National Gallery of Victoria

As Australia's oldest and one of its finest public art galleries, the National Gallery of Victoria is a definite place to visit in the city of Melbourne. Established in 1861, there are now two sites, the NGV and The Ian Potter Centre, where their brief is to illuminate life by collecting, conserving and presenting great art. With 70,000 works of art, the NGV covers a huge range of different art including European painting (both historical and contemporary), fashion and textiles, photography, prints and drawings, Asian art, decorative arts, Mesoamerican art, Greek vases, Egyptian artefacts, historical European ceramics, Pacific art, sculpture, antiquities, and modern art. However, the Australian art collection here is most impressive, housing indigenous art, Australian colonial and impressionist painting alongside 20th century, modern and contemporary Australian art. Some of the country's most distinguished pieces can also be found here such as, Frederick McCubbin's The Pioneer and Tom Roberts' Shearing the Rams.