Sydney Harbour Foreshores at Sunset. Panel 1. Woolloomooloo Bay to Neutral Bay and Fort Denison

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Sydney Harbour Foreshores at Sunset. Panel 1. Woolloomooloo Bay to Neutral Bay and Fort Denison

Artist Muriel Binney (Australian, 1873 - 1949)

Date1907

Object number00008634

NameFrieze

MediumWatercolour paint on paper mounted on linen.

DimensionsOverall: 504 x 4330 mm

ClassificationsArt

Credit LineANMM Collection Gift from Jeremy Grover in memory of Doris Frost and Dick Binney, with assistance from the Commonwealth Government's Cultural Gift Fund, conserved with the assistance of the Vincent Fairfax Family Foundation

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DescriptionThis is the first panel of four that together form a panoramic painting by Muriel Binney of Sydney Harbour in 1907. In this particular panel, Binney has depicted Woolloomooloo Bay, Farm Cove to the entrance of the Parramatta River and Neutral Bay to Fort Denison. As in the other panels this particular scene shows an extensive range of different sailing craft from both commercial industries or for leisure. The entire 20 metre scene was entered into the First Australian Exhibition of Women's Work, held in Melbourne in 1907. The complete panorama was later selected for display in the Australian Pavilion at the Franco-British Exhibition in London in 1908 where it was awarded a silver medal.HistoryPainted as an architectural mural to be displayed in the home, the watercolour is a 360 degree panorama capturing the stillness and gentle light of the Harbour at dusk. Muriel Binney's emphasis is on the boats, the water and the landscape around the Harbour, rather than the sprawling settlement beyond. Working boats and barges are shown, variously silhouetted and highlighted by the setting sun. There is an open boat with its crescent sail plodding past Fort Denison and HMS POWERFUL, while the flagship of the Royal Navy's Australia Station commands Farm Cove. Muriel 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.SignificanceThe frieze is a rare document of Sydney Harbour in the first half of the 20th century depicting a variety of working and leisure craft indicative of the time. The focus is on the harbour life of boats and navigational markers rather than the landforms or buildings that surround it. Although painted for an exhibition of women’s work, the frieze stands alone as an exceptional example of the aesthetic and technical skill Binney had in an era when maritime painting and panoramas were genres traditionally dominated by men.