South Australia. Glenelg and Adelaide Harbour. Antique Engraving c1874

by Brierly, Oswald (O.W.)

Engraved by Brandard after a painting by O.W. Brierly, Sir Oswald Brierly (1817-1894), marine painter, son of Dr Thomas Brierly, an amateur artist. Oswald studied at the art school of Henry Sass, Bloomsbury Street, London, and exhibited drawings of two men-of-war, Pique and Gorgon, at the Royal Academy in 1839. He also studied naval architecture.

Through Brierley's interest in ships he met Benjamin Boyd of the Royal Yacht Squadron. Joining Boyd on the yacht Wanderer on a voyage to Australia, they arrived at Sydney in July 1842. In New South Wales Brierly acted as manager of Boyd's pastoral and whaling business, and lived at Twofold Bay (near Eden), where he was appointed a magistrate. In 1848, when Boyd's affairs were approaching bankruptcy, Brierly accepted the invitation of Captain Owen Stanley to be his guest on H.M.S. Rattlesnake on a survey of the Barrier Reef, the Louisiade Archipelago and part of the New Guinea coast.

Original steel engraving from Edwin Carton Booth's "Australia, Illustrated with Drawings by Skinner Prout, Chevalier, Armytage and others" published in England by Virtue & Co. circa 1874 (with fine later hand-colour). The engraving is in good condition with wide borders. The area shown is just beyond the image. The size of this image is 15cm x 20cm (6” x 8” ).