Emma Soyer acquired by NGV Melbourne
April 16 2026
Picture: NGV Melbourne
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
News has arrived via the website of the National Gallery of Victoria in Melbourne that they have acquired Emma Soyer's (c.1809-1842) A girl with a basket of tulips, lilacs and other flowers, on a balcony before a landscape. The picture was acquired with funds from the Eva Mandel Bequest and Krystyna Campbell-Pretty AM and Family, and compliments their other recently acquired Soyer, called The Escape, which appeared at a Christie's sale in 2023.
As it happens, Soyer's Flower Girl was initially spotted by my friend Dominic Sanchez Cabello and myself a few years ago in the collection of Melford Hall in Suffolk (which is partly owned by the National Trust and still inhabited by its historic family). The owners didn't know of its significance and shortly afterwards the picture appeared hanging in the Christie's Private Sales galleries who presumably made the sale to the Australian gallery. Congratulations to all involved, it is a stunning addition to Soyer's growing oeuvre (of which there is more to be said in due course).
Update - Here's a short blog from Dominic on the picture.
