Eccleston du Faur FRGS

This portrait depicts one of this art gallery’s founders, Eccleston du Faur, who established the New South Wales Academy of Art in 1871. It later became the New South Wales Academy of Art and is now the Art Gallery of New South Wales. He served as secretary and treasurer until 1886 and as president from 1892-1915.

While this bust marks Cowan as the first Australian recipient of a sculpture commission from the Gallery it is interesting to note that she approached the gallery’s trustees offering the work, which she had already modelled, which was then accepted to be carved in marble. It is unclear if they would have otherwise engaged a female artist to undertake such a commission as most works acquired for the collection in its earliest years were by male artists.