A great deal of gratitude from both our Nankivell descendants and also the citizens of Australia and New Zealand is owed to this man "Sir Rex de Charembac NanKivell K.B,- C.M.G.", a great grandson of Robert Rogers Nankivell.
     Sir Rex was a well known London art dealer and collector of all things relevant to the history of Australia and New Zealand and at his death, willed his huge collection to the Canberra Museum to become arguably the most important collection in their possession

Image Record No.: 12531
Creator: Buhler, Robert.
Title: Portrait of Rex Nan Kivell.
Publisher/Date: 1969.
Subject: Nan Kivell, Rex, 1899-1977 - Portraits.
Art - Collectors and collecting - New Zealand - Portraits.
Art - Collectors and collecting - Australia - Portraits.
Book collectors - New Zealand - Portraits.
Book collectors - Australia - Portraits.
Picture - Portrait.
Immutable: 7021863
Identifier: abn90-67309
Last Update: 31/07/1996
Call No.: T2207 LOC Pict.
Master: PCD96 3794-1024-1713 : img0009.pcd

Rex Nankivell 1898 -- 1977

 

  

Image Record No.: 12878
Creator: Kneale, Bryan (Robert Bryan Charles), b. 1930.
Title: Portrait of Rex de C. Nan Kivell.
Publisher/Date: 1960.
Image Format: 1 painting : oil on composition board ; 127 x 71.2 cm.
Series: Rex Nan Kivell Collection ; NK9530.
Coverage: New Zealand and Australia
Notes: Rex Nan Kivell Collection NK9530. Exhibited: Discerning Eye, RNK Collection, Canberra 1992; Sydney 1992; Melbourne 1992-1993. (ANL)T448
Subject: Nan Kivell, Rex, 1898-1977 -- Portraits.
Art -- Collectors and collecting -- New Zealand -- Portraits.
Art -- Collectors and collecting -- Australia -- Portraits.
Book collectors -- New Zealand -- Portraits.
Book collectors -- Australia -- Portraits.
Picture -- Portrait -- Oil.
Picture -- NLA exhibition 1992.
Picture -- Travelling exhibition 1992-1993.
Immutable: 2256819
Identifier: abn83063177
Last Update: 1999/11/18
Call No.: PIC T448. NK9530. Con 82.
Master: PCD96 3794-1024-1743 : IMG0003.PCD

 

 

Sir Rex de Charembac Nan Kivell (1898-1977) was a collector possessed of great imagination, taste and persistence. Born in New Zealand, he lived most of his life in London where he amassed an extensive collection of documentary evidence relating to the European exploration, discovery and colonisation of Australia, New Zealand and the Pacific. Comprising over 14 000 items in a variety of media - paintings, drawings, etchings, manuscripts, books, pamphlets, objects and maps - the Rex Nan Kivell Collection is a resource unrivalled for its beauty, coherence and comprehensiveness. It is also a portrait of its collector, revealing his obsessions: completeness carried to extremes, a zeal for every possible form of documentation, a passion for fine condition and a love of the odd and the quirky. To celebrate the centenary of Nan Kivell's birth, the National Library presents Paradise Possessed: The Rex Nan Kivell Collection.

Through his passion for collecting, Rex Nan Kivell recreated himself as an antiquarian and gentleman connoisseur of international repute. Based in London from 1919, he began to collect material for a pictorial history of New Zealand and Australia. His interests soon extended beyond the purely pictorial and, with extensive contacts in the art world, he was in an ideal position to extend his collection. Most of his purchases were made at auctions or through dealers who drew his attention to items they thought would interest him. He also contacted other collectors and families with significant colonial connections to see if they held material of interest that they would be prepared to sell. Concerned for the collection's safety in postwar Britain, Nan Kivell negotiated with the (then) Commonwealth Library to accept its care in return for unlimited public access. The first items began arriving in 1949 and ten years later, after protracted and delicate negotiations, the collection was purchased. Nan Kivell continued adding to the collection until his death in 1977.

