Vue de la Ville du Port de Sidney en Nouvelle Holland

Like Taylor’s panorama, this view has been drawn from a point on Observatory Hill and provides a rather idyllic view of Macquarie’s Sydney for European audiences. In this detail, the laundry hangs out to dry as chooks feed in the yard, a kangaroo or wallaby wanders in the garden where exotic flowers grow, a man tends the vegetable garden behind the neat cottage where a lady talks to officers while further to the left convicts quarry sandstone for use in the construction of the colony’s new buildings.

Whilst the artist has used the same overall composition of the Taylor view, there are many changes that make this a truly original work of art. Many of the buildings and landmarks of the Macquarie era are identifiable, however, a number have been omitted or rearranged. However, it is believed that the panorama was painted by a sailor, probably from a passing French ship. The reason for this belief is that the panorama is painted on a canvas roll, as would be carried in a sailor’s backpack. A land-based artist would have likely used an easel and a flat paper.

The artist ‘B.C.P.’, must remain known only by their initials, as efforts to identify them have not yet been successful. Original, detailed views of Sydney of this era are extraordinarily rare.