Heide I
Heide: Making history tours
Heide: Making history tours (Heide I)
Tours 2.00pm
Thursdays and Saturdays
Heide I is open for guided tours only - no general admission
Tickets:
Adult $10
Senior $9
Heide Member/Concession $8
Bookings T 03 9850 1500
Education tours available Tuesday-Friday for booked groups
Tickets: From $4.00 per student
Bookings T 03 9850 1500
Heide I
Photographer: David Marks 2001
John Reed, a solicitor, and Sunday Quinn (née Baillieu) met in 1930 and married in 1932. The Reeds had broad intellectual interests in art, politics, literature, poetry and a great passion for gardening. They were also champions of the modernist art that was emerging in Melbourne at that time.
From the 1930s onwards, the Reeds welcomed into their home an ever-widening circle of artists, writers, musicians, poets and garden enthusiasts. Some of Australia’s most acclaimed artists visited Heide and were supported by the Reeds, including: Sam Atyeo, Albert Tucker, Joy Hester, Michael Keon, Sidney Nolan, Danila Vassilieff, Mirka Mora, Charles Blackman, Arthur Boyd, John Perceval, Mike Brown and many others.
History permeates every corner of the heritage house, now known as Heide I. The library was the centre of social life at Heide. It was here that the Reeds spent evenings writing, entertaining friends and house guests, and reading from the extensive collection of books and journals they assembled from Europe and the United States.
As well as being advocates of contemporary art, John and Sunday Reed were also great appreciators of the 19th century Heidelberg School painters. Sunday Reed owned and hung at Heide several works by family friend and renowned artist, Arthur Streeton, who had painted her as a young girl.
Heide I’s dining room has a fascinating history. It was here that Sidney Nolan painted 26 of his original 27 Ned Kelly paintings. This artistic heritage continued in 1969-1970, when Mike Brown, an artist and friend of Sweeney and Pamela Reed, painted his mural It ain’t necessarily so… on the dining room walls, windows, doors and floor.
Surrounding Heide I are extensive gardens originally established by John and Sunday Reed and their friends. They include the Heart Garden, the Vegetable Garden, the Wild Garden and two of Heide’s heritage-listed Osage orange groves. In late 2005, Melbourne sculptor Lauren Berkowitz and Heide gardeners installed a plant-based sculpture in the grounds of Heide I: Karakarook’s garden (2005–06).
If you have any materials that you feel would be of interest to Heide Museum of Modern Art for inclusion in its archives, please email info@heide.com.au or call T 03 9850 1500.
Click here to read the media release Creating a new future for Heide’s history and heritage (pdf file, 49kb)
