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C1848
Road from Emu Plains over the Blue Mountains. The …
Fine and rare lithograph of the Lennox Bridge designed by David Lennox and constructed with convict labour opened in 1833. It was on the main route to the Blue Mountains for nearly 100 years. From the first issue of Capt. … Read Full Description
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Details
Full Title:
Road from Emu Plains over the Blue Mountains. The …
Date:
C1848
Condition:
In good condition.
Technique:
Hand coloured lithograph, with one tint.
Image Size:
200mm
x 132mm
AUTHENTICITY
Genuine antique
dated:
1848
Description:
Fine and rare lithograph of the Lennox Bridge designed by David Lennox and constructed with convict labour opened in 1833. It was on the main route to the Blue Mountains for nearly 100 years.
From the first issue of Capt. Robert Westmacott’s, ‘Views of Australia’.
Westmacott description:
‘This view, intended to represent part of a Road over the Blue Mountains, is perhaps of more importance than any recently constructed in New South Wales, opening to the settler some of the most magnificent country for agriculture and grazing pursuits in this vast land, – Bathurst, Wellington Valley, Macquarie, &c., &c. This range of Mountains was for some years considered inaccessible but after repeated unsuccessful attempts, the perseverance of explorers was rewarded, and a road, or mountain pass, was made over a portion called Lapstone Hill the ascent and descent was attended with great fatigue and danger at length, the Surveyor General, Sir Thomas Mitchell, exercising his usual perseverance and skill, overcame this difficulty, and although much labour has been expended, this hitherto considered impracticable barrier has been removed, and the mountain can now be ascended with great facility. The Bridge represented in the sketch carries the road over a deep gully, and was the first stone Bridge erected of any size in New South Wales.’
Collections:
National Library: Bib ID 661042
State Library NSW: not found
State Library Victoria: Accession no: 30328102131702/9
Trove: not found
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.
