December 16, 2013
The South Burnett will get a new tourist attraction this weekend – and if the local reaction is anything like it was in Melbourne in 1883, riots can be expected to occur soon afterwards …
At noon on Saturday, December 21 the wraps will come off the only known copy of one of Australia’s most famous paintings, “Chloe”.
The new painting will be taking pride of place on the dining room wall at the Wondai Hotel and Cellar where it’s been kept under a shroud for the last fortnight awaiting its official unveiling.
The original Chloe has been hanging at Melbourne’s famous Young & Jackson Hotel since it was acquired by the hotel’s former owner Henry Young in 1909.
It’s now an Australian icon and has been under the protection of the National Trust and Heritage Victoria since 1988.
The original Chloe was painted in 1875 by respected French artist Jules Lefebvre, using an unknown 19-year-old model known only as Marie, rumoured to be Lefebvre’s lover.
It was exhibited at the Paris Salon that year to critical acclaim, winning the prestigious Gold Medal Of Honour.
The painting travelled to Australia four years later to be part of the Sydney International Exhibition of 1879, then on to the Melbourne International Exhibition in 1880, where it was purchased by Dr Thomas Fitzgerald for 850 guineas.
Then it went on loan to the Adelaide Art Gallery in 1883, before returning to the National Gallery of Victoria later that same year.
While the painting had drawn nothing but awards and admiration from critics and the public during its first four years in Australia, its return to Victoria’s National Gallery in 1883 sparked public outrage after the Ladies Social Purity Society of Victoria decided the painting’s nudity represented an attack on “the purity of young women”.
They launched public protests and a furious letter-writing campaign to the Melbourne Argus which caused Dr Fitzgerald to withdraw the work from public view.
It then remained mounted in a back room of his home for the next 26 years.
Henry Young purchased the painting from Fitzgerald’s estate in 1909 and mounted the picture in the main bar of his hotel – the busiest in Melbourne – where it rapidly become an icon.
Chloe was moved upstairs in the historic hotel in 1987, where it now presides over Chloe’s Bar and Dining Room.
It is housed under five-millimetre-thick protective glass and is conservatively valued at more than $1 million.
The Wondai Hotel’s version of Chloe was painted by Jan Lewis (mother of former swimming star Hayley), who specialises in copying old masters.
Jan had an exhbition of her “Fabulous Fakes” at the nearby Wondai Regional Art Gallery in May this year. She also painted the lifesize portrait of Lady Flo Bjelke-Petersen that now hangs in the Gallery as part of its permanent collection.
Wondai Hotel owners Michael and Jessica Beohm said they were “ecstatic” when their Chloe arrived.
The couple had been looking for an iconic artwork to hang in the dining room of the refurbished Wondai Hotel.
They said they were “floored” by the quality of Jan’s work, which is bigger and better than the original.
By accident, Wondai’s Chloe is about 25cm bigger than Melbourne’s Chloe.
The reason?
“When we researched the painting’s size, we found a lot of resources on the Internet that gave its dimensions. But none of then mentioned that this included the painting’s gilt frame, which is about 5 inches wide all around,” Jessica explained.
“So Jan created her copy to these dimensions. Which means our Chloe is several inches taller than the Melbourne one!”
The painting will be officially unveiled to the public this Saturday at noon, after which the Hotel will be throwing a small party to welcome Chloe to the region.
Saxophonist Tom McKenzie will be playing on the hotel’s rear deck throughout the afternoon, and there’ll be specials on La Boheme wines from the Yarra Valley near Melbourne (“they suit the Chloe theme,” Jessica said).
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