Roy Morgan's Nicholas Chevalier's collection: a conversation with Geoffrey Blainey
Victor, Kevin John, 1978-
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Title:
Roy Morgan's Nicholas Chevalier's collection: a conversation with Geoffrey Blainey
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Reference number:
LIB-EVE 000001
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Item from Collection: Heritage Collection (HC)
Type of materials:
Moving images
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Sub-collection: Library programs (HC_LIBPROG)
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UnrestrictedOpen access.
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Refer to individual item records for Use Restrictions.Please contact City of Melbourne Libraries about obtaining permission to reproduce images. High resolution files may be held by City of Melbourne Libraries and available on request. Users must acknowledge City of Melbourne Libraries when reproducing items.
General notes:
Roy Morgan's Nicholas Chevalier's collection..Geoffrey Blainey discusses the original works and life of colonial artist Nicholas Chevalier which were on display at East Melbourne Library from April 2021..The Roy Morgan collection which covers Nicholas Chevalier’s artistic life from Europe in 1848 to Australia from 1854, NZ from 1865 and finishing in London from 1871:.1) Nicholas Chevalier’s first sketchbook includes many pencil and watercolour drawings made by him when visiting Bavaria and Austria during the summer months of 1848 when he studied architecture at the Academy of Fine Arts in Munich unpublished first Bavarian sketchbook, 1848.It is a significant relic from the early career of one of Victoria’s colonial artist, illustrating the extent of his artistic development at around twenty years of age, while still a student. Chevalier’s sketchbook, 190 x 220 mm, is on original plain papered boards (heavily worn) with cloth spine (split and reinforced with tape), pastedown with label of stationer Andreas Kaut, München, leaves with watercolour and graphite sketches and studies by Chevalier on the rectos and versos, a number of them signed (or initialled) and dated. The subject matter is more or less evenly divided between landscape studies made during a Wanderung through southern Bavaria and into the Austrian Tyrol, and detailed studies of ecclesiastical and secular architecture elements (stonework and wood carvings); there are also a small number of studies with human figures; despite the distressed state of the binding (now restored), the sketchbook is complete, in good condition, and its contents are free from foxing. We will display copies of some of Nicholas Chevalier's 1848 sketches, never shown before..2a) Melbourne in 1840, drawing by R. G. (George) Hayden. Author/ Artist George H. Haydon (18221891) arrived in Melbourne July 1840 departed for London January 1845. Drawing published 1934: Georgiana’s Journal, Melbourne a hundred years ago, edited by Hugh Mc Crae, Angus & Robertson Ltd. (See attached).2b) Melbourne 1840, Oil on canvas by C. H. (Nicholas Chevalier/George Haydon), c.1856. From a drawing by R. G. (George) Haydon Melbourne in 1840 (above) from Georgiana McCrae collection. Artist Georgiana McCrae arrived in Port Phillip March 1, 1941. Nicholas Chevalier arrived in Melbourne Dec. 25, 1854 and began a close friendship with Georgiana McCrae. Nicholas Chevalier left Melbourne Nov. 1868 as part of Prince Alfred’s extensive Royal Tour, finally arriving London in mid-1871. Nicholas Chevalier used George H. Haydon’s drawing Melbourne in 1840 to paint Melbourne 1840 c.1856; which was copied for the 1875 lithograph engraving Melbourne in 1840. (See attached, we will display the oil on canvas.).2c) Melbourne in 1840, 1875 lithograph engraving attributed to Nicholas Chevalier, c.1875. From a drawing by R. G. (George) Haydon (attached and above top left). Published The Australian Sketcher, July 10, 1875 and Illustrated Handbook of Victoria, Australia. Colonial and Indian Exhibition, London 1886. When published wrongly attributed to a sketch from Mr. S. K. Haydon. (See attached, we will display the lithograph).3) Melbourne Punch - a series of Melbourne Punch wood engravings covering 1855 - 1860 sketched by Nicholas Chevalier, engraved by Nicholas Chevalier, Samuel Calvert and Frederick Grosse. We will display numerous examples, see attached Punch's Contribution to the Nightingale Testimonial, Nicholas Chevalier, Melbourne Punch, No.2 July 24 1856. From next week, for a month, the original of the copy shown in the attached will be on display at Your Place Women's Museum, 208 Clarendon St East Melbourne..You will see in the attached the following comments regarding Nicholas Chevalier's sketches used for wood engravings:"M. Chevalier, is evidently a devout believer in ‘treatment.’ His admirable pictures are highly wrought, and the subjects are lifted beyond the level of the commonplace. Exactness of form is observed to far higher degree than will be found in nature. Even while we admire them we feel that there is a somewhat of sophistication; a something added and a something discarded by the artist, a certain deviation from nature for the sake of art." (James Smith described Nicholas Chevalier's art skills in The Illustrated Journal of Australasia, Jan 1857)." Chevalier's talent for seizing the essential characteristics of a face can be seen by comparing his cartoons with the surviving photographs of his subjects. In a few lines he could develop and repeat a likeness — which makes his pictorial history easy to follow." (Marguerite Mahood, Melbourne Punch and its Early Artists, La Trobe Journal, No. 4, Oct 1969).4) The News Letter of Australasia; wood engravings 1856-1860 sketched by Nicholas Chevalier, engraved by Nicholas Chevalier, Samuel Calvert and Frederick Grosse. (We will display copies of numerous front pages - all showing wood engravings by Nicholas Chevalier, see attached examples.).5) The Illustrated Journal of Australasia; wood engravings 1856-1858 sketched by Nicholas Chevalier, engraved by Nicholas Chevalier Samuel Calvert and Frederick Grosse. (We will display copies of numerous front pages - all showing wood engravings by Nicholas Chevalier.).6) Nicholas Chevalier; Wentworth River Diggings, chromolithography,1864. Australian Odyssey, Simon Gregg, 2011. Extract from Pages 135-136: "While he (Nicholas Chevalier) was not the first to practice chromolithography in Australia, he was almost certainly the first to employ the process for ‘high art’ ends, with a number of prints conveying very successfully the pictorial depth and perspective of the original paintings…. The publication of N. Chevalier’s Album of Chromolithographs was a great success, and led to Eugene Von Guerard publishing his own album of Australian Landscapes the following year….While Chevalier cannot be credited for the introduction of chromolithography to Australia, as the first artist to issue a complete album entirely of his own views, he undoubtedly played a large part in its popularity. Aside from his own album of 1865, Chevalier contributed to a number of other albums, including Charles Troedel’s The Melbourne Album (1864), The Artistic Melbourne Advertiser (1865), Australian Views and Victorian Scenery (1867), and Edwin Carton Booth’s two volume opus Australia Illustrated (1873) (See Point 10, below.), in which sixteen of Chevalier’s works were reproduced as steel engravings.".7) Nicholas Chevalier; Two water colour views of Melbourne - Melbourne from St Kilda Rd (c.1865) and Melbourne from the Yarra (c.1868). (See first attachment above.).8) Nicholas Chevalier on Nov 22, 1865 with his assistant artist Ebenezer Wake Cook began his extensive tour of the New Zealand South Island beginning in Dunedin and covered Queenstown, Manapouri, Te Anau and Bluff. Nicholas Chevaliers oil painting On the track to Lake Ada, Fjordland Sound,NZ, 1865 (See attached)..9) Nicholas Chevalier; lithograph of 1971 Suez sketch made after extensive tour in the Galatea with Prince Alfred (The Duke of Edinbergh). The Nov.1868-1870 Tour covered NZ, Pacific Islands, Hawaii, Japan, China, Manila, Singapore, India, Penang where at each place Nicholas Chevalier painted the local sites. In April 1870 Nicholas Chevalier departed the tour in Ceylon and to arrive in the UK by mid-1871 via Suez. (See attached.).10) From 1871 Nicholas Chevalier in London started on a series of Australian watercolours that would become the basis of sixteen steel engravings to be printed in Edwin Carton Booth's Australia Illustrated published in 1973. (Some will be on display.) Nicholas regularly sent oil paintings, watercolours, sketches and lithographs of his drawings for publication in UK, Australia and NZ. See attached Nicholas Chevalier, Christmas Day in Australia, The Illustrated London News, Dec 23, 1871
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Form/Genre:
Record types:
Music, audio and video
Record number:
1296217
| Type | Reference No. | Extent | Status/Desc |
|---|---|---|---|
| Original | LIB-EVE 000001 | 1 MP4 : 357,358 KB | Single Item (May not be issued, may not be reproduced) |