AT THE MUSEUM
AN INTERESTING PAINTING AT THE BENDIGO ART GALLERY CATCHES JOHN MCPHEE’S ATTENTION THIS MONTH.
IN 1855 EDWARD Hopley exhibited A Primrose From England at London’s Royal Academy. The scene depicted reputedly shows the excitement felt by people in Australia on seeing a primrose which had arrived from ‘home’. Among the crowd, who have paid to see the primrose, are women overcome by homesickness looking nostalgically at the flower and men proud of the scientific achievement the arrival of a healthy flowering plant in the colony represents. Children are shown trying to understand why the unassuming flower has made such an impact on their parents. An Aboriginal at the far right seems to be listening to a man trying to explain the excitement. The ship’s storeroom is crowded and more people are trying to gain access to see this wonder.
In the 18th and 19th centuries the long sea voyage between Australia and Europe usually meant that living plants failed to arrive in good health. Most died. Botanists pressed and dried specimens of Australia’s exotic flora that caused such interest in scientific circles in Europe. However, the Wardian case, invented by Dr Nathaniel Ward meant that by the 1840s live plants could be successfully transported. The enclosed glass case provided a sealed protective environment for plants. The successful arrival in Australia of a primrose in full bloom was described by Dr Ward to the Royal Institution in the early 1850s when he reported that as many as 3000 people turned out to see the flower when it was brought ashore in Melbourne.
The painting proved popular among Victorian audiences and a lithograph of the painting was published in 1856. Hand-coloured and uncoloured examples are rare and when offered for sale by specialists in antique prints sell for several thousand dollars. More accessible is the wood-engraving published in The Illustrated London News of 16 October 1858. Black and white wood engravings from the illustrated newspapers of the 19th century are popular among collectors and usually sell for about $100.
Bendigo Art Gallery, 42 View Street, Bendigo, Victoria, (03) 5334 6088, bendigoartgallery.com.au A Primrose From England by Edward Hopley was painted in 1855.