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Lot Essay
The present drawing was originally part of a group of drawings and maps of French Guiana executed for Baron Milius during his governorship of that colony in 1823-25 (for which see Christie's New York, Fine Printed Books and Manuscripts, 5 December 2017, lot 48). The present previously unpublished view is by an unknown hand, but the Milius provenance ties it to the Baudin expedition and that in turn dates the view to 1802, when Baudin's ships were at Port Jackson (Hamelin's Naturaliste 24 April-18 November and Baudin's Géographe 20 June-17 November 1802). There is a pair to this sheet (and the same brown stains on each indicate these two sheets were together) showing the view continuing from Hospital Wharf to Dawes Battery Point in the National Library of Australia (RNK Accn. T 1997), similarly unsigned and undated, but which can now be given to this same French hand. Tim McCormick published the NLA sheet with a tentative date of 1802-3 and remarking it was 'Stylistically quite unlike any other drawing of Sydney from this period.' in his First Views of Australia, 1788-1825, Sydney, 1987, p.108, pl.74). The two drawings together make a panorama of the west side of the cove (see overleaf).
The present view extends from the distinctive Norfolk Pine in Government House's garden on the extreme left, to the Government Dry Store just beyond Government Wharf, the Magazine and Military Barracks above the store, the three-storey Granary to the right, the classically proportioned Orphan School (previously Lieutenant William Kent's house) with its fenced grounds running down to the shore of the cove, the 'Place d'Armes' with soldiers parading just behind and to the right, the tower for the new church above the parade ground (the old church burned down in 1798, and the new church would be built in 1804). On top of the hill the Second Government Windmill, and the new gaol building behind its long low wall on the shoreline below. Bass's 'chaloupe' to the right of the gaol, and Isaac Nichols' house behind, with the start of Hospital Wharf and HM Dockyard on the shore at the extreme right.
The view is taken from the east side of the cove, from the site of the French encampment, broadly sharing the viewpoint of Lesueur's drawing ('Panorama de Port-Jackson', Museum d'histoire naturelle du Havre, Collection Lesueur du Havre,16063-1). Lesueur's drawing the model for the plate in the official account of the voyage (F. Péron, Voyage de decouvertes aux Terres Australes ... Historique ... Atlas, Paris, 1807, pl.38 (Vue de la partie méridionale de la Ville de Sydney Capitale des Colonies Anglaises aux Terres Australes, et de l'Embouchure de la riviere de Parramatta).
'April 1802 - We were completely astonished at the flourishing state in which we found this singular and distant establishment. The beauty of the port at first attracted our whole attention. From an entrance, says Commodore Phillip ..., of not more than two miles across, Port Jackson gradually opens up till it forms a spacious harbour, with sufficient depth of water for the largest ships ...Towards the middle of this magnificent port, and on its southern bank, in one of the principal creeks, rises Sydney town, the capital of the county of Cumberland, and of all the English colonies in this part of the world. Seated at the base of two hills - they are contiguous to each other - and having the advantage of a rivulet which runs completely through it, this infant town affords a view at once agreeable and picturesque.' François Péron, A Voyage of Discovery to the Southern Hemisphere, London, 1809
The present view extends from the distinctive Norfolk Pine in Government House's garden on the extreme left, to the Government Dry Store just beyond Government Wharf, the Magazine and Military Barracks above the store, the three-storey Granary to the right, the classically proportioned Orphan School (previously Lieutenant William Kent's house) with its fenced grounds running down to the shore of the cove, the 'Place d'Armes' with soldiers parading just behind and to the right, the tower for the new church above the parade ground (the old church burned down in 1798, and the new church would be built in 1804). On top of the hill the Second Government Windmill, and the new gaol building behind its long low wall on the shoreline below. Bass's 'chaloupe' to the right of the gaol, and Isaac Nichols' house behind, with the start of Hospital Wharf and HM Dockyard on the shore at the extreme right.
The view is taken from the east side of the cove, from the site of the French encampment, broadly sharing the viewpoint of Lesueur's drawing ('Panorama de Port-Jackson', Museum d'histoire naturelle du Havre, Collection Lesueur du Havre,16063-1). Lesueur's drawing the model for the plate in the official account of the voyage (F. Péron, Voyage de decouvertes aux Terres Australes ... Historique ... Atlas, Paris, 1807, pl.38 (Vue de la partie méridionale de la Ville de Sydney Capitale des Colonies Anglaises aux Terres Australes, et de l'Embouchure de la riviere de Parramatta).
'April 1802 - We were completely astonished at the flourishing state in which we found this singular and distant establishment. The beauty of the port at first attracted our whole attention. From an entrance, says Commodore Phillip ..., of not more than two miles across, Port Jackson gradually opens up till it forms a spacious harbour, with sufficient depth of water for the largest ships ...Towards the middle of this magnificent port, and on its southern bank, in one of the principal creeks, rises Sydney town, the capital of the county of Cumberland, and of all the English colonies in this part of the world. Seated at the base of two hills - they are contiguous to each other - and having the advantage of a rivulet which runs completely through it, this infant town affords a view at once agreeable and picturesque.' François Péron, A Voyage of Discovery to the Southern Hemisphere, London, 1809