The design may have been unfairly attributed solely to Richard Speight Junior (1860–1927). Speight might well have conceived and even drawn the winning design however at the time he was in partnership with Harry Tompkins. In 1898 Tompkins would go on to form a partnership with his brother Frank (HW & FB Tompkins) and that Practice would become the foremost practitioners of the American Romanesque in Melbourne.

The style in Australia was strongly influenced by American Architects and in particular Henry Hobson Richardson (1838–1886). This marked a significant shift away from the customary colonial European cultural and architectural influence of classical and Gothic Revival styles. Whereas others had been content to design churches in a more or less faithful reproduction of medieval Romanesque, Richardson developed the Romanesque for use in a range of institutional and commercial buildings. He developed his own simplified version of the style which in hindsight was a precursor to that of the 20th century Modern Movement more commonly attributed to his successors Louis Sullivan and Frank Lloyd Wright. (Ref Thomas Crane Public Library, Mass 1880, Ames Free Library, New England 1883).

After Richardson’s death the style was developed and popularised by other American Architects and reached Australia in the early 1890s, when it became commonly identified as the ‘American Romanesque’ style.

The style gained its strength from its qualities of simplicity and weighty robustness. A masonry style, it featured masonry walls and squat round-headed arches typically used over building entrances. The mature style made relatively small inroads into Victoria with the classical Romanesque and Gothic revival styles (eg, St Patricks and St Pauls Cathedrals, Melbourne) maintaining their popularity in Christian church construction.

But, for the first time, at Dulwich the gallery gains its independence from the private house; right from the start it was intended for public viewing. This basic arrangement—a sequence of connected rooms, top-lit as to leave large areas of blank wall on which to display the pictures became the standard model followed by Nineteenth and Twentieth century architects.

William Wilkins (1778–1839) adopted this principle for the design of the National Gallery London (1832) and in the twentieth century by Robert Venturi (1925–2018) and Denise Scott Brown (1931–) for the Sainsbury Wing extension (1991).

In the day the VAS walls, like those currently in the NGV International and NGV Potter Galleries, were painted in rich earth and air colours.

Contemporary Galleries seem to be either squeamish or hesitant when it comes to the colour of their walls preferring either neutral greys or just plain white; a hangover from the general sterility of the Modern Movement’s preference for no colour at all. Too often painting the walls white avoids the more difficult task of choosing suitable colours. Taking the colour and natural light out of our galleries neuters the viewing environment. Visit any of the major art galleries in Australia and around the world and you will find their walls alive with natural colour.

Despite the early break Streeton returned time and time again throughout his career to exhibit individually and collectively at the VAS no doubt attracted by the quality of the space and light and the colour in the Galleries by now at the centre of City of Melbourne.

References

Wray, C 1993, ‘Arthur Streeton-Painter of Light,’ Jacaranda Wiley

Davies, C 1985, ‘Dulwich Picture Gallery’, AJ Masters of Building, Architectural Press