Melbourne from the Yarra, engraving after Nicholas Chevalier c1874.

by Chevalier, Nicholas

Antique print c1874. Lovely scene of rowing from a jetty on the Yarra River in Melbourne, with people sitting on the river bank, with ducks and cows nearby, and a train passing, with Melbourne city in the background. A wonderful record of a peaceful corner of the city.

Original fine steel engraving by Edward Paxman Brandard (1819-1898), from a sketch by Russian-born artist Nicholas Chevalier (1828-1902), for Edwin Carton Booth's Australia, Illustrated with Drawings by Skinner Prout, Chevalier, Armytage and others, published in London in 1874 by  Virtue & Co. Limited. This was an important series of fine engravings recording views of life in colonial Australia.

Having left Russia with his father who returned to Switzerland in 1845. Nicholas Chevalier studied painting and architecture in Lausanne, Switzerland and Munich, Germany. He became an illustrator in watercolours and lithography after moving to London in 1851. Two of his paintings were hung in the Royal Academy in 1852.  He then studied painting in Rome before before returning to London. In 1855 Nicholas arrived in Australia and joined his father and his brother who was manager of the vineyards at Bontharambo on the Ovens River in Victoria. Nicholas became a cartoonist on the newly established Melbourne Punch periodical and became an illustrator for the Illustrated Australian News. In 1864 his painting The Buffalo Ranges was purchased by the government for the National Gallery of Victoria. It was the first picture painted in Australia to be included in the Melbourne collection.

This finely engraved antique print is uncoloured, with wide margins, as published. It is in good condition with a few very small marks which will not detract when framed. Page size is 215 x 270mm (8 x 10 3/4 inches). Engraving measures approximately 125 x 180mm (approximately 5 x 7 inches).