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C1848
Botany Bay Heads, from Newtown.
Rare c.19th hand coloured lithographed view of Botany Bay taken from Newtown over what would is present day St. Peters and Mascot, with only one solitary dwelling in the vista. The area at the time was comprised mainly of farmland. … Read Full Description
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Details
Full Title:
Botany Bay Heads, from Newtown.
Date:
C1848
Engraver:
William Spreat
Condition:
In good condition.
Technique:
Hand coloured lithograph with one tint.
Image Size:
255mm
x 170mm
AUTHENTICITY
Genuine antique
dated:
1848
Description:
Rare c.19th hand coloured lithographed view of Botany Bay taken from Newtown over what would is present day St. Peters and Mascot, with only one solitary dwelling in the vista. The area at the time was comprised mainly of farmland.
From the first issue of Capt. Robert Westmacott’s, ‘Views of Australia’.
References:
Ferguson, J. A. Bibliography of Australia Volumes 1-8, Canberra 1976 : 4955.
Wantrup, J. Australian Rare Books. Sydney, 2nd ed. 2023: Vol. I, pp. 406-407.
Collections:
National Library Australia: Bib ID: 142223
State Library Victoria: Record ID 999671293607636
Capt. Robert Westmacott (1801 - 1870)
Artist and army officer born in England in 1801, a member of the noted Westmacott family of artists and sculptors. His uncle, Sir Richard Westmacott (1775–1856), was one of the leading British sculptors of the early nineteenth century, and the family circle included several artists of distinction. Robert pursued a military career, receiving a commission in the 4th (King’s Own) Regiment of Foot, in which he eventually attained the rank of captain.
Westmacott was posted to New South Wales in the mid-1830s, at a time when the colony was expanding rapidly and European settlement was spreading inland. He developed a talent for sketching, particularly landscapes and topographical views. During his residence in Australia he travelled through both New South Wales and Van Diemen’s Land (Tasmania), recording harbour scenes, townships, and surrounding countryside. His drawings capture Sydney Cove, Hobart Town, Parramatta, and other early colonial sites at a formative period in their development.
On his return to England, Westmacott arranged for a selection of his sketches to be published as lithographs. The resulting series, Views in Australia, appeared in London between 1838 and 1840, issued in several parts. Hand-coloured examples, marketed through subscription, presented to a British audience the landscapes, architecture, and life of the colonies. Although modest in number, these prints are regarded as significant both artistically and historically. They provide some of the earliest published pictorial records of colonial Sydney and Hobart, predating the wider circulation of works by Conrad Martens and others.
Westmacott’s work stands in the tradition of the soldier-artist, combining accurate observation with picturesque composition. His lithographs, often delicately coloured, were aimed at a metropolitan public curious about distant settlements. While not as prolific or technically refined as Martens, his views are valued for their rarity and their directness of vision. They remain important documentary sources for historians of early Australia.
Westmacott returned permanently to England after his Australian service. He does not appear to have pursued an extensive artistic career thereafter, though examples of his prints survive in major institutional collections, including the National Library of Australia and the State Library of New South Wales. He died in 1870.