Summary

Large trade union banner produced for the Operative Painters' & Decorators' Union of Australasia, Victorian Branch, 1915. It is painted on two sides of a single piece of canvas and was made by W. G. Dunstan.

It was included on the Victorian Heritage Register 8 December 2005.

Physical Description

Side 1: The central area has four female figures representing Art (with palette and brushes), Sign writing (with mahl stick and brush), Paperhanging and Pasting (with scissors, roll of paper and container of paste). The figures are framed by a loggia decorated with the linked triple eight and are grouped around a monument, inscribed with words attributed to Schiller. A coat-of-arms using abstracted forms derived from two main sources - the arms granted to the London guild of painters in 1486 and the arms subsequently given to the Company of Painter-Stainers who amalgamated with them in 1502 - is in the centre near the top, while the name of the union runs along the top and bottom edges. Side 2: A depiction of the interior of a large drawing room, with figures demonstrating the variety of skills needed at the time for painting, decorating and paperhanging, including marbling, gilding, freehand drawing and frieze painting. In the centre a paper hanger prepares paper on a trestle table; to the left a second paper hanger stands on a ladder-supported plank while below him a painter sits on a step and paints marbling on the wall next to him. Towards the rear of the room other painters are busy working on gilding, friezes, murals and wall paintings. Signed lower right corner.

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