Lot Essay
Earle visited Rio de Janeiro in 1820 on his first tour of South America. He returned in January 1821 and remained for three years, leaving for Australia and New Zealand in February 1824. Nineteen watercolours and two pen and ink drawings of Brazilian subjects from this period (1821-4) are now in the Rex Nan Kivell Collection in the National Library of Australia. He visited Brazil again as Artist Supernumerary on the Beagle in 1833, acting as a guide to Darwin on his collecting expeditions in the Atlantic rainforest while the Beagle was anchored off Rio from 4 April to 5 July 1833. A selection of Earle's drawings made during this stay were engraved to illustrate Fitzroy, King and Darwin's Narrative of the Surveying Voyages of HMS 'Adventure' and 'Beagle' between the years 1826 and 1836, published in London in 1839.