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South Head Light House, New South Wales. Australia second…
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Auction House:
Auction Location:
Hobart
Date:
7-Dec-2008
Lot No.
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Description:
South Head Light House, New South Wales. Australia second quarter of the 19th century Watercolour Bennett, John John 21 x 16 cm Signed Jno Bennett lower right and titled in ink to margin Original cedar frame 21 x 16 cm Reference Joan Kerr, The Dictionary of Australian Artists, Painters, Sketchers, Photographers and Engravers to 1870, Melbourne Oxford University Press 1992. Bennett, John, Landscape Painter, was listed as such in 1847 in Low's Sydney Directory when living at 58 Francis Street, Bondi. Bennett showed South Head Lighthouse, the above painting, at the 1849 exhibition of the Society for the Promotion of the Fine Arts in Australia in Sydney. The South Head Lighthouse is the first lighthouse ever built in Australia. It was instigated by Governor Lachlan Macquarie, Governor of Nsw 1810-1821 who laid the foundation stone on July 11th 1816 and named it Macquarie Tower. It was completed on 30 November 1818 and lit for the first time. Prior the only attempt at a light to guide ships into the colony's main harbour was in 1794 when an iron basket erected on a tripod. Initially it burnt wood and later coal. Macquarie had a great interest in Architecture, and Francis Greenway who was given a pardon for his service to architecture designed the lighthouse. Greenway predicted the building would not have longevity due to the soft sandstone used. In 1881 James Barnett built a new lighthouse closely resembling the original. An important and valuable image of the first lighthouse ever built in Australia showing the large steel bands to slow the crumbling (c1827).
Estimate:
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Price:
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Category:
Art: Watercolours, Other Works on Paper