Royal Art Society Of New South Wales
Art in North Sydney

Their beginning exhibitions were held in the Garden Palace in 1880 where 220 oil and watercolor paintings and drawings were hung. It was designed by James Barnes and constructed in honest eight months. The design was cruciform with nave and transepts and a central dome. Lower the dome stood a bronze statue of Queen Victoria. Behind the exhibition closed in April 1880, the building was impaired as an auditorium and gallery to house the first mining and technological museum. The Garden Palace also provided office space for a number of government departments and it was here that the hasty artists of the Art Society of MSW would hold their exhibitions. All the paintings sent for the 1882 exhibition were destroyed and the Palace was gutted. The Impressionistic labor of Streeton and his fellow artists was not taken kindly by the art critics of the day and was solid to sell. The size corresponded to a cigar box lid on which most of the pictures were painted. Lister was elected onto the Committee and became President in 1897. Tom Roberts was one of those young artists who had been to France and became interested in the progress of the Art Society of MSW, where he met Charles Conner who was then a pupil of the society and whose painting Low Tide on the Hawkesbury River was in that year’s exhibition. In 1903 the Society was honored to be given the title Royal by His Majesty King Edward VII. In order to lay the foundations of an Australian School of painting a life class was soon established. Julian Aston was elected a member of the Committee of the Art Society in 1885 and became President in 1887. Eileen by Tom Roberts was first exhibited with our Society in 1892 collections of AGNSW. Beginning floor of our vogue premises (circa 1964) was impaired as a meeting room and gallery. It is now an art studio and the veranda area contains a trivial library and art supplies. Rear view of the OAS at the time of purchase in 1956, whole with washing line and grassy area where the vogue vehicle park is located.