Eugene von Guérard's Mount Kosciusko from the north west 1866
| Strzelecki in Illawarra | Stamps & Covers | In Australia (video) | W.B. Clarke | von Guerard print |
A lucky purchase
On 30 March 2022 I secured from Bargain Hunt Auctions in Thornleigh, New South Wales, a framed print purchased online the previous week for Aus$40. It was an original, though damaged copy of Eugene von Guérard's coloured lithograph Mount Kosciusko from the north west, N.S.W., dated circa 1866. The print was plate XX (20) of his Australian Landscapes series, originally published by Hamel and Ferguson, Melbourne, between 1866-68. These were some of the finest stone lithograph prints produced in Australia during the nineteenth century, due in no small part to the skill of the artist and the printer. This spectacular and rare print usually retails for $1,500+ in mint condition. Unfortunately mine was showing its age - it had a large brown stain in the top left corner and mild foxing throughout, therefore explaining the low price at which I was able to secure it. Apart from the fact that it was a bargain, you may wonder why I was interested in it at all? A good question.
 |
| Bargain Hunt Auctions, lot 3085, 30 March 2022 |
For a number of years I have collected posters and prints, especially movie posters and prints relating to select areas of interest, such as the sea battle of Lissa 1866, or 1960s works by Australian pop and countercultural artist Martin Sharp. Another of my long-standing research interests is in regard to the Australia explorations and discoveries by the Polish diplomat, scientist and explorer Paul Edmund Strzelecki (1797-1873). Strzelecki is generally considered the first European to scientifically 'discover', describe and name Mount Kosciusko, Australia's tallest peak. During the 1980s I developed an interest in his Australian adventures during the 1830s and 1840s, which also included a visit to the Illawarra. This interest has continued through to the present day. Links to my blogs on this subject are included at the top of this article. In recent times I have worked with the Sydney Polish community to develop knowledge around Strzelecki's work in Australia. However, the story of Mount Kosciusko - the name of the mount was changed to Kosciuszko by the Geographical Names Board of New South Wales in 1997 - is not merely one concerning recent events. In fact, it goes back into into the depths of geological time.
 |
| Mount Kosciuszko, view from the north west. Source: Auscape / National Geographic. |
---------------------------
Kosciuszko origins
The Snowy Mountains are part of the Australian Alps - a geological feature dating back 520 million years to the Cambrian period and the emplacement in the crust of large bodies of granite during the Silurian and Devonian periods. Unlike the Himalayas and the European Alps, the Snowy Mountains were not formed by the coming together of tectonic plates, but instead by the pulling apart of the ancient super-continent Gondwana, which comprised what is now known as India, Australia, Antarctica and New Zealand. 100 million years ago (mya) Australia began to form, and between 80mya and 20mya the original mountain ranges and plains were subject to a complex process of uplift by magma below the surface, and to contemporaneous and ongoing erosion, giving rise to the present-day Australian Alps. Mount Kosciuszko, the highest part of the range, is 2,228 metres (7,310 feet) high. The Snowy Mountains are located in the Australian states of Victoria and New South Wales.
---------------------------Aboriginal use
The Australian Alps have been known and used by the Australian Aborigines for tens of thousands of years, as has the area around Mount Kosciusko. Evidence for this Aboriginal heritage is widespread in the presence of rock carvings such as grinding groves, oral tradition and archaeological sites. Due to the fragility of human bones and cultural artefacts, and the harshness of the climate, evidence in this regard is scant. As the geology is primarily hard rock igneous, there are no limestone caves in which ancient bones are found, as in other countries such as Africa. In the Namadgi National Park a rock shelter indicates use at least 21,000 years ago, whilst stone tools 8,500 years old have been found in Cloggs Cave, northeastern Victoria. The annual pilgrimage to the area to partake in the consumption of the Bogon Moth is a well-known Aboriginal tradition.
