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C1881
The old age of a bushranger: Power in Pentridge.
Rare engraving of Harry Power (1819–1891) the Australian bushranger in Pentridge prison. Power at one time had Ned Kelly, and another bushranger, serve as his accomplice while a teenager. He was christened Henry Johnson, but also known as Harry Power, … Read Full Description
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Details
Full Title:
The old age of a bushranger: Power in Pentridge.
Date:
C1881
Condition:
Small repaired tear in margin at lower left, otherwise in good condition.
Technique:
Engraving.
Image Size:
230mm
x 380mm
Paper Size:
267mm
x 407mm
AUTHENTICITY
Genuine antique
dated:
1881
Description:
Rare engraving of Harry Power (1819–1891) the Australian bushranger in Pentridge prison. Power at one time had Ned Kelly, and another bushranger, serve as his accomplice while a teenager.
He was christened Henry Johnson, but also known as Harry Power, born in Waterford, Ireland on 18 May 1819 and grew up in Ashton-under-Lyne, Lancashire, England. When he was sixteen years of age his father had him apprenticed to the saddler trade. Later on he joined the peasants in their conflicts with the British troops. It was during this time that he received the sabre wounds on his face, which are described in the Victorian police records as, “Scar over right eyebrow, scars on right cheek.
He was convicted at Salford, Lancashire on 31 August 1840, and sentenced to transportation for 7 years to Australia for stealing a bridle and saddle. He was freed in 1848 and moved to Sydney and yy now he was calling himself Harry Power. He was engaged driving cattle all over this colony and New South Wales, and afterwards with Captain Denman’s party in exploring and cutting a track across the ranges. He became a splendid bushman, knowing almost every mile of the country.
After shooting two German troopers he was jailed for ten years. He was released after serving six years, but was again jailed in 1864 for horse stealing. Escaping from Pentridge Prison in 1869, the 50-year-old Power turned to highway robbery. A reward of £500 was offered for his capture. There were claims that during these robberies Power had a youthful assistant who took care of the horses. Suspicion fell on the then 16-year-old Ned Kelly. Power himself was captured on 5 June 1870. Ned’s uncle betrayed him to the police. He was arrested while on their land.
From the original edition of the Australasian Sketcher.
Collections:
State Library Victoria: Accession no: A/S30/07/81/241
Julian Rossi Ashton (1851 - 1942)
Ashton was born in England, the elder son of a wealthy American, Thomas Briggs Ashton and his wife Henrietta, daughter of Count Carlo Rossi, a Sardinian diplomat. Soon after his birth the family moved to Cornwall, where his father, an amateur painter, encouraged the artistic leanings of Julian and his brother George. About 1862 the Ashtons moved to Totnes on the River Dart, where Julian attended the local grammar school, but his father died and the family, now in financial straits, went to London. Julian had art lessons from an old friend of his father whose teaching he described as 'the most helpful I ever had'. At 15 he took a job in the civil engineering branch of the Great Eastern Railway and attended the West London School of Art at night. After three years he joined a firm of ironmongers as a draftsman, but soon left to become a successful illustrator for such journals as Chatterbox and Cassell's Magazine. In 1873 he spent a few months at the new Académie Julian in Paris, and subsequently had work accepted by the Royal Academy of Arts. Ashton emigrated to Melbourne in 1878 to work as an artist for the Illustrated Australian News. In 1881 he worked at the Australasian Sketcher and in 1883 moved to Sydney to work on the Picturesque Atlas of Australasia and the Bulletin. Ashton became an influential patron and supporter of Australian through his roles as trustee of the National Art Gallery of New South Wales and numerous associations that he belonged to. He was awarded the Society of Artists' medal for distinguished services to Australian art in 1924, appointed C.B.E. in 1930, and won the Sydney sesquicentennial prize for a water-colour in 1938.