On the recommendation of the Australian Government, Nan Kivell was twice honoured; first in 1966 with a CMG for services in providing the National Library of Australia with valuable early Australian and Pacific paintings and manuscripts; and then in 1976 with a knighthood for 'services to the Arts'.

 

Rex Nan Kivell Collection

One of the National Library's truly great collections is that formed by Rex de Charembac Nan Kivell - the Rex Nan Kivell Collection. Its greatness comes from its combination of pictorial, manuscript and printed material relating to Australia, New Zealand and the Pacific region.

In building his collection Nan Kivell aimed to assemble a pictorial and printed record of the early history of Australia, New Zealand and the Pacific together with something of a dictionary of portraits of those connected with the discovery, exploration and settlement of these areas. Early records of exploration by sea include Dutch and French maps, a folio of sketches by Captain Samuel Wallis during his voyage through the Pacific in 1767 and items from Cook's voyages, including drawings by John Weber and William Ellis. Drawings by Captain John Hunter, John Lycett, Conrad Martens and Augustus Earle provide early European impressions of Australia and the surrounding area. The progress of European settlement is documented by George French Angas, William Strutt, Govett, Dutereau, S.T. Gill, Skinner Prout, Von Guerard and Nicholas Chevalier. Manuscripts include items from, among others, James Cook, William Bligh, Joseph Banks and John Hunter. The numerous books and prints constitute a remarkably full resource for the study of the European adventure into the Southern Hemisphere

The printed books and pamphlets from the collection are available for use through the Petherick Reading Room. Manuscript, pictorial and map materials are available through the Manuscript, Pictorial and Map Reading Rooms respectively.

The Library also holds the papers of Rex Nan Kivell in the Manuscript Collection (MS 4000).

Joseph Griffiths Swayne, 1819-1903

Canterbury Plains from the Port Hills Showing the Coast of Pegasus Bay near Christchurch, NZ 1861

oil on canvas; 89.7 x 135.3 cm
Rex Nan Kivell Collection; NK1288 T405
National Library of Australia

Nicholas Matthew Condy, 1799-1857
Convict Hulks at Gravesend, England c.1830

oil on canvas; 33 x 45.5 cm
Rex Nan Kivell Collection; NK6062 T495
National Library of Australia

 

Paradise Possessed: the Rex Nan Kivell Collection
A magnificent exhibition of treasures from one of the world's greatest collections of material relating to the European discovery, exploration and colonisation of the South Pacific opens at the National Library Gallery in Canberra on 6 August.

Paradise Possessed: the Rex Nan Kivell Collection features intricate drawings and romantic landscapes, portraits and prints, manuscripts, books, rare maps and intriguing historical objects—many on public display for the first time.

The exhibition is a celebration of the centenary of Rex Nan Kivell's birth and a tribute to this collector of great foresight, imagination and persistence. By gathering together and repatriating a crucially significant part of our moveable cultural heritage, Rex Nan Kivell became one of the greatest collectors and benefactors this country has ever known.

Beginning in London in 1919 until his death in 1977, Sir Rex de Charambac Nan Kivell pursued his magnificent obsession to document, in word and image, the entire European encounter with Australasia and the South Pacific during the seventeenth, eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. He worked single handedly, and at first without great resources, to build his priceless collection, and in doing so triumphed over his early humble beginnings to reinvent himself as the archetypal gentleman connoisseur.

 

Acquired by the National Library by purchase and donation from the 1940s to the 1970s, the Nan Kivell collection is recognised internationally for its historical, artistic and intellectual significance. National Library Director-General Warren Horton says:

We are the very proud custodians of this collection on behalf of the peoples of Australia, New Zealand and the Pacific and are delighted in this important anniversary year to provide the opportunity for some of its riches to again be shared with the wider public.
The exhibition Paradise Possessed, and the accompanying book, explore the diversity and richness of this world class collection, its value to scholarship and the extraordinary vision and tenacity of its creator.


 

 

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