GUERARD, Eugene Johan Joseph von

Eugene von Guerard's Australian Landscapes...

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Printed and Published by Hamel & Ferguson, Melbourne, 1867. Oblong folio, 24 tinted lithograph plates, each with a leaf of descriptive text; a very good copy in the original publisher's half purple roan, matching gilt-lettered title label on front, in a specially made solander case. One of the most splendid of Australian colour-plate books, and a great achievement by one of Australia's most important artists. Based on von Guerard's paintings made during his first 15 years in Australia, this series of views is of outstanding quality. The artist made his own lithographic drawings for the work, with the result that there is an accurate and intentional relationship between the original painting and the finished printed view, a relationship that does not always exist with illustrated books.

The mature work of the album reflects a settled and productive period in the artist's life. In 1862 he and his family moved to a house in East Melbourne which would be the family home for the next twenty years. In April 1863, he travelled to Cape Schanck, and in 1864 to Mount Macedon and various areas of the Western District of Victoria. In 1866, eight of his works were exhibited in the Intercolonial Exhibition, held in Melbourne, and his 'Spring in the Valley of the Mitta Mitta with the Bogong Ranges' was acquired for the National Gallery of Victoria, the first of his paintings to enter a public collection.

The publication of this album greatly helped to establish his reputation, at a time when he was also an active member of the Royal Society of Victoria, and in fact at exactly this time serving on its Council.

'It is fitting that this last, magnificent finale to the grand plate book tradition should be the work of colonial Australia's most accomplished academic artist. An important work by an important artist, marking the end of the topographical plate book tradition, von Guerard's 'Australian Landscapes' is essential to a collection. The book, already a rare work, has been subject to the same rapid growth in demand that has affected all colonial plate books in recent years...' (Wantrup).
Wantrup, 257.

• AUD 75,000.00 > другие валюты
• номер заказа: 804_549

• продавец: Hordern House (AUSTRALIA)