Historical interior view of the National Art Gallery of New South Wales

The Art Gallery moved to its current site in the outer Domain in 1885. Architect J. Horbury Hunt designed the original building, which was nothing more than a series of thick walls that were designed to be the foundations for a major building when funds became available. Hunt’s building, derided by some as “the art barn”, had a sawtooth roof reminiscent of a factory, which is visible in this image. The building was opened by the Governor, Lord Carrington, on 23 December 1885. This is a photograph of the wood engraving on the cover of the ‘Illustrated Supplement to the Sydney Mail’ for 23 December 1885. It shows visitors to the Gallery attending a lecture on ‘The meeting of Solomon and the Queen of Sheba’ by Edward Poynter, a key work in the Art Gallery’s collection. The paintings on the wall show that this lecture was held in the gallery dedicated to British and foreign oils.