Full title: [Georges Hall, Major Johnston's Bankstown Estate NSW], 1805 / George Johnston

Author/creator: Johnston, George, 1790-1820.

Date: 1805.

Call Numbers: SSV/65

Record Identifier: YRlZa4ln

Language:

Formats: Pictures, Watercolours

Contents: Drawings - 12.4 x 8.3 cm. - 19.6 x 26.2 cm., mount - 1 watercolour drawing on mount

Publishers:

Notes: The watercolour depicts a small residence, probably weatherboard, and an embryonic, possibly fruit, garden. The property appears to be carved out of the bush, and is a good, and rare, representation of development outside main town centres. This small watercolour is the first work by the young Johnston (indeed the first work by any Johnston) to surface, and intriguingly relates closely to another more finished work, now in Kerry Stoke's collection, which has been attributed to George William Evans (Christie's London, Exploration & Travel, September 1996, lot 110). Evans, who was based at Parramatta at the time, may have taught Johnston, or possibly was simply commissioned to copy Johnston's work. Either way this intimates that the Johnstons were more assiduous patrons of colonial artists than had previously been understood. It is also significant that the watercolour, which has suffered some light damage, is one of the - if not the - earliest view of the Bankstown district. In this sense the watercolour is a significant addition to the Mitchell Library's collections, as it documents an area not well represented in the colonial collections. -- Reference: Curator of Pictures, Mitchell Library, Oct. 2003 A non-contemporaneous title extracted from a now discarded mount, bears the inscription, "Georges Hall / Major Johnston's Estate / NSW / 1805".

Permalink: https://collection.sl.nsw.gov.au/record/YRlZa4ln

MMS ID: 110321845