Rupert Bunny’s painting The Morning Hymn, has travelled a long way to make it to the walls of Rockhampton Art Gallery. Bunny completed the work in France in around 1923 and ten years later, after the death of his wife, Bunny then rolled up the canvas and brought it with him back to Australia. Five years after that, Bunny donated the painting to the Convent of the Sacred Heart in Glen Iris, Melbourne, where it stayed for four decades until it was offered for sale. Rockhampton Art Gallery, flush with dollars from then Mayor Rex Pilbeam’s fundraising campaign, purchased the painting for our city. It is an eclectic painting to say the least. Beautifully crafted, and loaded with symbols, the work traverses between a depiction of a biblical story – the return from Egypt for Joseph, Mary and Jesus – with a literal representation of time and place. When it was painted, Bunny and his wife had just moved to regional France, where they managed their own vegetable garden. Perhaps this garden is the source of inspiration for the setting of The Morning Hymn? Joseph, the carpenter, is seen only in the background while in the foreground Mary holds baby Jesus, with both appearing to listen to the songs of the cherubim choir in the tree above. At Mary’s feet is a basket of pomegranates. To her right John the Baptist as a child with a toy placed behind him. The painting is loaded with motifs specific to Christianity, but the reading is beguiling – is this a metaphorical scene of hope and renewal, or a contemplation of divinity? (http://www.rockhamptonartgallery.com.au/Learn/Collection/Australian_Art/Rupert_BUNNY) Depicts the biblical story of holy family and St John the Baptist in Nazareth, but painting is also a variation of artists many secular images of women listening to a distant song. (http://aumuseums.com/qld/fitzroy/rockhampton-art-gallery)