Art at Second Hand: Prints after European Pictures in Victoria before 1870

Abstract

This article examines the significance of the large number of European reproductive prints present in the public and private art collections of early colonial Victoria. Several factors are identified as contributing to this popularity; ranging from the suitability of the print medium for the export market to the existence of informed print connoisseurs amongst colonial collectors and artists. This article also demonstrates some of the typical features of Australian art history; in that it is concerned with the evaluation of the Australian art world through reference to European culture (the centre-periphery debate) and also that it limits its discussion to the art of a particular Australian state (Victoria). The nineteenth-century division of Australia into different colonies had ramifications for Australian art history that continue to the present day – namely; the tendency to interpret colonial artistic activities from a regional perspective.

Keywords

• Reproductive prints
• Australian colonial art
• colonial print collecting
• colonial exhibitions
• print connoisseurship
• colonial art market