Caroline Simpson Collection

View of harbour from South Head shewing the entrance, Watsons Bay, and Vaucluse / C. Martens

Martens, Conrad, 1801-1878.

1848

1 painting : watercolour on card ; 29.3 x 43 cm.

Signed 'C. Martens' and dated '1848' lower right.

Vaucluse House (Vaucluse, N.S.W.)
Sydney Harbour (N.S.W.)

This watercolour - which appears to have been heavily restored - relates to a pencil sketch, titled 'Vaucluse from the Road' dated 30 October 1840, in the collection of the Dixson Collection in the Mitchell Library, State Library of NSW [ZDG*D19, f.19]. Martens' "Account of pictures painted at Sydney, N.S. Wales" records the sale of two versions of this picture in oils: the first to W. Wentworth Esq. on 30 June as "[Vaucluse] from the Hill' for 12 guineas and another "Vaucluse from the Hill" on 8 July 1841 to Stuart Donaldson Esq. for 15 guineas. The first is now in the Dixson Collection of the Mitchell Library, State Library of NSW [ZDG 159] and the second in the collection of the National Library of Australia.
Martens' account books also records the sale of seven small paintings to James Levick in late 1848-early 1849, including a 'View Harbour from South Head shewing the Entrance, Watsons Bay, and Vaucluse' sold to Levick for 5 guineas on 3 November 1848. These seven five-guinea watercolours painted for James Levick are probably those offered for sale as a collection by the London bookseller Francis Edwards Ltd in 1928. In April 1928 the Vaucluse Park Trust began negotiations for the purchase of one of the pictures, that listed by Francis Edwards as "Sydney Heads, Watson's Bay, Vaucluse, Manley, Entrance to the Harbour, and Residence of W. C. Wentworth from South Head Road". In early 1930 Francis Edwards Ltd agreed to sell the picture to the Trust and it arrived at Vaucluse in September 1930.

1848: James Levick; 1928: Francis Edwards Ltd., Booksellers, London; 1930: Vaucluse Park Trust

Francis Edwards Ltd "Australasia: books, maps, original water colour drawings, oil paintings and coloured plates", London, 1928, facing title page [catalogue no. 505]; Michael Bogle Vaucluse House Historic Houses Trust of NSW, 1993, p.23.

Vaucluse House ; V88/572

You may save or print this image for research and study. If you wish to use it for any other purposes, you must contact Museums of History NSW to request permission.

Picture

31545