Rare and important c.19th colour lithograph of American Creek, Mount Kembla, by Eugene von Gueard, one of the most famous and important Australian colonial artists.
Wonderful lithograph, which records the luxurious rain forest at American Creek, near Wollongong in 1the middle of c.19th. The trees depicted in the lithograph include; cabbage trees (Cordyline), bangalow palms (Archontophoenix cunninghamiana) and flame trees (Brachychiton acerifolium). Woodcutters can be seen at work at lower left of the image.
Von Guerards, description of the scene;
This sylvan scene is situated at a distance of little more than ten miles from Wollongong, near the junction of a little stream upon which some prosaic devotee of the bottle has bestowed the dishonouring appellation of the Brandy and Water Creek, with the American Creek, and at the foot of a noble range of mountains. With the lofty bangalow palm, the cabbage palm, the gigantic wild fig-tree, the fire tree (otherwise known as the blaze tree) with its vividly scarlet blossoms, are intermingled the nettle tree, the rose-wood, the sassafras, the white-wood, the wild rose, numerous varieties of the fern tree, and parasites innumerable the whole being woven together into one dense and almost impenetrable mass of foliage. Unfortunately the progress of settlement is necessitating the destruction of some of these magnificent forests, which in many instances clothe a rich chocolate soil of especial value to the farmer. At the time this view was sketched, numerous fires had been kindled by the wood-cutters, and the stately giants were rapidly falling before the pitiless axe of the hardy pioneers of civilization.
From Guerard’s, Eugene von Guerard’s Australian Landscapes.
References:
Ferguson, J. A. Bibliography of Australia Volumes 1-8, Canberra 1976 : 1034a.
Wantrup, J. Australian Rare Books. Sydney, 1987 : pp.328-331, 257.
Kerr, J. The Dictionary of Australian Artists Painters, Sketchers, Photographers and Engravers to 1870 Melbourne 1992 : pp. 330-332.
Butler, Printed Images in Colonial Australia 1801-1901 : pp.176-179.
Tipping, M. An Artist on the Goldfields. The Diary of Eugene Von Guerard. Melbourne 1982 :.
Bonyhady, T. Australian Colonial Paintings in the Australian National Gallery. Melbourne 1986 pp. 170-207.
Hunt, S. & Davidson, G. Sydney Views 1788-1888: from the BEAT KNOBLAUCH collection. Sydney 2007 : 21, ill. p.47.
McCulloch, A. Artists of the Australian Gold Rush. Melbourne 1977 : p.98-104.
Collections:
National Library Australia: Bib ID: 151726
State Library Victoria: RARELTEF 919.4 G93A
State Library New South Wales: Call Numb
