Mount Zero and Lake Taylor, Victoria. Nicholas Chevalier, c1874

by Chevalier, Nicholas

Fine antique print of Mount Zero and Lake Taylor in Victoria c1874, with cows on the northern edge of the Grampians National Park, a few hours north-west of Melbourne. Mount Zero is the premier olive oil producing area in Australia, producing Extra Virgin Olive Oil.

Original 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 circa 1874. London, Virtue & Co. Wonderful records of how Australia was.

Having left Russia with his father who returned to Switzerland in 1845, Nicholas Chevalier studied painting and architecture inarrived in Australia in Lausanne, Switzerland and Munich, Germany. He became an illustrator in lithography and watercolour 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 sailing from London to Australia, arriving in 1855 to join his father, and his brother who was manager of the vineyards at Bontharambo on the Ovens River in Victoria. He worked as 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 fine antique print is uncoloured, with wide margins, as published. It is soiled, particularly at top right, but this would not show when framed. It is a beautiful scene which otherwise is in good condition. Page size is 215 x 270mm (8 x 10 3/4 inches). Engraving measures approximately 116 x 180mm (approximately 4 1/2 x 7 inches).