PORTRAIT OF HIS EXCELLENCY SIR HENRY BARKLY, GOVERNOR OF VICTORIA, c.1864
THOMAS CLARK
oil on canvas
75.5 x 49.0 cm
G.H. Powis, Fine Art Gallery, Melbourne
Ballaarat Mechanics Institute (label fragment attached verso)
Private collection, Victoria
Private collection, Melbourne
Exhibition of Paintings & Sketches by the late B.R. Hayden, Historical Painter,... And a choice collection of other works by well-known artists, George H. Powis, Fine Art Gallery, 5 Queen Streen, Melbourne, [no date], cat.39A, as 'Portrait of His Excellency Sir Henry Barkly'. 'Finished study for the large picture in the Public Library.'
Fine Arts Exhibition, Ballaarat Mechanics' Institute, 21 July 1869, cat.9, as 'Sir Henry Barkly', (remnants of label attached verso), exhibited first by the artist and then the Melbourne art dealer, G.H. Powis, who was responsible for the exhibition's presentation
The Ballarat Star, 7 August 1869, p.2
Sir Henry Barkly, GCM G, KCB , (1815-1898), was Governor of Victoria from 1856 to 1863. Prior to his departure to become Governor of Mauritius, the Government of Victoria commissioned two official portraits. Charles Summers carved the marble bust now in the State Library of Victoria, and Thomas Clark, being the Governor's choice, painted what his contemporaries described as 'a very striking likeness.'1 It was 'intended for the Houses of Parliament.'2 During his Victorian tenure, Barkly had shown an interest in things intellectual and cultural, providing leadership in the foundation of the Royal Society of Victoria and the National Gallery of Victoria, among others.
In addition to being a fine painter, Thomas Clark is well remembered as having taught Tom Roberts and Frederick McCubbin, when drawing master in the School of Design of the National Gallery School. Clark was also active within Melbourne art circles. In 1857 he showed a number of works, including Portrait of a Lady, in the First Exhibition of the Victorian Society of Fine Arts. His contemporaries, Henry Burn included a lithographic portrait of Barkly, and William Strutt, then Melbourne's leading portrait painter, a very fine equestrian portrait of Major-General Edward Macarthur, commander of the Victorian forces. In April 1861 Clark painted two watercolours of the Governor reviewing the Victorian Volunteers at Werribee.
Clark's full-length Portrait of His Excellency Sir Henry Barkly is the recently found finished work, a study for the large and imposing painting now in the collection of the State Library of Victoria. Because the Governor could only afford Clark two sittings before his departure, a study was required from which the larger version could be painted. Clark's original concept shows the Governor standing in the garden of Toorak House, the then Governor's residence.3 He is portrayed in official uniform, wearing the insignia of a Knight of the Bath. A blue-uniformed orderly with two horses is in background left, with a view, above the trees, of the tower of Government House, surmounted by a red flag. While these background details were later painted over in the final Government version, possibly because of unjust criticism, time is beginning to reveal what Clark intended. With the accent on formality in the larger portrait, the study has an engaging fluidity of technique that distinguishes the best of Clark's work. The garden setting suited perfectly his considerable abilities as a landscape painter, the verve of his brushwork being carried over into the handling of the horses and colourful plumes of the Governor's hat.
1. Argus, Melbourne, 18 May 1864, p.5
2. ibid
3. The present Government House in the Domain was not completed until 1870
DAVID THOMAS