The Robert McDougall Art Gallery is a heritage building in
Christchurch
Christchurch ( ; mi, Ōtautahi) is the largest city in the South Island of New Zealand and the seat of the Canterbury Region. Christchurch lies on the South Island's east coast, just north of Banks Peninsula on Pegasus Bay. The Avon Rive ...
,
New Zealand
New Zealand ( mi, Aotearoa ) is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and over 700 smaller islands. It is the sixth-largest island count ...
. It was designed by Edward Armstrong and it opened in 1932. It is a Category I heritage building listed with
Heritage New Zealand
Heritage New Zealand Pouhere Taonga (initially the National Historic Places Trust and then, from 1963 to 2014, the New Zealand Historic Places Trust) ( mi, Pouhere Taonga) is a Crown entity with a membership of around 20,000 people that advocate ...
and is located within the
Christchurch Botanic Gardens
The Christchurch Botanic Gardens, located in the central city of Christchurch, New Zealand, were founded in 1863 when an English oak was planted to commemorate the solemnisation of the marriage of Prince Albert and Princess Alexandra of Denmar ...
.
History
![Peacock Fountain (second location)](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/a/af/Peacock_Fountain_%28second_location%29.jpg)
In 1925 James Jamieson, a wealthy local building contractor, pledged to leave his art collection to Christchurch City on the condition that a new premises were built to house it. The Christchurch City Council held a referendum to gauge public support for taking out a loan to pay for the new gallery. This idea was rejected and nothing happened until 1928 when
Robert McDougall donated £25,000 for the gallery to be built.
A competition was set up to find an agreeable design. The selection committee, which included Robert McDougall, choose Edward Armstrong's design.
The site in the
botanic gardens
A botanical garden or botanic gardenThe terms ''botanic'' and ''botanical'' and ''garden'' or ''gardens'' are used more-or-less interchangeably, although the word ''botanic'' is generally reserved for the earlier, more traditional gardens, an ...
behind the
Canterbury Museum was chosen. Building of the new gallery commenced in November 1930 and by April 1932 it was near completion when funds ran low. Robert McDougall supplemented his original gift enabling the completion of the gallery at a total cost of £31,000.
In total the new gallery housed 160 works, the majority of which came from two collections, the
Canterbury Society of Arts and James Jamieson's collection. By 1961 the McDougall's collection had grown to 325 works, and by 2001 it was over 5,000 items. The collection outgrew the Robert McDougall Gallery and the
Christchurch Art Gallery
The Christchurch Art Gallery Te Puna o Waiwhetū, commonly known as the Christchurch Art Gallery, is the public art gallery of the city of Christchurch, New Zealand. It has its own substantial art collection and also presents a programme of New ...
was built to house the collection in 2002. The Robert McDougall Gallery was largely empty from the opening of the new art gallery until it was closed permanently after the
September 2010 earthquake.
The building survived the Christchurch earthquakes and had some repairs in 2016.
It is awaiting more strengthening work to protect it against future earthquakes and it still remains empty.
Design
The single story gallery has a large central hall, with
scagliola
Scagliola (from the Italian ''scaglia'', meaning "chips") is a type of fine plaster used in architecture and sculpture. The same term identifies the technique for producing columns, sculptures, and other architectural elements that resemble inla ...
columns and marble floors. It is constructed of brick and concrete, and faced with
Oamaru stone
Oamaru stone, sometimes called whitestone, is a hard, compact limestone, quarried at Weston, near Oamaru in Otago, New Zealand.
Oamaru stone was used on many of the grand public buildings in the towns and cities of the southern South Island, e ...
. Armstrong was inspired by the
Sarjeant Gallery in
Whanganui
Whanganui (; ), also spelled Wanganui, is a city in the Manawatū-Whanganui region of New Zealand. The city is located on the west coast of the North Island at the mouth of the Whanganui River, New Zealand's longest navigable waterway. Whang ...
. Both the Sarjeant Gallery and the Robert McDougall Gallery use
Samuel Hurst Seager's idea of 'topside lighting'. This is where skylights allow natural light to fall onto the displayed pictures without the light falling onto the visitors or the floors.
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Robert McDougall Art Gallery, Christchurch
NZHPT Category I listings in Canterbury, New Zealand
Buildings and structures in Christchurch
Christchurch Central City
1930s architecture in New Zealand