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拍品專文
The present watercolour is listed in Conrad Martens''Account of Pictures painted in N.S.Wales' (manuscript), Mitchell Library, as 'View. Island of St Paul', commissioned by Chas. Lowe during 1849 and sold to him for £4.4.0. The Island of Saint Paul is located in the southern Indian Ocean, half-way between South Africa and Australia, and about 80km south of the island of Amsterdam. It comprises a very circular volcano with a small, 30 metre wide entry from the ocean. In the Martens watercolour can be seen to the right of the boat the geological feature known as 'Roche Quille'. This small peak is totally separated from the rest of the island, and upon it currently live about 95 of the island's total bird population, as rats and cats have accounted for all the birds that were living on the mainland. The watercolour was most likely based on a preliminary sketch or view taken by another artist as no record exists of Martens ever visiting this part of the Indian Ocean.
He left England in 1833 and reached Australia in 1835. His route took him through the Atlantic to the southern part of South America with HMS Beagle for part of the way, and then across the Pacific via Tahiti to Sydney.
The absence of any dated preliminary pencil sketches of this subject also tends to support the view that this watercolour was based on an original drawing by another artist. A sepia wash version of this work is located in the Mitchell Library, Sydney (ZDG*D18f.22). It is therein erroneously titled 'Isle of Amsterdam', and illustrated in James Gleeson, Colonial Painters, 1976, plate 54 (colour).
We are grateful to Elizabeth Ellis at the Mitchell Library, Sydney, for her help, and to Michael Organ, University of Wollongong, for identifying the present work and for the above entry.
He left England in 1833 and reached Australia in 1835. His route took him through the Atlantic to the southern part of South America with HMS Beagle for part of the way, and then across the Pacific via Tahiti to Sydney.
The absence of any dated preliminary pencil sketches of this subject also tends to support the view that this watercolour was based on an original drawing by another artist. A sepia wash version of this work is located in the Mitchell Library, Sydney (ZDG*D18f.22). It is therein erroneously titled 'Isle of Amsterdam', and illustrated in James Gleeson, Colonial Painters, 1976, plate 54 (colour).
We are grateful to Elizabeth Ellis at the Mitchell Library, Sydney, for her help, and to Michael Organ, University of Wollongong, for identifying the present work and for the above entry.