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Lot Essay
Une Vue de la Rade de Sidney prise de l'observatoire (croquis d'après nature) le 14 Dec 1819.
inscribed and dated as title
watercolour on paper watermark Crown with M (Montgolfier)
11 5/8 x 18 1/8in. (29.5 x 46.1cm.)
These two watercolours are Pellion's sketches taken on the spot on two subsequent days for the smaller finished panorama (for which see the next lot).
The panorama is taken from Bunker's Hill, the site of the Uranie's land observatory and ranges from the the Uranie at anchor on the left of the second sheet to Government House on the right of the first sheet.
'The town of Sydney-Cove, the captial of Cumberland county, is built partly in a plain, partly on a little hill, that overlooks the south side of the river, so as to display an amphitheatre, and form a delightful prospect... You see at first, on the left, the spacious residence of the Governor, surrounded by a magnificent English garden. ... To the right of the palace, but at a great distance, appears the regular front of the superb barracks, built of brick and stone... nearer, on the harbour itself, we perceive immense magazines, in which are deposited the goods kept in store. Fronting this stonehouse, on the other side of the cove, is a quay not yet finished, where ships may be laid down to careen, without incurring the least danger. A great number of other public buildings and private houses embellish this truly magnificent prospect; and nothing indicates that this town, already so beautiful, is the work but of a few years.' J. Arago, Narrative
inscribed and dated as title
watercolour on paper watermark Crown with M (Montgolfier)
11 5/8 x 18 1/8in. (29.5 x 46.1cm.)
These two watercolours are Pellion's sketches taken on the spot on two subsequent days for the smaller finished panorama (for which see the next lot).
The panorama is taken from Bunker's Hill, the site of the Uranie's land observatory and ranges from the the Uranie at anchor on the left of the second sheet to Government House on the right of the first sheet.
'The town of Sydney-Cove, the captial of Cumberland county, is built partly in a plain, partly on a little hill, that overlooks the south side of the river, so as to display an amphitheatre, and form a delightful prospect... You see at first, on the left, the spacious residence of the Governor, surrounded by a magnificent English garden. ... To the right of the palace, but at a great distance, appears the regular front of the superb barracks, built of brick and stone... nearer, on the harbour itself, we perceive immense magazines, in which are deposited the goods kept in store. Fronting this stonehouse, on the other side of the cove, is a quay not yet finished, where ships may be laid down to careen, without incurring the least danger. A great number of other public buildings and private houses embellish this truly magnificent prospect; and nothing indicates that this town, already so beautiful, is the work but of a few years.' J. Arago, Narrative