Portrait of Sir Samuel Gillott (Mayor 1900-02, Lord Mayor 1902-03) 1904

Summary

Sir Samuel Gillott was Melbourne’s first lord mayor, serving from 1902 to 1903. The period he spent in office was not without controversy, and his political career came to a blunt conclusion in 1906 when he was found in compromising circumstances. In 1904 the Truth newspaper alleged that he had been secretly funding the Madam Brussells brothel, an establishment frequented by some of Melbourne’s most influential people. Council’s original portrait of Lord Mayor Samuel Gillott was destroyed in the Town Hall fire of 1925. This portrait, a smaller version which was executed at the same time as the one that was destroyed, was gifted to Gillott by Council. It stayed in the Gillott family for many years and then turned up in a Sydney second-hand furniture shop. The work was purchased for Council’s Art and Heritage Collection and then underwent extensive conservation. The frame had to be re-made and gilded.