Walk into NSW Parliament House on Macquarie Street for the politics and you also walk into a working art collection — portraits of premiers and speakers, marble busts along the Legislative Council, ceremonial objects in Fountain Court, loans from the State Library and the Art Gallery hanging where members still pass them on the way to a division.
The collection grew the colonial way: gifts, bequests, the odd purchase, and sculptors such as Achille Simonetti, Joseph Durham and Charles Summers populating the Council chamber with worthies in white stone. Paintings track the same story — Parkes and company staring down from the walls — while newer commissions (and the Fountain Court pieces) keep the precinct from freezing in 1890. This post gathers photographs of those works.
For the sandstone and chamber chronology — 1816 hospital wing, 1829 occupation, 1856 bicameral fit-out — see the longer Parliament House – Macquarie Street post.
Artworks Housed in NSW Parliament House
New South Wales Parliament House in Macquarie Street, Sydney, is the historic home of the state's parliament. This post records artworks associated with the building and shows how portraits and ceremonial imagery connect the institution to the people and events of New South Wales.
