Footnotes

PROVENANCE
Mr William Lynch Esq, Melbourne
Gallery Paintings, Collected by the Late William Lynch, Gemmell, Tuckett & Co., Melbourne, 14–15 December 1903, lot 222
The Craig Collection, Melbourne
Leonard Joel, Melbourne, 7 March 1946
Mr Daryl Manley, Victoria
Private collection, Melbourne

EXHIBITED
National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne, 17 May 1877
Exhibition of Loan Collection of Pictures, The Peoples Palace, Art Gallery, Exhibition Building, Melbourne, 30 March 1891, cat. 19, loaned by William Lynch

LITERATURE
Tim Bonhady, Australian Colonial Paintings in the National Gallery of Australia, Australian National Gallery, Oxford University Press, 1986, p.74

RELATED WORKS
A Sheikh and his son entering Cairo on their return from a pilgrimage to Mecca, 1874, oil on canvas, 139.5 x 244.5cm, in the collection of the National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne
Street Scene, Cairo, 1874, oil on canvas, 61.0 x 45.6cm, in the collection of the National Gallery of Australia, Canberra


The present work, The Italian Mission in Egypt, 1875, was one of seven paintings — five of them Orientalist in theme — sent unframed from London to Melbourne in 1877. This initiative was driven by the artist's entrepreneurial elder brother, Henry Dowling of Launceston, and coincided with the National Gallery of Victoria's display of Robert Dowling's Orientalist tour de force, A Sheikh and His Son Entering Cairo, on Their Return from a Pilgrimage to Mecca, 1874.

The remaining paintings were offered for sale through Gemmell and Tuckett as "an experiment on public taste in this Colony." Just five days later, Henry Dowling agreed to loan four of these works, including The Italian Mission in Egypt, 1875, to the National Gallery of Victoria, where the large-scale Cairo painting was already on view. That work was eventually acquired for the collection in August 1878, thanks to a subscription fund organised by a group of supportive gentlemen led by Henry. The same four paintings were also loaned for exhibition at the Art Gallery of New South Wales later that year.

The distinguished Melbourne collector William Lynch acquired The Italian Mission in Egypt from Gemmell and Tuckett sometime thereafter. The painting was certainly in his collection at his Brighton residence, Bombala, prior to 1891. In March of that year, Lynch reputedly lent it to the Exhibition of Loan Pictures at the Salvation Army's People's Palace, located at 131 King Street, Melbourne. Following Lynch's death on 27 May 1901, after a luncheon at The Australian Club, his large art collection was offered for sale at Gemmell and Tuckett under the title Gallery Paintings Collected by the Late William Lynch Esq.

The rediscovery of this previously unlocated painting, The Italian Mission in Cairo (depicting a lay brother returning from market), significantly expands our understanding of Dowling's Orientalist oeuvre. Rich in detail, the work offers a vivid depiction of Cairo's bustling street life, architecture, and market activity, with the artist inserting himself into the scene. It exemplifies Victorian narrative painting, referencing the Franciscan mission in Egypt, a presence dating back to the Fifth Crusade.

With thanks to Mr John Jones, a former curator at the National Gallery of Australia, Canberra, and author of Robert Dowling: Tasmanian Son of Empire.