G.A. Thorley, 1988, tall ships, Port Melbourne, Australia's bicentenary
Summary
Born in Melbourne, Graham Thorley (1921–90) painted from the tender age of nine, later training at the National Gallery Art School, under William Beckwith McInnes among others. After painting for the greater part of his life, in the mid-1960s Thorley declared he was putting down his paints and brushes and moving from the Dandenongs to the Kimberley. He returned to both Victoria and his practice in the 1970s, settling in Trentham.
Thorley’s ‘Standing and Staring at Tall Ships – Port Melbourne’ entered the collection through the Lord Mayor’s Acquisitive Art Award in 1988. That year, Australia was celebrating the bicentenary of the First Fleet’s arrival at Sydney Cove and the beginning of European settlement – no matter the punitive terms under which most early settlers made the Australian colonies their home. The ‘tall ships’, seen in the ports of Sydney and Melbourne among other cities during 1988, were something of a symbol for this chapter of Australian history. In this painting, Thorley’s subjects bathe in Port Phillip Bay’s tepid waters close to the tall ships on the horizon. There is a sense of untroubled lightness and ease to this painting, but one still wonders if its bathers are considering the history represented by the ships or if they are simply enjoying the view.
