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Marketing

In 1931 Sidney Myer (1878 – 1934) Russian emigre turned Melbourne businessman and philanthropist decided to reinvigorate his store the Myer Emporium by redeveloping his flagship Bourke Street store at 314-336 Bourke Street. Part of this included a new facade in the prevailing interwar style of the time – Art Deco and the addition of several more floors to what was already a very large department store. On the sixth floor a chic European style ballroom with soaring ceilings, sweeping stairs and parquet flooring was planned for use by the emporium’s patrons as a dining room by day and in which Myer could host Parisian fashion shows and hold exclusive Melbourne society events by night. The Myer Mural Hall, so called because of an impressive collection of ten murals by Australian artist Napier Waller, was the realisation of Sidney Myer’s dream.

The Mural Hall, a dining hall suitable for a sitting for one thousand people and a venue for fashion parades and performances, was completed in 1933 as part of the sixth floor which was set aside for dining. It is a large rectangular space with a decorative plaster ceiling and balconies and wall panels in a Streamline Moderne style. However, it is the decoration of ten murals by renowned artist Napier Waller (1893-1972) that are the Mural Hall’s claim to fame. The murals took a little over a year to complete and were painted at Napier Waller’s home at Fairy Hills in Ivanhoe before being transported to the department store where they were hung. Completed in 1934, just after Sidney Myer’s death, eight of the murals are almost floor to ceiling, whilst the remaining two are located over the two side entrances. All pay homage to the seasons and to women and their achievements through history in the areas of art, opera, literature, dance, sport and fashion.

The eastern wall features a mural "Pagent of Beautiful Women in History". It features: Isabella of Argouleme (1188 – 1246), known as the Helen of her age, and Queen of England as the second wife of King John; Catherine the Fair, Catherine Montague, Countess of Salisbury (1304 – 1349) who is remembered for her relationship with England’s King Edward III; and Joan, Countess of Kent (1328 – 1385), who is known in history as the Fair Maid of Kent and was married to Edward the Black Prince and was the first English Princess of Wales.

Napier Waller (1893 – 1972) was a noted Australian muralist, mosaicist and painter. He served in France from 1916, being so seriously wounded at Bullecourt that he lost his right arm. He was right-handed but learned to use his left hand while recuperating. Back in Australia, he established his reputation by exhibiting more paintings. He is perhaps best known for the mosaics and stained glass for the Hall of Memory at the Australian War Memorial, Canberra, completed in 1958. However, Melbourne has been described as "a gallery of Napier Waller’s work". Pieces of Napier Waller’s works may be found in the Melbourne Town Hall (1927), the State Library of Victoria (1928), the T & G Life Building (1929), Newspaper House (1933), Florentino’s Restaurant (1934), the Wesley Church (1935) and the University of Melbourne (1940) as well as the Myer Mural Hall.

these 2 photos are of the Peacock Room at the Freer Gallery in Washington DC; this spectacular room was originally the dining room in the London home of Frederick Richards Leyland, a wealthy shipowner from Liverpool; the room was designed by architect Thomas Jeckyll to house Leyland's collection of Chinese porcelain on an intricate series of latticed shelves; the painter James MacNeill Whistler's painting "The Princess from the Land of Porcelain" hangs over the fireplace mantle; when Jeckyll was forced to leave the project due to illness, Whistler took over, adding the gilt decorations and wall paintings to the leather panels of the room, not entirely to his patron's pleasure; when Leyland died in 1892, Freer acquired the room which eventually made its way to the Freer Gallery when it opened in 1923