Lot #192 - John William Lewin
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Auction House:Leski Auctions
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Sale Name:The Gary & Genevieve Morgan Collection | Part One
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Sale Date:07 Dec 2021 ~ 6.30pm (AEDT)
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Lot #:192
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Lot Description:John William Lewin
(1770–1819)
Ptilinopus Magnificus (Wompoo Pigeon)
watercolour, circa 1812
37 x 28cm (visible)
signed lower right -
Provenance:Sotheby’s, Fine Australian Paintings and Books, Sydney, 29/11/1993, Lot No. 153.
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Notes:John William Lewin, naturalist and artist, was a son of William Lewin, a fellow of the Linnean Society and author of The Birds of Great Britain (London, 1789-94). His sons, John William and Thomas worked with him at Darenth in Kent and at Hoxton, London, during the preparation of this work; plates occur with their signatures and in his preface their father acknowledges their help in the compilation of the natural history observations. About 1797 J. W. Lewin was anxious to visit New South Wales. He did not lack patrons. His first book, Prodromus Entomology, Natural History of Lepidopterous Insects of New South Wales (London, 1805) was dedicated to Lady Arden ‘in grateful remembrance of that goodness which gave the Author an opportunity of employing his talents, as it were in a new world’. On 6 February 1798 the Duke of Portland informed Governor John Hunter that Lewin would sail in the Buffalo and that he should be allowed rations during his residence in the settlement. The entomologist, Dru Drury, who assisted many collectors, supplied him with an entomologist’s outfit in payment for which Lewin engaged to send insects from New South Wales. Later Thomas Marsham, author of Entomologia Britannica (London, 1802) and Alexander McLeay united with Drury in sending money to Lewin in the colony. By some mischance Lewin missed the Buffalo, although his wife was already on board. She was befriended by the captain and his wife, and after reaching the colony by Rev. Richard Johnson and his wife. Lewin arrived in the Minerva on 11 January 1800 and was immediately involved in a lawsuit in defence of his wife against an accusation of misconduct with the second mate of the Buffalo. She was cleared, but in September Lewin excused himself to Drury for not repaying his debt by delays caused by this ‘unfortunate Business’ and by his having been ‘taken with the flux’ during the winter. In 1804 Governor King granted Lewin a 100-acre (40 ha) farm near Parramatta but it seems unlikely that he had the time or means to develop it. He was busy making expeditions to the Nattai River and the Cow pastures and engraving the plates for his two books on insects and birds. Conscious of his own lack of training in grammar and spelling, he tried to enlist the help of a well educated young man, John Grant, who became his close friend in 1804, though it is not known if the requested help was given. Grant’s verses praising Lewin, entitled ‘Panegyric on an Eminent Artist’, occur in a few copies of Lewin’s Birds of New Holland with their Natural History. He became a member of the Parramatta Loyal Association, in which he rose to the rank of sergeant. He was among the settlers who supported Governor William Bligh and was one of the signatories to a petition to Paterson in May 1808, expressing alarm at the governor’s deposition. Lewin had hoped that the proceeds from the sale of his two books would enable him to return to England. Although this hope was not realized they greatly enhanced his fame and Drury secured his election as an associate of the Linnean Society in 1801. The books’ plates are faithful and delicate representations of insects and birds which were then little known. Prodromus Entomology, published in 1805, appeared in a second edition in 1822 and the Birds, first printed in 1808, had two further editions in 1822 and 1838 as well as the variant published in Sydney in 1813. The texts of the London editions were edited by his brother Thomas with the help of eminent scientists. The collaboration of scientists and the issue of several editions, some reprinted, for watermarks later than imprints occur on plates, show the interest which these works aroused. All are rare today, especially the 1808 Birds. Only six copies of it are known, those of George III and five English subscribers. The consignment for Australia appears to have been lost and hence the curious Sydney ‘edition’ of 1813, with text by J. W. Lewin, perhaps using some descriptions by John Grant, and with plates made up of pulls from the engravings before the copper plates were sent to England, as well as one or two plates not in the London editions. The plates of the Insects and some of those in the Birds are the earliest copper plates known to have been engraved in New South Wales. There is a collection of Lewin’s paintings in the Mitchell Library, Sydney, and a number of natural history water-colour drawings in the Rex Nan Kivell Collection in the National Library of Australia. His contemporaries esteemed him for his paintings of natural history subjects and of Aboriginals. Unfortunately few of the latter seem to have survived. [Adapted from the Australian Dictionary of Biography.]
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Estimate:A$50,000 - 75,000
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Realised Price:
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Category:Art
This Sale has been held and this item is no longer available. Details are provided for information purposes only.
