Description

Like Taylor’s panorama, this has been drawn from a point on Observatory Hill, the panorama provided a rather idyllic view of Macquarie’s Sydney for its London audience. 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 which 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. The artist has added a second Aboriginal encampment, and many finely delineated ships to the scene.

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.