European 'discovery'
Europeans arrived in Australia en masse with the First Fleet at Sydney in January 1788. In the immediate years following, convicts escaped from the penal settlement and ventured north, west and south. No record of them reaching as far as the Snowy Mountains is known, though it is possible. The first European to unofficially see and name the Snowy Mountains was Joseph Wild, assistant to Charles Throsby of Moss Vale. Explorers Hamilton Hume and William Hovell were the first to officially record their existence, in 1824. The first to visit the area and take scientific measurements was the Galacian (Ukrainean) / Czech naturalist John Lhotsky (1795-1866). Between January - March 1831 he travelled to the Manero district on behalf of the Australian Museum and in 1834-5 published A Journey from Sydney to the Australian Alps. He climbed and named Mount William IV (Mount Terrible), located 13km south east of Kosciusko. He recorded its height at 1,855 metres.
As noted above, the first European to officially climb, name and scientifically identify Mount Kosciusko as Australia's highest peak was the Polish Paul Edmund Strzelecki. He did so on 12 March 1840 whilst engaged on a private overland expedition from Sydney to Melbourne. Much has been written and discussed in regard to this endeavour. Confusion over the precise location and height of the mountains in this area continued through to the twentieth century, though Strzelecki's work was proven accurate and his claim eventually confirmed. Despite this, as recently as the von Guérard exhibition at the National Gallery of Victoria in 2011, the accompanying catalogue listed Lhotsky as claimant to the first European ascent (Pullin et al. 2011). This was based on a 1969 claim which was refuted by geographer A.E.J. Andrews in 1973.
After Strzelecki, the next notable scientific visit occurred in December 1851 when Sydney-based geologist W.B. Clarke scaled what he identified as Mount Kosciusko during a scientific expedition on behalf of the New South Wales government. At the time he recorded its height at 6507 feet. He also noted in his report to government that the nearby Ram's Head feature was 6,600 feet high. This was repeated in his 1860 publication Researches in the Southern Goldfields. As there were no detailed maps available at the time - the official survey work had not been done - confusion arose on the part of scientific investigators from both Victoria and New South Wales. Despite this, the name Kosciusko stuck in the public's consciousness, as Australia's highest peak.
---------------------------
The Neumeyer expedition 1862
Eugen von Guérard accompanied .... and ... on an expedition to the Australian Alps .....
Whilst on the Neumeyer expedition, von Guérard took a number of detailed pencil sketches, copies of which are in the collection of the State Library of New South Wales. Three of the sketches - two being triple and double page panoramas - make up the view the artist eventually presented in a large oil painting entitled Mount Kosciusko, seen from the Victorian Border (Mount Hope Ranges) 1866. From this work he went on to produce the image seen in the coloured lithograph. These three sketches are as follows:
1. Foreground -
2. Middle ground and background - a three panelled in situ rough pencil sketch -
3. Middle ground and background - a two panelled, larger, more finished sketch - ‘Mount Kosciusco, N.S.W., seen from Mt Hope on the Victorian side, f[rom]. N.W., 16 November 1862’, pencil on paper,36 x 58 cm, in album Sketches in Victoria, 1862, Dixson Galleries, State Library of New South Wales, Sydney, PXC 310 f.17
 |
| ‘Mount Kosciusco, N.S.W., seen from Mt Hope on the Victorian side, f[rom]. N.W., 16 November 1862’, pencil on paper, 36 x 58 cm, Dixson Galleries, State Library of New South Wales, Sydney. Photograph © State Library of New South Wales. |
---------------------------
The oil painting
In 1866 ....
 |
| Mount Kosciusko, seen from the Victorian Border (Mount Hope Ranges), 1866. Oil on canvas, 108.2 x 153.3 cm, National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne. Photograph © National Gallery of Victoria. |
The coloured lithograph
Apparently following on the production of the aforementioned oil painting, the artist decided to include the view in his series of Australian landscape coloured lithographs published between 1866-68. It ultimately appeared as plate XX (20) ..................
Hook George, Using spatial technology to locate the view illustrated in Eugene von Guérard’s painting of the Kosciuszko massif, Proceedings of the Royal Society of Victoria, 130, 1980, 18-33.
Pullin, Ruth, Varcoe-Cocks, Michael and Clegg, Humphrey, Eugene von Guérard - Nature revealed, National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne, 2011, 302p. [Exhibition catalogue]
---------------------------
| Strzelecki in Illawarra | Stamps & Covers | In Australia (video) | W.B. Clarke | von Guerard print |
Last updated: 27 January 2023
Michael Organ, Australia (Home)
Comments
Post a Comment