The Story of the Elder Bequest Art Gallery of South Australia

The Story of the Elder Bequest

Art Gallery of South Australia

by Ron Radford, Fayette Gosse, Angus Trumble, Jane Hylton, Christopher Menz, Sarah Thomas

Art Gallery of South Australia, 2000, [First Edition], ISBN 0730830756, colour photographs throughout, paperback with wraps

Near Fine Condition, minor edge and shelf wear, minor rubbing and bumping to edges and corners, (see photographs)

“The Elder Bequest was the first major cash bequest fund to any Australian museum and in only three years this act of generosity transformed the Art Gallery of South Australia form one of the most disadvantaged in Australia to the most up to date in the country.  The substantial bequest of Sir Thomas Elder in 1897 to the Art Gallery of South Australia for the purchase of pictures could not have come at a more crucial time for the depressed institution.  Under the wise advice from the Gallery’s curator, Harry P. Gill, the collection of contemporary European and Australian art was dramatically enhanced.  Furthermore, the Bequest encouraged the South Australian Government to erect a building to display the expanding collection.  The building which today forms the elegant Elder Wing of the Art Gallery of South Australia housing its superlative collection of Australian art, was opened on 7 April 1900.
This book, through a collection of essays, tells the story of this remarkable philanthropic gesture.”