View of Geelong
painting by Eugene von Guerard
Throughout this article, the $ symbol refers to the Australian dollar.
View of Geelong is an 1856 oil painting on canvas by Eugene von Guerard. The painting measures 154.5 x 89 cm and is owned by the Geelong Art Gallery in Victoria, Australia.
It was purchased from English composer Andrew Lloyd Webber for $3.8M. The purchase is the second highest ever for an Australian work of art, with the top being $5.3M paid by the National Gallery of Australia for a portrait of Captain James Cook by John Webber. [1]
Lloyd Webber had bought the painting in 1996 for A$1.98 million.
In 1996, the painting was loaned to the Geelong Art Gallery, where it proved popular.
In 2005, Lloyd Webber offered the painting for sale via auction house Christie's of London, giving the Geelong Gallery first right of refusal. On 7 July 2006 the Geelong Gallery purchased the painting for permanent display in the Geelong Gallery, after being offered $1.5 million from the Victorian state government and the remainder being sought via a community fundraising appeal.
The public source identifies “View of Geelong” as painting by Eugene von Guerard. This brief keeps that definition visible, then builds a research path around View, Geelong and painting.
Why this record matters
A short description can identify a subject without explaining its stakes. For “View of Geelong”, the useful work is to connect “painting by Eugene von Guerard” to the records capable of establishing context and consequence.
Object files, edition statements, performance records and contemporary criticism preserve different stages of the work’s history. The source revision retrieved here is dated Jun 22, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q7928775. Authority coordinates are -38.147, 144.357. None of the 2 selected statements returned an explicit reference. The first chronological checks are 1856, 1996, 2005 and 2006.
Rights, attribution and provenance may remain disputed even when a general reference summary presents a stable account. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.
How to read it
Separate the work, its editions or performances, and its later reception. Catalogue records, publication histories and object files often preserve different parts of that story.
- Identifying works and editions
- Tracing reception history
- Finding collection records
The original object or edition, catalogue raisonné, performance record, rights file and holding institution.
Three-step research path
- Establish the record: confirm the title “View of Geelong”, its source revision and the description used here.
- Expand the search: follow View of Geelong primary sources, View of Geelong archive and View research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
- Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.
Questions for further research
- Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “View of Geelong”?
- How did later circulation or interpretation alter the work’s reception?
- Where is authorship, date or provenance documented?
Search terms from this dossier
This entry incorporates text from “View of Geelong” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.