Collection Online
Evensong
Medium
oil on canvas
Measurements
(52.3 × 109.2 cm)
Inscription
inscribed in black paint l.r.: C Southern
Accession Number
1402-5
Department
Australian Painting
Credit Line
National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne
Purchased, 1962
This digital record has been made available on NGV Collection Online through the generous support of The Vizard Foundation
Gallery location
Gallery 6
Level 2, NGV Australia
Subjects (general)
Landscapes
Subjects (specific)
blue colours dusk evening hills valleys (landforms) wooded landscapes woods (plant communities)
Movements
Australian Impressionism Heidelberg School
Frame
Original, by John Thallon, Melbourne

Frame

The frame is a style that we see in variations on a number of paintings. It is dramatically simple and decidedly forceful in scale for this painting, giving a sense of heaviness to the work. The construction is not complex and the frame would not have been expensive. It may be the frame entered in Thallon’s ledger on 14 October 1898: Southern 1 frame 40 x 19 R £2 , though this does not accord with current dating of the painting. The entry is accompanied by a profile drawing, very similar to the one here, annotated bronze on the torus and all bronze on the profile, width 6 1/2 ins.

Framemaker
John Thallon
Melbourne
Date
1896–8
Materials

The frame for Evensong is built on a single plank of timber, which has been bevelled to form the sight edge. The sight edge is trimmed with a torus of imbricated broad scale laurel and berry cast from composition. The torus is centred, banded at the centres and corners and sits on a raised timber section. The working edge is built with the addition of a dressed (2 x 1 in) batten. The structure is mitred together at the corners, which are secured with nails and screws. The flat appears to be veneered and the surface is gilded with false gold. Though it has been resurfaced, something of the grain shows through. The surface has been coated with a brushed patina, which is dark in the recesses of the torus. The working edge is painted.

Frame Condition

The surface may have been re-worked in a restoration, though it seems likely to represent the original intention.

Dimensions
82.5 x 139.2 x 8.0 cm; sight 52.5 x 109.5 cm