Material relating to Muriel Binney's Sydney Harbour panoramic frieze 'Sydney Harbour Foreshores at Sunset'
Date1898-1930
Object numberANMS0232
NameArchive series
ClassificationsEphemera
Credit LineANMM Collection Gift from Jerry Grover
DescriptionThis archive series numbered [001] - [016] consists of material relating to amateur artist and inventor Muriel Binney's Sydney Harbour panoramic frieze. It includes Muriel Binney's 1907 certificate of design registration with cover letter; a letter from Mr Hasler to Muriel; and 10 photographs depicting Sydney Harbour, sail and motor vessels and a shipwreck which may have been used as models for her frieze.HistoryMuriel Mary Sutherland Binney (1873-1949), was an amateur artist and inventor. She lived at Warren Lodge, Elizabeth Bay, with her surgeon husband Edward and sons John and Richard. In 1907 Binney painted a 20-metre-long panorama of Sydney Harbour entitled ‘Sydney Harbour foreshores at sunset’. She produced the work for the First Australian Exhibition of Women’s Work in October 1907, and it was then selected for the Australian Pavilion at the Franco-British Exhibition the following year where it was awarded a silver medal. Binney used a variety of working and leisure craft to produce a balanced, harmonious and eye-catching panorama of harbour life. As a panorama it is unusual, completed at a time when most other examples of this genre were photographic. Although Binney did not put a price on her work, she was certainly aware of its commercial potential, and applied to copyright the design in 1907 and to reproduce a fold-out postcard or Christmas card of photographs of the frieze in panoramic format by Henry King. It was inventing rather than arts and crafts that Binney pursued in later years, exhibiting and patenting a cigarette smoker’s complete outfit, a portable shoe stand and travelling case, and a body harness to redistribute body weight when using a crutch.
Archive Series (item)/Archive Item (series)
