The Dunedin Public Art Gallery holds the main public art collection of the city of

Dunedin Dunedin ( ; ) is the second-most populous city in the South Island of New Zealand (after Christchurch), and the principal city of the Otago region. Its name comes from ("fort of Edin"), the Scottish Gaelic name for Edinburgh, the capital of S ...

, New Zealand. Located in

The Octagon The Octagon may refer to: *The Octagon, Christchurch, a former church in the central city of Christchurch, New Zealand *The Octagon, Dunedin, the city centre of Dunedin, New Zealand *The Octagon (Egypt), the headquarters of the Egyptian Ministry of ...

in the heart of the city, it is close to the city's

public library A public library is a library, most often a lending library, that is accessible by the general public and is usually funded from public sources, such as taxes. It is operated by librarians and library paraprofessionals, who are also Civil servic ...

, Dunedin Town Hall, and other facilities such as the Regent Theatre.

History

The gallery was founded by W. M. Hodgkins in 1884 and was the first public art gallery in New Zealand. It originally occupied what is now the maritime gallery in the

Otago Museum Otago (, ; ) is a region of New Zealand located in the southern half of the South Island and administered by the Otago Regional Council. It has an area of approximately , making it the country's second largest local government region. Its po ...

, was re-located to the Municipal Chambers in the Octagon from 1888–90, and then to an annex to the Otago Museum. It moved to a new purpose-designed building in Queen's Gardens in 1907, to which a structure housing the Otago Settlers Museum was added the following year. In 1927 it was moved to a building constructed for the 1925–26 New Zealand and South Seas International Exhibition in Logan Park,

Dunedin North Dunedin North, also known as North Dunedin, is a major inner suburb of the New Zealand city of Dunedin, located northeast of the city centre. It contains many of the city's major institutions, including the city's university, polytechnic, ...

designed by Edmund Anscombe. The building was bought and donated to the city by Sir Percy and Lady Sargood, as a memorial to their son who was killed at

Gallipoli The Gallipoli Peninsula (; ; ) is located in the southern part of East Thrace, the European part of Turkey, with the Aegean Sea to the west and the Dardanelles strait to the east. Gallipoli is the Italian form of the Greek name (), meaning ' ...

. The gallery was relocated to its present site, the refitted D.I.C. building, in 1996. In its long existence the gallery has played host to numerous overseas exhibitions, including ''Masterpieces of the Guggenheim'' a 1990s modern art show, and the touring

Tate Gallery Tate is an institution that houses, in a network of four art galleries, the United Kingdom's national collection of British art, and international modern and contemporary art. It is not a government institution, but its main sponsor is the UK ...

exhibition ''The Pre-Raphaelite Dream'', more recently.

Collection

The gallery has a strong collection of historic and contemporary works, by New Zealand and overseas artists. It has one of the most numerous collections of works by Frances Hodgkins, who was born in the city. It has the most extensive collection of

Old Master In art history, "Old Master" (or "old master")Old Masters De ...

paintings in New Zealand and the most significant holdings of paintings by post-1800 overseas artists. The collections include works by Jacopo del Casentino (also known as Landini), Zanobi Machiavelli,

Benvenuto Tisi Benvenuto Tisi (; 1481September 6, 1559), also known as Il Garofalo (), was a Late-Renaissance-Mannerist Italian painter of the School of Ferrara. Garofalo's career began attached to the court of the Duke d'Este. His early works have been desc ...

(called Garofalo), Ridolfo Ghirlandaio,

Carlo Maratta Carlo Maratta or Maratti (18 May 162515 December 1713) was an Italian Baroque painter and Drawing, draughtsman, active principallly in Rome where he was the leading painter in the second half of the 17th century. He was a fresco and canvas painte ...

Luca Giordano Luca Giordano (18 October 1634 – 3 January 1705) was an Italian late-Baroque painter and printmaker in etching. Fluent and decorative, he worked successfully in Naples, Rome, Florence, and Venice, before spending a decade in Spain. Early l ...

Salvator Rosa Salvator Rosa (1615 – March 15, 1673) is best known today as an Italian Baroque painter, whose romanticized landscapes and history paintings, often set in dark and untamed nature, exerted considerable influence from the 17th century into the ...

, Claude Lorraine,

Hans Rottenhammer Johann Rottenhammer, or Hans Rottenhammer (1564 – 14 August 1625), was a German painter. He specialized in highly finished paintings on a small scale. Biography He was born in Munich, where he studied until 1588 under Hans Donauer the Eld ...

, Pieter de Grebber,

Marcus Gheeraerts the Younger Marcus Gheeraerts (also written as Gerards or Geerards; 1561/62 – 19 January 1636) was a Flemish artist working at the Tudor court, described as "the most important artist of quality to work in England in large-scale between Eworth and van ...

William Dobson William Dobson (4 March 1611 (baptised); 28 October 1646 (buried)) was a portraitist and one of the first significant English painters, praised by his contemporary John Aubrey as "''the most excellent painter that England has yet bred''". He ...

Cornelis Janssens van Ceulen Cornelis Janssens (born Cornelis Janssens van Ceulen, ; 14 October 1593 – 5 August 1661) was an Anglo-Dutch painter of portraits. Born of Dutch or Flemish parents who fled to London from Antwerp to escape religious persecution, Cornelis Jans ...

(Cornelius Johnson), Jan van Goyen,

Allan Ramsay Allan Ramsay may refer to: *Allan Ramsay (poet) or Allan Ramsay the Elder (1686–1758), Scottish poet *Allan Ramsay (artist) Allan Ramsay (13 October 171310 August 1784) was a Scottish portrait Painting, painter. Life and career Ramsay w ...

