Dunedin Public Art Gallery

The Dunedin Public Art Gallery is the principal public art museum of Dunedin, New Zealand, situated in The Octagon at the centre of the city. Founded in 1884, it holds the distinction of being the first public art gallery established in New Zealand. Owned by the Dunedin City Council, the gallery serves as a major cultural institution alongside neighbouring civic facilities including the public library, Dunedin Town Hall, and the Regent Theatre. Its website is http://www.dunedin.art.museum/.

The gallery was founded by W. M. Hodgkins in 1884, making it New Zealand's first public art gallery. Its early history involved a series of relocations: it originally occupied what is now the maritime gallery in the Otago Museum, moved to the Municipal Chambers in The Octagon from 1888 to 1890, then to an annex of the Otago Museum. In 1907 it transferred to a purpose-designed building in Queen's Gardens, with an additional structure for the Otago Settlers Museum added in 1908. In 1927 the gallery moved to a building in Logan Park, Dunedin North, constructed for the 1925-26 New Zealand and South Seas International Exhibition and designed by Edmund Anscombe. Sir Percy and Lady Sargood purchased this building and donated it to the city as a memorial to their son, who was killed at Gallipoli. The gallery's final move came in 1996, when it relocated to its present site in the refitted D.I.C. building in The Octagon. Throughout its history, the gallery has hosted significant international exhibitions, including Masterpieces of the Guggenheim in the 1990s and the touring Tate Gallery exhibition The Pre-Raphaelite Dream.

The gallery maintains a strong collection spanning historic and contemporary works by both New Zealand and overseas artists. It possesses one of the most numerous collections of works by Frances Hodgkins, who was born in Dunedin. The gallery holds the most extensive collection of Old Master paintings in New Zealand and the most significant holdings of paintings by post-1800 overseas artists. A distinctive feature setting it apart from other major New Zealand public galleries is its development of decorative arts collections from the 1920s onwards, modelled on London's Victoria and Albert Museum and American art museums. This has resulted in extensive and unparalleled holdings in New Zealand of ceramics, glassware, metalwork, furniture, and textiles, predominantly of overseas origin.

The gallery's collections include works by numerous major European artists: Jacopo del Casentino (Landini), Zanobi Machiavelli, Benvenuto Tisi (Garofalo), Ridolfo Ghirlandaio, Carlo Maratta, Luca Giordano, Salvator Rosa, Claude Lorrain, Hans Rottenhammer, Pieter de Grebber, Marcus Gheeraerts the Younger, William Dobson, Cornelis Janssens van Ceulen (Cornelius Johnson), Jan van Goyen, Allan Ramsay, Thomas Gainsborough, Joshua Reynolds, George Romney, Henry Raeburn, John Hoppner, J. M. W. Turner, John Constable, Théodore Rousseau, Giovanni Fattori, Silvestro Lega, James Tissot, Johan Jongkind, Claude Monet, Edward Burne-Jones, George Frederic Watts, Sir Stanley Spencer, Walter Sickert, Laurence Lowry, and André Derain. The British watercolours, a gift of F.H.D. Smythe, comprise over 1300 works and are outstanding in New Zealand. The gallery also holds significant overseas Old Master and modern prints and drawings, including a notable collection of Japanese woodblock prints. Key New Zealand works include George O'Brien's Lawyer's Head from Forbury Head, Sunrise, Petrus Van der Velden's A Waterfall in the Otira Gorge, G.P. Nerli's Portrait of a Girl, C.F. Goldie's All 'e Same t'e Pakeha, Alfred Henry O'Keeffe's The Defence Minister's Telegram, Rita Angus's 1937 Self-Portrait, Colin McCahon's The 5 Wounds of Christ, and Ralph Hotere's Rosemary. Among decorative arts, the William De Morgan Dragon Charger is a highlighted example.

The gallery is located in The Octagon, the heart of Dunedin's city centre. Its current home is the refitted D.I.C. building, which it has occupied since 1996. This central location places it in close proximity to the city's public library, Dunedin Town Hall, and the Regent Theatre, integrating it within a cluster of civic and cultural institutions.

The Dunedin Public Art Gallery is situated in The Octagon, Dunedin, New Zealand, and is owned by the Dunedin City Council. Its official website, http://www.dunedin.art.museum/, provides further information for visitors. The gallery continues to serve as the city's main public art collection and a venue for significant exhibitions. As of the sources' information, the director is Cam McCracken, who has held the position since 2012.