Source: CCTV.com

05-06-2009 09:22

Let's go downunder to Australia now, where a rare sketchbook containing paintings of early colonial Sydney is up for sale after gathering dust in a family collection for 200 years. It contains scenes of Australia's largest city as it was in the early nineteenth century and is expected to fetch a high price at auction this week.

These watercolors are now known to be the work of Lieutenant Edward Close, an English officer turned colonial gentleman who arrived in Sydney in 1817.

The view of the harbor where the Opera House now stands is rather different than two centuries ago but it impressed this artist enough to inspire many sketches.

A rare sketchbook containing paintings of early colonial Sydney is up for sale after gathering dust in a family collection for 200 years.

Edward Close was born in India in 1790, and was educated in England before travelling to Australia with his army regiment.

As an engineer, he also spent time in other parts of New South Wales and found time to paint emerging colonial settlements in Newcastle and Illawarra.

Georgina Pemberton of Sotheby's Auction House says that although Close was not previously considered a particularly influential colonial artist, that view is now changing.

Georgina Pemberton from Sotheby’s Auction House said, "He was an amateur but I think that he's actually going to be reassessed. There is another sketchbook of his in the National Library and a beautiful panoramic view he did of Sydney, which is in the Mitchell Library. And I think now that this sketchbook has come to light, he'll be reassessed as a more serious very early colonial artist."

Close sketched Sydney and its people, recording their efforts to build a new society despite their convict background.

But despite its historical importance, this sketchbook has only recently come to light.

It will be auctioned at Sotheby's in Melbourne on May 5th.

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Editor:Zhao Yanchen