Across the street from Flinders Street Station is a pub known less for its beer (served up since 1861) than its iconic nude painting of the teenaged Chloe, painted by Jules Joseph Lefebvre. Chloe's yearning gaze, cast over her shoulder and out of the frame, was a hit at the Paris Salon of 1875.
The painting caused an outcry in parochial, provincial Melbourne, however, and was removed from display at the National Gallery of Victoria. Eventually purchased by publican and ‘art lover’ Henry Figsby Young in 1909, Chloe found an appreciative audience and permanent home at this pub.
