these and a growing collection.

Sandby was a foundation member of the Royal Academy and the earliest English artist of note to exploit the media of watercolour and gouache. He was also a fine etcher and a great innovator. The art of aquatint printing was developed in England largely as a result of his early enthusiasm for this technique. The Gallery holds some 30 works in watercolour and gouache by Sandby, along with an early set of etchings and a set of 'Twelve Views in Wales' of 1777, one of his finest set of aquatints. The Paul Sandby collection in Hamilton is one of the largest in the world.

Since 1961 Hamilton's collection has grown to over 7,000 objects. Australian artists represented include Thomas Clark, Louis Buvelot, William Tibbets, Napier Waller, J.J. Hilder, Blamire Young, Sidney Nolan, Tim Storrier, Justin O'Brien and Norman and Lionel Lindsay.

Contemporary artists such as Tim Maguire, Howard Arkley, Richard Clements and Kristen Headlam are also well represented in the collection.

In recent years there has been a marked emphasis on developing the decorative arts collection given by Herbert and May Shaw. 20th Century glass, ceramics and silver have subsequently been added to the collection. This development has focussed on mainly European works from 1890 to 1970 and then both Australian and European works from that time onwards.

Resume the western trail or choose another gallery on this trail: Horsham  Swan Hill Mildura
Resume the southern trail or choose another gallery on this trail: Geelong  Warrnambool