Thomas Watling was the first trained artist of the colony. He was transported to Australia as a punishment for forgery. His large view of Sydney Cove in 1794 is possibly the oldest surviving Australian painting. The early Australian painters had been trained in Britain, and their response to the landscape was limited by techniques and pictorial formulas acquired there. His painting of “Sydney cove” portrays the early

Topographical artists who have may or may not have been trained painted the early colonial paintings of Australia. Their paintings were in tradition English and they recorded the coastlines and harbours, plants and animals, and local people of the new colony for official accounts.

expansion of the bay of Sydney in detail. The composition is traditionally English because we see a road winding in the centre, the trees on either side framing the picture and look quite like the English elm trees more than Australian Fauna. The lit up area in the centre leads your eye into the painting and the large stretch of sky is conventionally English. The overall picture is very comprehensive and shows a good depiction of the early development at that time, from the buildings to the arrangement of the trees and streets.

John Eyre was a popular convict artist who also did topographical paintings in the 1800’s. Eyre’s choice of median was watercolour and his paintings were not very decretive. His painting “View of Sydney from the west side of the cove”, painted in 1806 was characteristic of the traditional English technique. This

Some topics in this essay:
John Eyre, Sydney Rose, Van Diemen’s, Sydney Cove, Gill Australian, Australian Fauna, Charles Darwin, , United Kingdom, Gaspard Poussin, topographical paintings, colony official accounts, animals local people, plants animals local, people colony, thomas watling, official accounts, colony official, local people, harbours plants, harbours plants animals, john eyre, animals local, plants animals, coastlines harbours plants,