The Art Gallery of South Australia is one of Australia’s great treasure houses. Established in 1881, it is the premier arts institution in Adelaide and the state of South Australia

A break away!, by Tom Roberts  (1856-1931)		Evening shadows, backwater of the Murray, South Australia by H.J. Johnstone (1835-1907)

The National Art Gallery of South Australia (as it was then known) was opened on 18 June 1881 only forty-five years after English settlers first gathered at Holdfast Bay to mark the Proclamation of the Colony of South Australia.

Al Fresco by  E. Phillips Fox (1865-1915)		The Risen Christ with the two Marys in the Garden of Joseph of Arimathea by William Holman Hunt (1827-1910)

The collection began primarily as a collection of British contemporary painting and sculpture indicative of the colony’s strong ties with its motherland. Early purchases included paintings by Britain’s most famous living artists including J.W. Waterhouse and were followed by works by Pre-Raphaelites, making the Gallery a major repository of late Victorian art. Notable Continental works include those by Bouguereau and Renoir.

At the beginning of the twentieth century some broadening of the direction of the collections began and they now include contemporary art, colonial art as well as Indigenous Australian work.

The collections of the AGSA join those of the Art Gallery of New South Wales in Sydney, the National Gallery of Victoria in Melbourne, the National Library of Australia in Canberra and the State Library of New South Wales in making the Bridgeman Art Library the greatest single commercial resource for cultural images in Australian collections.

Arundel Castle from the north-west		View of Arundel Castle from the south-east by William Daniell (1769-1837)

Arundel Castle in West Sussex has been the seat of the Dukes of Norfolk and their ancestors for over 850 years. As the premier Roman Catholic family in England the fortunes of the Fitzalan-Howards have waxed and waned throughout our turbulent history during which members of the family often played central roles at royal courts, in politics, in the army and in public service.

Thomas Howard, 2nd Earl of Arundel,  with his Grandson Thomas, later 5th Duke of Norfolk, by Sir Anthony van Dyck (1599-1601)		St. Philip Howard, 13th Earl of Arundel Frederico Zuccari (1540-1609)

St Philip Howard, who was imprisoned in the Tower of London by Queen Elizabeth I, died refusing to recant his faith and was canonised in 1970 as one of the Forty Martyrs of England and Wales. While the castle has undergone many alterations over the centuries the family’s collections have grown and include wonderful portraits by Hans Holbein, Sir Anthony van Dyck, Sir Joshua Reynolds and views of Venice by Canaletto.

The Bridgeman Art Library is delighted and honoured to be chosen to represent the Art Gallery of South Australia and Arundel Castle and over the next few months will be making available hundreds of images for licensing.