POWERHOUSE COLLECTION

Panorama of Sydney Harbour by Louisa Anne Meredith

Object No. 97/279/1

In 1840 the colony of New South Wales was well on the way to making the transition from penal colony to civil society. That year saw the end of convict transportation. Over the previous decade nearly 60 per cent of those migrating to the colony were free settlers. Louisa Anne Meredith was one of these people. She arrived from England in 1839 having married her cousin Charles, who owned a sheep station near Bathurst. Meredith was a writer, poet and artist who upon arriving in the colony began observing and recording her new society. She noted with disapproval the strong division along gender lines among the middle and upper classes. Men concerned themselves primarily with business and sport while women attended to domestic matters and fashion. Class distinctions were enforced with a rigorous set of codes for behaviour and status symbols such as fashionable dress and grand houses. In 1844 her observations on colonial society, 'Notes and Sketches of New South Wales', were published in London. Meredith moved to Tasmania in 1840 and over the following decades became one of Australia's most renowned nature artists, writing and illustrating several books based on Australian plants and animals. In his book, 'European Vision and the South Pacific', the art historian Bernard Smith has identified Meredith as one of the four most 'notable' picturesque artists of the 1840s. This fine pencil drawn panorama of Sydney Harbour is signed and dated 'L.A. Meredith 1840'. Completed on seven pieces of artist's drawing paper, it is an important rare early work from a prominent Australian woman artist. From the vantage point of the peninsular in the Domain known as Mrs Macquarie's Chair, Meredith has depicted in detail the features of the harbour. The signal station of Dawes Point, Fort Macquarie and several ships can be seen on the far left, Shark and Garden Islands and the rocky outcrop that would later accommodate Fort Denison appear in front, while to the right is Potts Point and the ridge of Woolloomooloo Hill lined with large houses. Meredith carefully named most of these features. Her reference to the mansion Grantham as 'Tea Cannister Castle' is indicative of her disapproval of the showiness of colonial society. Indeed it is possible that this drawing was intended as an illustration for her notes on New South Wales.