Introduction: Grainger Photographed

Unknown photographer, Ella and Percy Grainger, early 1930s. Sepia toned silver gelatin print. Grainger Museum collection 17.0004

This online exhibition is a selection of key images from the Grainger Museum collection that show the public and private side of Australia's maverick musician. Percy Grainger understood the power of the photograph to document significant events and to entice and persuade an adoring public. The Grainger Museum Archive includes close to 15,000 photographs. The majority of these are images of people—generally portraits—including many signed photographs gifted to Grainger by members of his social milieu, eminent society figures, and established artists. But by far the most common subject matter in the collection is Grainger himself, taken formally and informally across the trajectory of his life.

Exhibition curated by Brian Allison