Significance 2.0: a guide to assessing the significance of collections
Roslyn Russell, Kylie Winkworth
© Commonwealth of Australia, 2010
ISBN 97 80977544363 (pbk)
Provenance and works of art
The provenance of a work of art is documented in its passage from the artist's studio through a chain of owners and collectors to the latest owner. It may also include the exhibition history of a work of art. A firm provenance verifies the authenticity of the work and establishes whether the current owner has secure title.
Works of art with a strong provenance generally attract a premium at auction, particularly if the work was owned by a noted collector or family, or is fresh to the market. Many Australian art galleries have researched the provenance of works of art in their collections to ensure that they are not provenanced to Jewish-owned collections looted or forcibly sold in the Nazi era.[31]
Letters between Streeton and the portrait's subject, Dr Ewing, not only establish the provenance of the painting, but also assist in understanding Streeton's concern for the future condition of his works of art.
Arthur Streeton
The domes of St Mark's 1908
Oil on canvas
86.8 x 99.4cm
The University of Melbourne Art Collection
Gift of Dr Samuel Arthur Ewing, 1938
1938.0023
Arthur Streeton, one of the members of the Heidelberg School of Australian artists credited with establishing a distinctively Australian artistic style in the nineteenth century, painted this work in Venice in 1908. By then an established artist who lived for long periods in London, Streeton was criticised by some for what they saw as his pandering to a commercial market. Careful analysis of this painting, though, 'shows a mature artist who retains a strong interest in the oil painting process and whose work reflects an ongoing interest in the technical difficulties of translating light and mass into the painted image'. [32]
John Longstaff
Dr Samuel Arthur Ewing c. 1922
Oil on canvas
108.6 x 88.6cm
The University of Melbourne Art Collection
Gift of Dr Samuel Arthur Ewing 1938
1938.0012
The provenance of this painting is impeccable. It was purchased by Dr Samuel Ewing at the Victorian Artists Society exhibition on 19 June 1914 for £63. In 1937, Ewing opened negotiations with the University of Melbourne to gift his collection to the University of Melbourne Union. This is one of five Streeton works from Ewing's collection. As it needed restoration, Ewing approached the artist to carry out the necessary restoration and Streeton recommended a framer to undertake reframing. 'Streeton's concern for the appearance of his works was total.'[33] All these letters, as well as those from Ewing to the University, have survived. As well as Streeton's work and the corroborating letters, the University collection also holds a portrait by John Longstaff of the donor Dr Samuel Ewing.
