But the 12 paintings once formed part of a private collection owned by one of Canberra's most celebrated couples - the artist Rosalie Gascoigne and her husband, the astronomer Ben Gascoigne.

The late couple's children have donated the works to the ANU in honour of their parents' lasting connection to the institution, and to Canberra and its surrounds.

Originally from New Zealand, the Gascoignes married in Canberra in 1943, and Ben worked as an astronomer at the Mount Stromlo Observatory from 1941 until 1988.

The couple lived on Mount Stromlo with their three children until 1960, and it was there that Rosalie developed an affinity with the landscape that would inform her work as one of Canberra's most illustrious artists.

Son Martin said the collection included some of the couple's most treasured works.

''It's a very personal collection, and they're works that my mother and father both bought or acquired in the course of their lifetime,'' he told The Canberra Times on Friday.

''Stromlo and the university were very important in their lifetime, so it made sense to marry the very personal collection with the institution.''

One of the works for instance, by Carl Plate, had been given to the couple as a wedding present in 1943.

Martin said the Sydney artist had been the couple's first introduction to the world of modern art; Ben and Plate met on a ship back to Australia from Europe in 1940, and had shared a cabin. ''Through these long chats that they had, dad got exposed to a whole new world.''

The couple's other son, Toss, said a second work by Plate, also in the collection, was strongly reminiscent of the environment in which the three Gascoigne children grew up.

''The dark Plate is quite interesting because people don't see Stromlo in that sort of light now,'' he said. ''It was certainly encrusted with mature pine trees when we grew up, and it was incredibly remote from Canberra, and you don't see it that way at all today.''

■ The works will be on show at the Drill Hall Gallery for the next three months.