This incredible collection is a significant and valuable resource not only for the thousands of visitors and school groups who explore the gallery each year, but also for many museums and institutions who borrow works to share with their audiences. The gallery consistently responds to requests for loans, and is about to provide two key works for a forthcoming exhibition Cornucopia, at the Shepparton Art Museum (SAW).  

The first of the works selected for the exhibition at SAM is Christmas Fare, by Julie Crouan. This painting is one of the earliest works acquired for the collection, purchased just one year after the gallery was established in 1887. Very little is known about the life and work of the French painter.

Her painting Christmas Fare presents a typically festive still life - a large copper vase filled with holly, a dead goose ready to be plucked and prepared for the feast, chestnuts, and oranges and other fruits which would have been viewed as exotic have been added to the arrangement. Depicting a scene of abundance, this work will marry well with the themes presented in the forthcoming Cornucopia exhibition, and is one of many still life works in the gallery’s collection. 

Also requested for the Cornucopia exhibition is an arresting work from the gallery’s contemporary collection; Julia deVille’s Sentience, acquired in 2014 through the gift of Grace and Alec Craig, Bendigo.  

This work, along with another by the same artist titled 'Chrysantheme', was purchased for the Bendigo Art Gallery's collection in 1888. 

In the art of taxidermy gesture is of the utmost importance, and so for deVille the most considered aspect of her work is composing her subject to find a balance between pathos, humour and dignified realism. Arriving in Australia from New Zealand when she was 19, deVille trained as a jeweller and learned additional crafting skills studying shoe design before her quest for a taxidermy mentorship was successful.

Driven by a strong commitment to animal rights, deVille’s sculptural assemblages contradict the heroic, trophy-hunting culture associated with mounting dead animals. In what is a form of gentle protest she combines precious gems and metals with antique ‘ready-mades’ to challenge our disregard for and consumption of both wild and domesticated fauna. 

Drawing on historical references, deVille creates contemporary ‘memento mori’ that raise our curiosity through the use of paradoxical processes and materials.

To explore further highlights from Bendigo Art Gallery’s permanent collection, join a free guided tour at 2pm, Tuesday to Sunday. Cornucopia opens at SAW on Saturday, February 27.