The Hon. Duncan Gillies (1834–1903) was an Australian colonial politician who served as the 14th Premier of Victoria from 1886 to 1890. He was a member of the Victorian Parliament for more than four decades, between 1861 up until his death in 1903.
Josephine Muntz Adams painted this portrait of him in 1895 in London, where the former Premier was serving as Agent-General for Victoria after being voted from office.
It was painted when Josephine was at the height of her demand as a portraitist, earning up to £150 a portrait. Despite the lucrative earnings, portraiture could be gruelling work, keeping the sitter engaged with a steady flow of conversation.
Josephine needn’t have worried with Gillies as, by all reports, he was an affable and willing sitter. As New Idea noted: ‘Her pleasantest task was painting a State Premier. Instead of having to entertain the statesman, the statesman entertained the artist with a flow of anecdotes that never stopped.’1
Table Talk also noted that Gillies was ‘prompt at keeping his appointments, and considered it more his duty to entertain the artist, than for the artist to entertain him’.2
This easy rapport no doubt enabled Josephine to achieve a remarkable likeness to the man himself. ‘The cherubic flesh tints, characteristic of the sitter, are in no way subdued, and the expression is equally true.’3
In 1898, Josephine was awarded a gold medal for this portrait, which was shown at the Greater Britain Exhibition in London. It was later shown as part of Josephine’s exhibition at the Athenaeum Gallery in 1943.
Image courtesy of Parliament House, Victoria.
