Slumbering Sea Mentone

To

see how the Heidelberg School artist, Tom
Roberts, has captured the feeling of this
place, see Google’s

zoomable high resolution version.
That is part of the Google Cultural
Institute, which is an online display of
the greatest paintings in the major art
galleries of the world. The painting above
is best viewed at that high resolution
hyperlink as it is one of a number that
Google Inc. displays at its gigapixel
level of resolution, which allows viewers
to zoom into individual brush strokes, as
the Institute’s excellent commentary
explains. The painting was privately owned
until the 1980s, when the National Gallery
of Victoria bought it.

The State of Victoria owns both this
masterpiece and, more importantly, the
splendid landscape it depicts, but there
is imminent danger of that landscape –
which is of international cultural and
scientific interest – being grossly marred
and set on the path of ongoing
despoilation by Beaumaris Motor Yacht
Squadron’s proposed power boat storage
against the cliff and on much of the sea.