Lot Essay
There are further versions of all these six subjects by Burchell in the MuseumAfrica (R.F. Kennedy, Catalogue of Pictures in the Africana Museum, Johannesburg, 1971, VI, (Supplement:A-G), pp. 62-96: B1747 (Liesbeeck River Bridge 9.3.1811), B1751 (At the Foot of Table Mountain 15.3.1811), B1753 (Genadendal 12.4.1811), B1760 (Brandvlei 15.4.1811), B1809 (Zak River 4.9.1811), B2029 (Hottentots Holland Kloof - Summit)). There is a third version of the Zak River drawing in the same museum (R.F. Kennedy, op. cit., I, B1140)
The son of a Fulham horticulturalist, Burchell spent five years teaching in St. Helena before arriving in Cape Town in 1810. He 'made drawings of Cape Town and vicinity, as far afield as Genadendal and Tulbagh, until 18 June 1811, when he started his journey into the interior. This journey, across the Karoo to Klaarwater (now Griquatown) and on to Lithako ... and back by way of the Kowie mouth and what is now known as the Garden Route, lasted until April 1815; he was on trek for a period of nearly four years. He returned to England later in 1815 and spent the next ten years in arranging his botanical and zoological specimens, in propagating South African plants at Fulham and in writing his Travels in the Interior of Southern Africa, v. 1 published in 1822 and v. 2 in 1824. The originals of most of the illustrations in the Travels are in the Museum's collection. The published Travels only carried the narrative to 3 August 1812; the journal of the later part of his expedition was never published.' (R.F. Kennedy, op. cit., VI (Supplement:A-G), p. 42).
Two illustrated
The son of a Fulham horticulturalist, Burchell spent five years teaching in St. Helena before arriving in Cape Town in 1810. He 'made drawings of Cape Town and vicinity, as far afield as Genadendal and Tulbagh, until 18 June 1811, when he started his journey into the interior. This journey, across the Karoo to Klaarwater (now Griquatown) and on to Lithako ... and back by way of the Kowie mouth and what is now known as the Garden Route, lasted until April 1815; he was on trek for a period of nearly four years. He returned to England later in 1815 and spent the next ten years in arranging his botanical and zoological specimens, in propagating South African plants at Fulham and in writing his Travels in the Interior of Southern Africa, v. 1 published in 1822 and v. 2 in 1824. The originals of most of the illustrations in the Travels are in the Museum's collection. The published Travels only carried the narrative to 3 August 1812; the journal of the later part of his expedition was never published.' (R.F. Kennedy, op. cit., VI (Supplement:A-G), p. 42).
Two illustrated