View of the town of Sydney in the colony of New South Wales

after Thomas Watling
Australia
1762 – c.1814

View of the town of Sydney in the colony of New South Wales
c 1799
oil on canvas
Currently on display, Gallery 1
Place made
probably painted in Britain from sketches made in Sydney
Medium
oil on canvas
Dimensions
65.0 x 133.0 cm
Credit line
Gift of M.J.M. Carter AO through the Art Gallery of South Australia Foundation in recognition of the abilities of James Bennett to promote public awareness and appreciation of Asian art and culture 2015. Donated through the Australian Government's Cultural Gifts Program
Accession number
20155P55
Signature and date
Not signed. Not dated.
Media category
Painting
Collection area
Australian paintings

  • One of the oldest known oil paintings of Sydney, this work by Thomas Watling was probably painted in Britain, based on drawings completed in situ by the artist, and provides a rare and accurate record of eighteenth-century Sydney, looking east across Sydney Cove (Circular Quay) from Church Hill (Grosvenor Street) in the Rocks. Demonstrating Watling’s training in a classical style, the horizontal format of the painting and its elevated viewpoint belong to a tradition of the topographical port landscape subjects characteristic of the European diaspora.

     

    Who authorised this painting remains a mystery. William Stadden Blake’s 1802 direct engraving of this view is dedicated to the second governor of New South Wales, John Hunter, who arrived in the colony in 1795 and granted the convict Watling a pardon in 1797. Hunter may have commissioned this oil from Watling to commemorate his service as governor of New South Wales.

     

    Tracey Lock, Curator of Australian Paintings and Sculpture

  • [Book] AGSA 500.