Cabbage tree palms, [American] Creek, Illawarra. [ca. 1852].

A$1,750 · Offered by Douglas Stewart Fine Books

[Title from artist s captions]. Graphite on paper, 180 x 130 mm, initialed in ink l.l. W. S. , and with the artist s pencilled captions u.l. and u.r. Cabbage [i.e. Cabbage tree palm]; laid down on card with the artist s additional captions in pencil l.l. Illawarra and l.r. American Creek (the first word is very faint, but discernible), tipped onto a fully contemporary backing sheet, 300 x 240 mm; in very good condition. This drawing of a scene on the American Creek near Wollongong predates von Guérard s paintings of the same locale by some eight or nine years. British naturalist and artist William Swainson became a member of the Linnean Society in 1815, and in the following year he joined the expedition of Henry Koster to Brazil, where he was able to collect an enormous number of important zoological and botanical specimens. In 1841 he emigrated to New Zealand, and was appointed to the committee of the New Zealand Company. He established a 300-acre estate, Hawkshead , in the Hutt Valley, although his ownership of the land was violently contested by local Māori in a protracted dispute. Swainson spent three years in Australia between 1851 and 1854, having been engaged by the colonial governments of New South Wales, Victoria and Tasmania to carry out botanical study during forestry operations. He spent the majority of his time in New South Wales, from early 1851 to early 1853; he then sketched in Victoria during the second half of 1853, and in Tasmania in the early part of 1854.

• Binding: Hardcover

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