Terms and Conditions
The artist, title and date of the work must be listed anywhere the image is reproduced:
Bernard Hall
Study for The quest (c. 1905)
oil on canvas
61.3 × 40.8 cm
National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne
The Joseph Brown Collection. Presented through the NGV Foundation by Dr Joseph Brown AO OBE, Honorary Life Benefactor, 2004
Photo: National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne
Where possible, the image must be reproduced in full (no cropping or over-printing). If you wish to use a detail of the work, a full reproduction of the work must also be reproduced elsewhere in the publication.
While the NGV believes this work to be in the Public Domain, it is the responsibility of the publisher to ensure that no further permissions are required for use.
For a complete list of terms and condition of use see the National Gallery of Victoria’s copyright policy.
Study for The quest
(c. 1905)
Medium
oil on canvas
Measurements
61.3 × 40.8 cm
Credit Line
National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne
The Joseph Brown Collection. Presented through the NGV Foundation by Dr Joseph Brown AO OBE, Honorary Life Benefactor, 2004
Gallery location
Gallery 20
Level 3, NGV Australia
About this work
Bernard Hall’s interest in the Symbolist movement reflects his continuing engagement with European art movements. The Symbolists were concerned with representing ideas and concepts through their work, rather than through naturalism, or literal representation, which was popular in Australian painting during the nineteenth century. Drawing on a stanza from the twelfth-century Persian text The Rubáiyát of Omar Khayyám, Study for The quest is a contemplation of moral isolation and self-dependence:
I sent my Soul through the Invisible,
Some letter of the After-life to spell:
And by and by my Soul return’d to me,
And answer’d ‘I Myself am Heav’n and Hell’.
Artwork Details
Place/s of Execution
Melbourne, Victoria
Inscription
inscribed (diagonally) in green paint l.l.: B.Hall (Hall underlined)
inscribed in pen and ink on accompanying label: "The Quest" (he Quest underlined) / I sent my Soul through the Invisible, / Some letter of that After (...illeg.) life to spell: " / Omar Khayyam . (ar Khayyam underlined) / L. Bernard Hall. / National Gallery / Melbourne (bou underlined) . Australia
Accession Number
2004.182
Department
Australian Painting
This digital record has been made available on NGV Collection Online through the generous support of The Vizard Foundation
Subjects (general)
Allegory and Symbols Emotions and Mental States Human Figures
Subjects (specific)
drapery (representations) extraterrestrial bodies moons nudes (representations) sky women (female humans)