''Collins St., 5 pm'' is a 1955 painting by Australian artist

John Brack John Brack (10 May 1920 – 11 February 1999) was an Australian painter, and a member of the Antipodeans group. According to one critic, Brack's early works captured the idiosyncrasies of their time "more powerfully and succinctly than any Aust ...

. The painting depicts office workers walking along busy Collins Street in

Melbourne Melbourne ( , ; Boonwurrung language, Boonwurrung/ or ) is the List of Australian capital cities, capital and List of cities in Australia by population, most populous city of the States and territories of Australia, Australian state of Victori ...

after finishing work for the day"Blank-faced office workers hurry by like sleep-walkers, thinking only of the pubs or their homes in the suburbs". Brack conceived the work after reading T. S. Eliot's 1922 poem '' The Waste Land''. It is considered a companion piece to Brack's earlier work '' The Bar''. The painting was purchased from Peter Bray Gallery for the

National Gallery of Victoria The National Gallery of Victoria, popularly known as the NGV, is an art museum in Melbourne, Victoria (state), Victoria, Australia. Founded in 1861, it is Australia's oldest and list of most visited art museums in the world, most visited art mu ...

's permanent Australian art collection and is exhibited in the Ian Potter Centre in Federation Square in

.National Gallery of Victoria Acquisition 1956
/ref> In 2011, ''Collins St., 5 pm'' was voted the most popular work in the collection of the

References

External links

''Collins St., 5pm''
- National Gallery of Victoria collection. Paintings by John Brack Paintings in the National Gallery of Victoria 1955 paintings Arts in Melbourne Oil on canvas paintings Streets in art Paintings based on literature Collins Street, Melbourne Works set in Australia Paintings of people Cityscape paintings {{20C-painting-stub