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• Auction House:
  Mossgreen
• Sale Name:
  The Denis Joachim Collection
• Sale Date:
  19 Jun 2016 ~ 2pm - Session 1: Lots 1 - 321
  20 Jun 2016 ~ 10am - Session 2: Lots 322 - 480
  20 Jun 2016 ~ 2pm - Session 3: Lot 481 - 688
  20 Jun 2016 ~ 6pm - Session 4: Lots 689 - 818
• Lot #:
  695
• Lot Description:
  Wilbraham Frederick Evelyn Liardet
  (1799-1878)
  Melbourne from the South Side of the Yarra Yarra c. 1839
  watercolour
  26 x 38 cm
• Provenance:
  Leonard Joel, Melbourne, Australian British, New Zealand & European Historical and Contemporary Paintings, 12 April 1989, Lot No. 262
• Notes:
  Wilbraham Liardet was so fascinated by the early settlement of Melbourne that, late in life he began making notes on its history, preparing some forty watercolours based on his recollections for its illustration. His previous watercolours were often enlivened with idiosyncratic and entertaining observations. On the verso of Batman’s Hill and House on the Yarra, (collection of the National Library of Australia), for example, he noted that John Batman’s house was brought from Launceston in the Mary Cutter and erected in 1836. The chimneys, he added were ‘built by the celebrated Buckley’.1 (William Buckley was the so-called ‘Wild Whiteman’, who had lived many years among the Aboriginal people.) Liardet had emigrated in 1839, establishing himself and his large family on a strip of beach that later became Port Melbourne. While engaged on various enterprises, he witnessed the beginnings of settlement along the Yarra River. Although Melbourne from the South Side of the Yarra Yarra has been given a circa date of 1839, it is possibly a later recollection. Nonetheless, it is recalled with a direct and strong sense of actuality. This is seen in the crudeness of the dwellings resulting from their hasty erection in the first days, and the structured flag pole surrounded by goods recently off loaded from the boats which brought in the hardy first settlers. The mood of pioneering achievement against the privations of nature is furthered by the starkness of the scene with its low horizon and absence of trees. The actions of the various groups and individual figures give the work that added sense of occasion and engagement, so characteristic of Liardet’s art. David Thomas 1. In Honour of Sir John Ferguson, National Library of Australia, Canberra, 1965, cat no 26, p.9. See also Susan Adams and Weston Bate, Liardet’s water-colours of early Melbourne, Melbourne University Press, Melbourne, 1972
• Estimate:
  A$30,000 - 50,000
• 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.