View of Sydney from the North Shore

Conrad Martens (1801-1878), perhaps the best known of all colonial artists, arrived in Sydney in 1835 after working his way around the world, including a year’s appointment as artist on the hydrographical survey voyage aboard BEAGLE, during which his shipmate was Charles Darwin.

Martens established himself in the relatively lucrative business of teaching drawing and painting from his premises in The Rocks. He moved to St Leonards, as the North Shore of Sydney was then known, in 1844 and built a Gothic style sandstone house, Rockleigh Grange, on five acres of land with his wife Jane, the daughter of William Carter – Sheriff and later Registrar-General of the Colony. They remained there for the rest of his life.