StateLibQld 1 121744 Portrait of Rhonda Kelly by artist Caroline Barker, 1942

The Royal Queensland Art Society is an organisation for practicing artists and those who appreciate art in

Queensland ) , nickname = Sunshine State , image_map = Queensland in Australia.svg , map_caption = Location of Queensland in Australia , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name = Australia , established_title = Before federation , establishe ...

, Australia. It is the oldest art society in Queensland.

History

A meeting was held in the Brisbane School of Arts on Thursday 4 August 1887 to propose the establishment of an art society in Queensland to be called the Queensland Art Society. It had nine initial members. The

Queensland Premier The premier of Queensland is the head of government in the Australian state of Queensland. By convention the premier is the leader of the party with a parliamentary majority in the unicameral Legislative Assembly of Queensland. The premier is a ...

Samuel Griffith Sir Samuel Walker Griffith, (21 June 1845 – 9 August 1920) was an Australian judge and politician who served as the inaugural Chief Justice of Australia, in office from 1903 to 1919. He also served a term as Chief Justice of Queensland and t ...

was the inaugural president and Edgar Walker was the vice-president. Other members included artists Isaac Walter Jenner, Oscar Fristrom and Louis Wilhelm Carl Wirth. The society held its first annual art exhibition in August 1888 at the Masonic Hall in Alice Street in conjunction with the

Brisbane Exhibition The Ekka is the annual agricultural show of Queensland, Australia. Its formal title is the Royal Queensland Show, and it is held at the Brisbane Showgrounds. It was originally called the Brisbane Exhibition, but it is more commonly known as the ...

. The exhibition consisted of about 200 works, mostly by local professional and amateur artists and supplemented by works of other artists loaned by the public. It was opened by Lady Musgrave, the wife of

Queensland Governor The governor of Queensland is the representative in the state of Queensland of the monarch of Australia. In an analogous way to the governor-general of Australia at the national level, the governor performs constitutional and ceremonial funct ...

Anthony Musgrave. The newspaper review was somewhat mixed, making positive remarks about some works, but also criticising the local artists of making too many copies of famous works and painting British landscapes rather than creating original works of local subject matter. Some letters to the newspapers were extremely critical. The society received the Royal Warrant in 1926.

James Vincent Duhig James Vincent Duhig (1889–1963) was an Australian pathologist. In Brisbane, he established the first pathology laboratories at the Mater Misericordiae Hospital and the Brisbane General Hospital. He campaigned successfully to establish a medi ...

, noted pathologist and nephew of archbishop

James Duhig Sir James Duhig KCMG (2 September 187110 April 1965) was an Irish-born Australian Roman Catholic religious leader. He was the Archbishop of Brisbane for 48 years from 1917 until his death in 1965. At the time of his death he was the longest-s ...

, served as the Society's president 1937–1946.

References

{{Authority control Art societies Organisations based in Australia with royal patronage 1887 establishments in Australia Organizations established in 1887