Summary
This aquatint etching was made by Brian Dunlop (1938–2009), an artist best known for his figurative paintings but whose practice encompassed etching. This print medium is well suited to the 19th-century boom-style classicism of his architectural subject, which in the world beyond the frame sits anomalously on today’s multi-lane and much-maligned Hoddle Street. Dunlop showed this work in a 1985 exhibition titled ‘Melbourne Celebrates’, from where it was acquired directly from the artist for the city’s collection.
Made in 1982, the print depicts a line of industrious figures, who look like nothing so much as a chain-gang from a bygone era – not that Victoria was a convict colony. While the workers labour on the frontage outside the town hall, the scaffolding on the turret suggests a program of maintenance to the building designed by architect George Johnson. Johnson was responsible for many civic buildings in Victoria, and this town hall was one of his most distinguished and was built between 1885 and 1890.