Thomas Gainsborough Thomas Gainsborough (; 14 May 1727 (baptised) – 2 August 1788) was an English portrait and landscape painter, draughtsman, and printmaker. Along with his rival Sir Joshua Reynolds, he is considered one of the most important British artists o ...

Joshua Reynolds Sir Joshua Reynolds (16 July 1723 – 23 February 1792) was an English painter who specialised in portraits. The art critic John Russell (art critic), John Russell called him one of the major European painters of the 18th century, while Lucy P ...

, George Romney,

Henry Raeburn Sir Henry Raeburn (; 4 March 1756 – 8 July 1823) was a Scottish portrait painter. He served as Portrait Painter to King George IV in Scotland. Biography Raeburn was born the son of a manufacturer in Stockbridge, on the Water of Leith: a f ...

John Hoppner John Hoppner (4 April 175823 January 1810) was an English portrait painter, much influenced by Joshua Reynolds, who achieved fame as a colourist. Early life Hoppner was born in Whitechapel, London, the son of German parents – his mother w ...

and William Turner;

John Constable John Constable (; 11 June 1776 – 31 March 1837) was an English landscape painter in the Romanticism, Romantic tradition. Born in Suffolk, he is known principally for revolutionising the genre of landscape painting with his pictures of Dedha ...

, Théodore Rousseau, Giovanni Fattori, Silvestro Lega,

James Tissot Jacques Joseph Tissot (; 15 October 1836 – 8 August 1902), better known as James Tissot ( , ), was a French painter, illustrator, and caricaturist. He was born to a drapery merchant and a milliner and decided to pursue a career in art at a y ...

, Johan Jongkind,

Claude Monet Oscar-Claude Monet (, ; ; 14 November 1840 – 5 December 1926) was a French painter and founder of Impressionism painting who is seen as a key precursor to modernism, especially in his attempts to paint nature as he perceived it. During his ...

Edward Burne-Jones Sir Edward Coley Burne-Jones, 1st Baronet, (; 28 August 183317 June 1898) was an English painter and designer associated with the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood's style and subject matter. Burne-Jones worked with William Morris as a founding part ...

George Frederic Watts George Frederic Watts (23 February 1817 – 1 July 1904) was a British painter and sculptor associated with the Symbolism (arts), Symbolist movement. Watts became famous in his lifetime for his allegorical works, such as ''Hope (Watts), Hop ...

, Sir Stanley Spencer, Walter Sickert, Laurence Lowry and

André Derain André Derain (, ; 10 June 1880 – 8 September 1954) was a French artist, painter, sculptor and co-founder of Fauvism with Henri Matisse. In 2025, all of Derain’s work entered the public domain in the United States. Life and career Early ...

. The gallery's British

watercolour Watercolor (American English) or watercolour ( Commonwealth English; see spelling differences), also ''aquarelle'' (; from Italian diminutive of Latin 'water'), is a painting method"Watercolor may be as old as art itself, going back to the ...

s, the gift of F.H.D. Smythe, include over 1300 works and the group is outstanding in New Zealand. The gallery has significant holdings of overseas Old Master and modern prints and drawings, including a notable collection of Japanese woodblock prints. Its New Zealand holdings are distinguished by such works as George O'Brien's ''Lawyer's Head from Forbury Head, Sunrise'', Petrus Van der Velden's ''A Waterfall in the Otira Gorge'', G.P. Nerli's ''Portrait of a Girl'', C.F. Goldie's ''All 'e Same t'e Pakeha'', Alfred Henry O'Keeffe's ''The Defence Minister's Telegram'', Rita Angus's 1937 ''Self-Portrait'',

Colin McCahon Colin John McCahon (; 1August 191927May 1987) was a New Zealand artist whose work over 45 years consisted of various styles, including landscape, figuration, abstraction, and the overlay of painted text. Along with Toss Woollaston and Rita Angus ...

's ''The 5 Wounds of Christ'' and

Ralph Hotere Hone Papita Raukura "Ralph" Hotere (11 August 1931 – 24 February 2013) was a New Zealand artist. He was born in Mitimiti, Northland Region, Northland and is widely regarded as one of New Zealand's most important artists. In 1994 he was award ...

's ''Rosemary''. Unlike New Zealand's other major public galleries the Dunedin Public Art Gallery branched out into the decorative arts in the 1920s, developing on the model of the

Victoria and Albert Museum The Victoria and Albert Museum (abbreviated V&A) in London is the world's largest museum of applied arts, decorative arts and design, housing a permanent collection of over 2.8 million objects. It was founded in 1852 and named after Queen ...

in London, or the American 'Art Museums'. It thus has extensive and, in New Zealand, unparalleled holdings of ceramics, glassware, metalwork, furniture and textiles, mostly of overseas origin. The William De Morgan ''Dragon Charger'' is an example. Its current director is Cam McCracken.

Directors

1958 - 1964 Annette Pearse 1965 - 1971 Charlton Edgar 1971 - 1980 Les Lloyd 1980 – 1989 Frank Dickinson 1990 – 1993 Cheryll Sotheran 1994 - 1997 John McCormack 1998 - 2007 Priscilla Pitts 2008 - 2012 Elizabeth Caldwell 2012 - Cam McCracken

Gallery

File:'Chief Ngairo Rakaihikuroa in Wairarapa, New Zealand', oil on canvas painting by Gottfried Lindauer, Dunedin Public Art Gallery.JPG, ''Chief Ngairo Rakaihikuroa in Wairarapa, New Zealand'' by Gottfried Lindauer File:'La Débâcle', oil on canvas painting by Monet, 1880, Dunedin Public Art Gallery.JPG, ''La Débâcle'' by

Notes

References

* *

External links

* {{authority control 1884 establishments in New Zealand Art museums and galleries in Dunedin Art museums and galleries established in 1884 The Octagon, Dunedin