Majayjay, Philippines

The view is taken in the province of Laguna, at the foot of Mount Banahaw. The artist is probably to be identified with the 'Mr Andrews' who arrived in Sydney in 1853 on the steamship Cleopatra. He applied for the post of drawing master at the Sydney Mechanics School of Arts where he may have been employed until April 1854. He advertised himself as a 'Portrait and Miniature Painter' in the Illustrated Sydney News but his work is only known from illustrations which began to appear in the local press and other popular printed ephemera. There are records of other commissions in Sydney until January 1857 when he moved to Hong Kong, visiting Manila in the same year. He worked for the press in Hong Kong and the Philippines from 1857 into the 1860s, and was the main artist for the short-lived Ilustracion Filipina in Manila in 1859-60. For his work in Asia, see the large view of the Parade Ground, Hong Kong, sold in these rooms, 26-7 Sept. 2007, lot 532 (£38,900) and for his more common Filipino subjects, see for example Christie's South Kensington, 8 May 2003, lot 200 ('Manila cathedral after the earthquake, 1863', £2,585), Christie's, 25 April 2012, lot 187 ('Laguna de Bay, Philippines', £3,250) , 29 Oct. 2015, lot 17 ('Three studies of Filipinas', £10,000).