Colonial gems on display after 200-year trip home
WHEN Captain James Wallis sailed back to Britain almost 200 years ago, he took a collection of sketches and paintings that documented life in NSW.
The Wallis album, bought by the State Library of NSW for $1.8 million, has just been revealed at Newcastle Art Gallery.
It has been a long journey back to Australia for the album, which came to light only last October – stored in a cupboard in Ontario, Canada, by a descendant of Wallis.
The collection was part of a deceased estate, says Richard Neville, librarian at the Mitchell Library. ‘‘One could see immediately how important [the album was] and how vital it was to purchase it,’’ he says. ‘‘The last time the album was in Australia was on the 3rd of March, 1819, when Captain Wallis put it on a ship and took it back to England.’’
The Wallis collection comprises 35 watercolours and drawings of Sydney and regional views of NSW, portraits of Aborigines and natural history illustrations made in Newcastle in 1818 by both Wallis, who was the commandant of the city’s penal settlement from 1816 to 1818, and the convict artist Joseph Lycett, who was transported to Newcastle from Britain for forgery.
The NSW state librarian, Alex Byrne, describes the album as a major addition to the library’s collection. “This remarkable album is the most significant pictorial artefact to have been made in colonial NSW during the 1810s,’’ he says.
The Arts Minister, George Souris, says it was important to bring the album back to where most of its works were created.
The director of the Newcastle Art Gallery, Ron Ramsey, says that the album, which will be on show at the gallery until Sunday, is a treasure ‘‘greater than the jewels of Elizabeth Taylor – and so much cheaper’’.
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