The frame represented here is a reproduction made in 2007 based on the remains of the original frame.
The original frame on the painting was removed around 1940 and sold in a job lot at Joel’s auction house in 1941. Along with a number of Australian paintings in the collection, this one was reframed, with a frame derived from a design by Whistler and made by the Thallon company.
A reproduction of the former frame, based only on photographic evidence, was made in 1995.2 The discovery of the remains of the original frame at the monastery of The Benedictine Community of New Norcia Inc. in 1998 clarified both the form and the finish, providing the basis for a more accurate reproduction in 2007.3
This is an extraordinarily wide frame for the scale of the painting, some twelve inches across, adding two extra feet to the four-foot square image. The frame increases the wall space for the painting by an extra half of its dimension. Streeton appears at times to have had a preference for large-scale frames. This frame, however, is identified in Thallon’s ledger under an entry for National Gallery, 26 October (1898): preparing ornamenting and gilding one frame 6ft. x 6ft. 12’ … £7-4.4 This suggests the frame, or at least its embellishment, may be more reflective of the taste of the Director, Bernard Hall, after the time of acquisition.
Notes
The reproduction frame is built from Western red cedar, cast plaster ornament and gold leaf.
The original frame is built from a simple assemblage of flat planks of softwood timber with a cast plaster ornament of imbricated oak leaves on the inner edge. The plaster sections have been attached with glue and nails. The cross-banding is formed as part of the cast, suggesting that the torus has been cast from an existing finished frame. The rebate is formed by the addition of battens, butt-joined on the reverse. The wide planks, which make up the flat of the frame, are mitred at the corners. The corners were reinforced with triangles of timber. Battens formed the rebate to the slip and ran across the mitre in the vertical direction. The outer edge of the mitre was secured with nails. The flat sections are surfaced with matte water gilding on a white base, with a very thin ochre bole. The imbricated oak torus is a warmer colour and is oil gilded with false gold. The margin on which the torus sits carries the remnant of a sanded surface, formerly painted with bronze paint. The torus is a later addition. The channels either side of the torus have slightly chamfered edges and continue the oil gilding from the torus.1