The National Museum of Australia has acquired one of the late Rover Thomas' most significant works, Jabanunga aka Goorialla (The Rainbow Serpent).
Worth $1.2 million, the work by the Kimberley artist was created in 1996 at the Warmun community art centre in Western Australia's east Kimberley region.
It depicts the Rainbow Serpent penetrating the earth, following a subterranean journey to the sea after Cyclone Tracy's destruction of Darwin in 1973.
The 2.7 metre by 1.8 metre canvas is painted in natural ochres, and "reflects a master artist at the peak of his powers", the museum said in a statement.
The work was gifted to the NMA under the federal government's Cultural Gifts Program by Michael Blanche, Director of the Lauraine Diggins Fine Art Gallery in Victoria, in honour of his late wife Lauraine Diggins OAM, who passed away in 2019.
During her lifetime Lauraine was determined to do whatever she could and use her considerable influence to ensure that many of the important art works created in Australia and overseas became part of the national estate, Mr Blanche said in a statement.
National Museum Council chair Warwick Smith thanked Mr Blanche in a statement: "On behalf of the National Museum I'd like to express my enormous gratitude to Mr Blanche for the generous gift in honour of his late wife. I know that future visitors to the Museum will be entranced by this magnificent painting and the important cultural story that it depicts."
