Historical interior view by Alfred Tischbauer of the Art Gallery of New South Wales

The Gallery’s first dedicated building was erected in the Botanic Gardens in 1879 as a ‘Fine Arts Annexe’ to the Sydney International Exhibition of that year. It was designed by William Wardell, built of timber and about 4000 square metres in size. It contained nine simple galleries. During the International exhibition only part of the Gallery’s collection was exhibited in this building, with galleries also given over to temporary exhibits from Austria, Germany, Great Britain, France and Belgium. When the Sydney International Exhibition closed, this building was officially dedicted as the Art Gallery of New South Wales.

This is a photograph of a colour painting by Alfred Tischbauer of the main hall of the gallery. Tischbauer is known to have painted four interior views of the Gallery. At the seventh annual Art Society exhibition in 1886, the 'Sydney Morning Herald' (20 April 1886, 4) noted:

'Mr Alfred Tischbauer has two paintings of the National Art Gallery; the one of the central room (74) in oils and the other of the loan room (204) in watercolours. The latter is decidedly the better, but both are of interest. In the former, portraits are given of the trustees of the gallery, Sir Patrick Jennings and Mr. Montefiore being easily recogizable but the figures are not first-class.'

This is an image of the second painting, showing the loan room of the Gallery.