Samuel Elyard (1817-1910)

Samuel Elyard (1817-1910)
Elyard was born on 9 May 1817 on the Isle of Wight and educated at Mr Gilchrist’s school and the Australian College where he showed talent at portrait painting. He then studied under Conrad Martens and taught drawing. He sought secure employment and on 16 April 1837 was appointed an extra clerk in the colonial secretary’s office. On 1 January 1846 he was promoted to second clerk, from which position he was retired on 18 August 1868 with a pension. From his twenties, when he studied under John Skinner Prout, he specialised in landscape painting in water-colours and oils: he ‘always painted his studies directly from nature in colours, and of a large size’. He exhibited in Sydney in 1847 and 1857 and in Paris in 1867.